The human rights envoy for the German government has urged Berlin to help US President-Elect Obama meet his promise to close the controversial prison camp Guantanamo Bay by taking in innocent inmates. In an interview with newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau published on Saturday, Dec 20, Guenter Nooke said Germany along with other European nations had to ensure that Guantanamo’s planned closure went ahead as planned. “Guantanamo is an American problem. But you can’t allow its closure to fail because no-one knows where to put the prisoners,” Nooke told the paper. In particular, Germany should be prepared to take in some of the 17 Uighurs held at the prison camp in Cuba, Nooke said. A Muslim minority native to Central Asia, the Uighurs face political persecution in their homeland China, according to human rights groups. Their struggle for independence is strongly opposed by China. Germany has a small Uighur community, many of whom live in Munich. The head of Amnesty International’s Germany chapter, Barbara Lochbiler too urged the German government to lay particular emphasis on the Uighurs at Guantanamo — there is no evidence of their involvement in terrorist activities — while considering taking in prisoners.
