Christopher F. brought our attention to how the release of the four Chinese Uighurs from Guantanmo is being framed in the media. Uighurs are a minority group in China, often facing persecution for being Muslim. These three men had fled China as a result and were detained after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. They were found innocent in 2003. Now, after years at Guantanamo, they were released and resettled in Bermuda, since there were fears that they could not safely be returned to China. Some images of them in their new home (from USA Today):
What brought Christopher’s attention to the coverage of the Uighurs was a news segment he saw on MSNBC. The Huffington Post has a video of the segment (I can’t figure out how to embed it) and quotes part of the discussion by Tamron Hall:
But first from Gitmo to Bermuda, should former detainees, the ones you’re looking at there, be living what seems to be a pretty good life on one of the most beautiful islands some say in the world?
Another MSNBC host, Andrea Mitchell, said the following in a segment earlier in the day:
Let me talk about Guantanamo: you raised the point about the murky legal situation, one upshot of that is that we’ve got four Uighurs who are Muslim minority from China who are now basically getting ice cream and lolling about on the white sand beaches of Bermuda. It’s sort of incongruous! To see these four men in their polo shirts, from Guantanamo, eating ice cream in Bermuda…I mean, look at that picture! I’m not sure you can see it, but one of the Uighurs is swimming in the ocean. The first time, we’re told, that they had ever been to the ocean. Is this a good outcome?
Over on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart echoed some of these ideas:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Guantanamo Baywatch – Uighur, Please | ||||
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Christopher says, about the photos above,
These images humanize something that has been, for the past 7 or so years, totally inhuman and alien. I find it highly disturbing that even the image of these former detainees enjoying their deserved freedom (we have know for a while now that these people were not complicit in any plot against the United States) is somehow anathema.
Indeed. These are men who were falsely imprisoned as a supposed threat and then remained at Guantamo for years since they were declared innocent and no threat to the U.S. Why are images of them enjoying themselves and living in a nice house and eating ice cream so problematic and offensive? You know, this is just my thought, but if you imprison someone for years for no good reason, really, the least you can do is give them a nice place to live where they won’t be persecuted. And it’s not like they chose Bermuda: when you imprison people for supposed links to terrorist groups, it turns out that when you release them, other countries aren’t eager to take them (and clearly, they can’t be released in the United States because…well, because people in the U.S. still consider them threatening, despite what the government might say). Bermuda was one of the few places that would agree to take them. How the particular house or luxurious ice cream was chosen, I don’t know.
There seems to be an underlying feeling here that the Uighurs simply don’t deserve such nice living conditions, even if we did arrest them, fly them around the world, and detain them for years. Instead of focusing on the fact that several innocent people were released, and that they remained in Guantanamo for six years after the U.S. said they weren’t actually a threat, there’s concern that they were released in a place so nice. If most American citizens don’t live like that, why should they get to? I can’t help but wonder how the coverage might have been different if they were resettled in a poor nation and were shown living in a run-down house.
Comments 19
Duran — June 23, 2009
I agree. It was a travesty what we did to these innocent men.
BTW, it's totally sexist and chauvinist that no innocent women were detained at Gitmo for 7 years.
Posts about Huffington Post as of June 23, 2009 » The Daily Parr — June 23, 2009
[...] Later, he was asked a question, via Huffington Post reporter Nico Pitney, from an Iranian Media Coverage of Uighurs in Bermuda - thesocietypages.org 06/23/2009 Christopher F. brought our attention to how the release of the four [...]
Lance — June 23, 2009
I admit I thought the image of the Uighur in the ocean was totally adorable, but that's because (a) the Uighurs are, if I'm understanding the geography, from an area nowhere near an ocean, and (b) I saw it as a wonderful celebration of freedom. I can't believe people are saying that we, I don't know, should have released them into Siberia or something.
(I wonder if part of the attention comes from the fact that "Uighur" is such a fun word to say. Weeger. Weeeeeger. Anyway.)
