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The five Chinese who are seeking asylum in Albania should be repatriated to China immediately. They are by no means refugees, but terrorist suspects. They were imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba ever since they were captured in 2001 by US troops in Pakistan. Washington dumped them in Albania last Friday after concluding they posed no terrorist threat to the United States. The US decision to allow them to seek asylum and settle in Albania violates the United Nations Charter and international law. It serves as a short-sighted move that will benefit no one but the terrorists. The five Chinese from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are suspected of being members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, an organization that makes up part of the pervasive international terrorist network. The "East Turkistan" forces, which the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on in 2001, have close links with international terrorist cliques such as al-Qaida, and have been attempting to seek separation of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from China. Relocating these Chinese suspects to a place other than China is legally and morally wrong. It is China, not other countries, that should bring to justice the Chinese "East Turkistan" forces that have plotted more than 260 attacks inside the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, killing and wounding at least 600. Terrorism's indiscriminate threat to innocent lives determines it is a common enemy of humanity. No country can single-handedly do away with terrorism. As long as terrorists have safe havens in any part of the world, the web of terror can resurrect even after a fatal defeat. Fearing terrorist activities against US targets both on home soil and abroad since the attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States once warned the world that they were either on the side of the United States or on the side of terrorists. But when allowing Chinese terrorist suspects to seek asylum in another country, which side does the United States choose to be on? It is disappointing but true that despite the vociferous chorus against terror, double standards in defining terrorism have resulted in increasing cracks in the once-united front against it. If terrorists in one country can be granted political asylum in another, and can even expect liberties and support as "freedom fighters" in some countries, all the talk about solidarity rings hollow. (China Daily May 11, 2006)
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