China on Saturday urged Albania to repatriate five "East
Turkistan" terrorist suspects rather than give them political
asylum.
"The five Chinese suspected terrorists should be handed over to
China and they should not be given asylum," said Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.
The five suspects from the Uygur ethnic group were dumped into
Albania for settlement by the United States in May. They were
captured by U.S. troops in 2001 in Pakistan and imprisoned at the
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba ever since.
They belonged to the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement", which is
recognized by the United Nations as a terrorist group, Liu
said.
Reports said Albania had granted the five asylum earlier this
week.
China, however, has not been formally informed by the Albanian
government that the asylum had been granted, the spokesman
said.
(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2006)