Tajik captives held in Guantanamo

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On May 15, 2006 the United States Department of Defense acknowledged that there have been 12 Tajik captives held in Guantanamo.^[1] The Guantanamo Bay detainment camps were opened on January 11, 2002 at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. The Bush administration asserted that all captives taken in the "global war on terror" could be held there, in extrajudicial detention, without revealing their names. So far as the captive's families and friends would know, they would just disappear.

However, the Associated Press had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the names of all the captives. The Department of Defense filed justifications for why they should not be obliged to release the information the Associated Press requested. They justified keeping the information secret not to protect the United States "national security", but merely because they were concerned to protect the captive's privacy.

The Department of Defense exhausted their legal appeals and were forced, by a court order, to release the identities of all the Guantanamo captives.

[edit] Press Reports

The magazine Mother Jones published a feature article, entitled: "The Man Who Has Been to America: One Guantanamo detainee's story".^[2] The article was based on an interview with Muhibullo Abdulkarim Umarov, a Tajik from a village named Alisurkhon. Umarov said he and a neighbor from his village, were captured while visiting a third neighbor from his village at his University in Pakistan. Umarov named his two neighbors, Mazharudin and Abdughaffor. He said they too had been sent to Guantanamo. Mazharudin is named on the official list, but Abdughaffor is not. Umarov told Mother Jones that Mazharudin and Abdughaffor were released on March 31, 2004 at the same time he was.

On January 19, 2007 the Government of Tajikistan acknowledged that the United States had transferred ten Tajikis from Guantanamo to Tajikistan.^[3]^[4] The Government of Tajikistan did not release the identities of the transferred men. The Government of Tajikistan also said they did not know how many Tajiks remain in Guantanamo.

The US Department of Defense acknowledged holding twelve Tajiks in Guantanamo.^[1] The DoD acknowledged convening Combatant Status Review Tribunals for six of the Tajiks held in Guantanamo.^[5] The DoD said they convened a Combatant Status Review Tribunal for every captive who was still in Guantanamo in 2005.

A March 1, 2007 press release announced that the Department of Defense had returned three Tajiks back to Tajikistan.^[6]

[edit] List of Tajiks who the DoD has acknowledged they have held in Guantanamo

name

page number

notes

Rukniddin Fayziddinovich Sharipov

ARB transcript	107-112

Allegedly trained at an Afghan military camp.^[7]
Alleged to have been issued a Taliban uniform.

Mehrabanb Fazrollah

CSRT allegations	71

Alleged to have fought with the Taliban.^[8]

Yusef Nabied

No Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened.

Sobit Valikhonovich

No record that he participated in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

208

Maroof Saleemovish Salehove

No record that he participated in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

257

Omar Hamzayavich Abdulayev

CSRT allegations	42
CSRT Transcripts	1

Allegedly captured carrying suspicious documents.^[9]
Allegedly studied at a madrassa.

641

Abdul Karim Irgashive

No Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened.

665

Sadee Eideov

No Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened.

729

Muhibullo Abdulkarim Umarov

Released on March 31, 2004.^[2]

731

Mazharudin

Released on March 31, 2004.^[2]

732

Shirinov Ghafar Homarovich

No Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened.

1095

Jumma Jan
Zain Al Abedin

CSRT Transcript	41-52
ARB Transcript	32

Said his interrogators kept insisting his name was Jumma Jan, and that he was a Uzbek, when his real name was Zain al Abedin, and he was a Tajik.^[10]
Said he had only had a single 20 minute interrogation since he arrived in Guantanamo.^[11]