Albania to take in more Guantanamo terrorists
Albania says it has agreed to accept more former Guantanamo detainees, but not members of China’s ethnic Uighur Muslim minority.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced the decision following talks in Tirana on Wednesday with U.S. special envoy for Guantanamo Daniel Fried.
But Berisha said his small Balkan country could take no more Uighurs from Guantanamo for fear of prejudicing Albania’s relations with China. Five Uighurs were among the eight former detainees from the U.S. prison in Cuba that Albania took in 2006.
The Uighurs are from Xinjiang, an isolated region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations. They say they have been repressed by the Chinese government, but it claims they are leading an Islamic separatist movement.
+++
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said on Wednesday that his country would send an additional 85 troops to Afghanistan.
“Albania will follow the initiative by the US President Barack Obama to increase its troops in Afghanistan by another 85 soldiers, ” Berisha told reporters.
Berisha hailed the U.S. decision to send additional 30 thousand troops to Afghanistan as “a necessity for peace, stability and democratic development of Afghanistan.”
“As a NATO member country, a friend and ally of the US and Afghanistan, Albanian government will increase its forces in Afghanistan by 85 troops,” Berisha said.
Albania joined the NATO last April. And it has 250 soldiers now operating in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has announced it will sent additional 30 thousand troops to Afghanistan. But the number still falls short of the 40 thousand the U.S. top military commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has asked for.
The U.S. is requesting other NATO countries to send more troops to fill in the gap.
XINHUA
December 2, 2009
They’ll fit right in Albania. What relationship with China are they talking about? Do Chinese even care about them?
They can join the rest of the terrorists
So many harsh words, but won’t get you anywhere!