Kelly — June 23, 2009
Meant absolutely sarcastically:
I can't believe we chose such a BEAUTIFUL island like Cuba on which to falsely imprison people for 7 years of their life that they will never be able to regain. They had it too good!
Sarcasm off:
I think giving people a home, safe from persecution, where they can enjoy simple pleasures like ice cream is the least we could do for these men. I don't know why people feel so threatened by these images. Is it the realization that these people are just like them and enjoy ice cream and dips in the ocean? Perhaps people are uncomfortable with the idea that people who we have demonized and portrayed as inhuman for so many years actually ARE human.
Hank — June 23, 2009
I wonder if what might be going on here is a little (faux?) populist rage in respect to the economy, at least from some sectors. Personally, I find it to be mind-bogglingly stupid that we are sending Gitmo detainees to other countries rather than bringing them to America (or back to their home countries when appropriate) and Jon Stewart touched on that aspect. What stuck out to me is that when America is seeing increasing unemployment at very worrying rates and a staggering deficit, that we are sending Uighurs to live, what appears to be, the good life in Bermuda. I do completely agree that after being held in Gitmo for so long after being declared innocent they do deserve compensation.
Elizabeth H. — June 23, 2009
Ice cream? They get to eat ICE CREAM? And swim? In the OCEAN?
The media is being ridiculously petty, once again.
I'm glad that Bermuda took them in and that they have a safe place to live. I don't think it would have been a good idea to bring them to the United States, for their own safety - it's clear, from the media's coverage of this issue, that they would have faced enormous amounts of prejudice here. It's encouraging to see them living their lives free and having fun, like they should be able to.
Liz — June 23, 2009
I think after keeping them in Guantanamo for so long, the least we can do is let them live peacefully and happily in paradise.
Elena — June 23, 2009
Honestly, it's not as if the ice cream shop was the Ritz. It's just a dinky little ice cream shop with bags of chips in the background and paper butterflies decorating the wall. Those ice cream are most probably vanilla. Is that really the image of luxury?
eloriane — June 23, 2009
Every time I see these images, I can feel my heart clench up with happiness. It just looks so right to me, that these people whom we unfairly mistreated for so long are finally getting some happiness. To me, these are pictures of justice, in a way, or at least pictures of the sort of "happy ending" that tales of false imprisonment rarely end with.
I'm actually surprised, for once, by the media response, and a little confused.
anton — June 24, 2009
A couple of weeks ago we had this big discussion in Belgium about accepting detainees from Guantanamo. The media coverage was unbelievable. The main argument that opponents kept repeating was that our prison system is already at its capacity. While this is true, it is completely irrelevant because these people would not end up in prison.
It was unbelievable that politicians and the media would just keep repeating this argument without anyone countering it. I even read an editorial from the lead journalist of one of the 'quality newspapers' that used the same 'our prisons are full' argument.
It seriously lowered my (already somewhat shaky) faith in 'serious journalism'.
The whole debate seemed surreal to me. Especially since they were taking about accepting 2 or 3 people (which was also never really mentioned).
So it seems that not only people in the USA still consider these guys as terrorists, but that also many people in Western Europe do so.
Blucheez — June 24, 2009
To Mitchell, Gitmo is a "murky situation". As if these guys just washed up there unannounced, rather than being abducted.
Then this:
"It’s sort of incongruous! To see these four men in their polo shirts, from Guantanamo, eating ice cream in Bermuda"
Did she really say "these four men... from Guantanamo"! When the US military abducts four innocent men and imprisons them for years, they then become guilty by virtue of being in prison.
Get me out of this madhouse.
Fat Angie — June 24, 2009
I think a lot of it stems from the economy- ie. "if the government can afford to give suspected terrorists beach houses, why can't they help me afford an apartment that isn't infested with roaches?" or "if they can afford to give these guys houses in Bermuda, then why can't they help my small business?"
Janelle — June 24, 2009
I watched the Stewart clip and at first I thought he was satirizing how ridiculous "The Media" was being. Then I saw the "Terrorist Elmo" sock-I mean hand- puppet. Yes, it's disappointing, how did you guess?
