Steinmeier vetos Uighurs

In an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that while he was in favor of taking in Guantanamo inmates, he wants to keep the number of Uighurs accepted to a minimum.

According to the report, senior US diplomat Daniel Fried, who is responsible for finding new homes for the inmates of the soon-to-be-closed Guantanamo prison, had asked Germany at the end of April to take in the nine men.

The men are members of China's Uighur minority, a mainly Muslim group that Beijing considers to be terrorists. Steinmeier worries that accepting the inmates would cause a political fight with Beijing, which has been demanding that they be extradited to China.

Conditional acceptance

According to Der Spiegel, Reinhard Silberberg, a senior official with the German Foreign Ministry, told the US Berlin would take in the nine provided that other European nations accept Uighurs as well, thereby lessening the pressure on Germany.

Steinmeier has received support for his statement from former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who told Der Spiegel that accepting Uighurs would certainly put a strain on German-Chinese relations.

Schroeder said that while he is in favor of supporting US President Barack Obama in his efforts to close Guantanamo, only the US is in a position to take in the Uighurs without suffering any political consequences from China.

mrm/Reuters/AFP

Editor: Nancy Isenson