Britain voices frustration over Gitmo inmates in Bermuda

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Source: AFP

LONDON - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Tuesday he had “friendly” talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about four Guantanamo inmates sent to Bermuda, but made clear his frustration.

He added that the status of the four Uighurs — from a mostly Muslim minority living in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province — remained “unclear.”

US authorities last week ignored demands by China for custody of the four, who had served seven years at Guantanamo Bay, and flew them from Cuba to Bermuda, an Atlantic archipelago that accepted them in a guest-worker program.

The Foreign Office was clearly caught short by the transfer, and said that authorities on Bermuda — a British overseas territory which has a degree of autonomy — should have consulted London over the transfer.

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