Annebonannie — June 24, 2009
I'm glad for these men. They deserve their freedom and more. I don't enjoy the images, though, because I cannot view them without feeling shame. I'm ashamed of what my country has done to them.
I believe that many of the people who are upset by these photos are feeling the same way but are unable to recognize that feeling. They are aware they feel bad but in self-defense they intellectually spin the internal "story" a different way. It is easier to blame the victim, maybe, than it is to recognize whatever responsibility we have, or what we have been complicit to.
In a nutshell: Guilt?
Robin — June 24, 2009
"Uighurs are a minority group in China, often facing persecution for being Muslim."
Just a note that Uighurs in China have also been fighting for an independent state on and off for hundreds of years (from my understanding, since before the majority of their population was Muslim), and they are seen as a threat by the Chinese for that reason. So while I don't know the involvement of these Uigurs in those independence struggles, and, as far as I know, any involvement they did have with the Taliban likely would have been training for their movement, not against the U.S., Uighurs have been labeled by China as terrorists for a while (prior to Sept 11, 2001, they were able to get asylum in the U.S. for political reasons). But it was certainly helpful to the U.S. that they were able to curry favor with China by labeling them as a threat (compare this with the situation in Tibet). But it is certainly interesting how the detention in Guantanamo has manged to shift public opinion of Uighurs from "political refugees from China's oppressive system" to "potential terrorists."
Jenn — June 24, 2009
I have serious doubts that we're so overcome by populist rage that we envy people with the opportunity to eat ice cream in dinky shops and swim. I'm about to default on my student loans and I still have plenty of access to ice cream and swimming pools.
It's all just racism and the lurking suspicion that they're still criminals, even though they were never criminals in the first place. Shit, if America imprisoned me with no trial falsely for years, even after I was found innocent, and then forced me to live in a prison known to routinely torture and rape inmates, and then defamed my name all over the world with anti-terrorist propaganda, I'd be demanding a fucking 7-figure annual payment and a pent house in the Caribbean, plus the most costly therapists money can buy.
After destroying their lives, their reputation, and falsely imprisoning them in horrible conditions for years, we give them access to a home and a place where they can live in peace... THE HORROR. Yep, they should have totally "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps" after our country destroyed their earning potential more than half a decade and made any employer on the planet doubt their reputation.
I'm so totally out of touch with the world today. Considering how popular this outrage seems to be, finding their compensation subpar apparently makes me some sort of Martian.
Bruce H — June 24, 2009
I have to loudly applaud the risk taken by the Bermudan premier, Ewart Brown, one of the only leaders who has enough backbone to face the ire generated by US and British embarrassment, and accept these innocent victims when no-one else would. It's too bad that Americans, as reflected by their media, cannot admit the outrageous mistakes made by their illegal internment programs.
Heidi — June 24, 2009
I feel rage when I see ANYONE eating ice cream. I have to take a handful of expensive pills in order to digest the lactose, but there people are, willfully disregarding my HORRIFIC PLIGHT and eating ice cream willy nilly whenever they want, as much as they want. Insensitive b*stards.
But seriously, the only thing that could make these pictures sweeter was video of them giggling like school girls.
And also, some people would consider Bermuda torture. I know people who are sunlight sensitive that develop heat rashes from just a car ride with their arm in the sun. I know people who fear to swim, and those that fear thunder, etc. You really never know how such a forced housing makes someone feel.
Concerned Bermudian — July 6, 2009
First of al...If your not bermudian, you dont have the right to say anything.
Taxpayers money is being used to accommodate these people and its not right that they get to live better than a handful of bermudians that work SO hard to get nowhere. Same thing happens all over the world. The rich people stay rich and the poor stay poor.
And Ewart Brown is a scam artist....Time for him to go take the money that he has already stolen from the locals and leave. No one but the ignorant bermudians that cant accept caucasians, support him.
Bermuda needs a new leader, and soon!