Uyghurs, Prisoners of the Absurd

Gr 9 Up—This heartbreaking film focuses on the experiences of three Uyghur men who fled their homeland in Northwest China in the late 1990s and became political pawns between governments, victims of a shifting geopolitical landscape. After fleeing ethnic tension in China, the men were refugees in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but after 9/11, they were turned over to the United States in exchange for reward money. They eventually landed in Guantanamo Bay, charged as enemy combatants. The U.S. government eventually gave in to demands from China and listed all of them as members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a Uyghur separatist group. In exchange, the film asserts, the United States vainly hoped for Chinese support for the war in Iraq. Even after the men were declared innocent and "freed," they were kept at Guantanamo, in chains, for years until the government was able to find places to resettle them. Most of the background information on life in China is briefly given, leaving out a lot about the oppression the Muslim Uyghur minority face. The ETIM and why China considers them terrorists are never explained. Most of the narration consists of the three men telling their stories, so the film is heavily subtitled. There are also graphic descriptions of war and the torture (while in Chinese and American custody) that the men survived.