BEIJING, May 9 (UPI) -- China's Foreign Ministry slammed the United States and Albania Tuesday for "violating international law" by not returning five Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Spokesman Liu Jianchao claimed that the five Chinese citizens are suspected of being members of the militant East Turkistan group and are associated with al-Qaida. The Chinese government accuses the East Turkistan group of waging a violent separatist campaign in the country's northwest Xinjiang province.
The five men, captured by U.S. forces at Taliban camps in Pakistan in 2001, belong to the Uighur ethnic minority and are believers in Islam.
The Bush Administration has been in a quandary on what to do with the detainees, released after being deemed not to be a terrorist threat, but likely to face severe persecution if returned to China. The five took a charted flight to Albania on Friday.
Uighurs have chafed under Chinese domination for over 200 years. There have been periodic uprisings since the area was integrated into the Qing dynasty following its conquest in the 18th century. Xinjiang covers a landmass larger than Western Europe and is strategically important to China for its own wealth of mineral and energy resources.
On Monday the Albanian government said it was processing the former detainees' asylum applications and denied reports they were being held at a military facility.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Desada Metaj said, "Albania has accepted their request for asylum. Right now, the legal procedures for their request are taking their due course."
