On May 15 2006 the United States Department of Defense acknowledged that there have been 12 Tajik captives held in Guantanamo. 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.

Press Reports

The magazine Mother Jones published a feature article, entitled: "The Man Who Has Been to America: One Guantanamo detainee's story". 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. 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. The DoD acknowledged convening Combatant Status Review Tribunals for six of the Tajiks held in Guantanamo. 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.

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

ID	name	date of birth	page number	notes
76	Rukniddin Fayziddinovich Sharipov	3/15/1973	ARB transcript 107-112	Allegedly trained at an Afghan military camp. Alleged to have been issued a Taliban uniform. Repatriated in March 2007. Put on trial on August 7 2007. Convicted of being a mercenary on August 18 2007, and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
77	Mehrabanb Fazrollah	10/18/1962	CSRT allegations 71 CSRT transcript 30-34 ARB allegations 16-17	Alleged to have fought with the Taliban. Was in Afghanistan returning from visiting his son in Pakistan.
83	Yusef Nabied	8/5/1963	.	No Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened.
90	Sobit Valikhonovich	11/13/1969	CSRT allegations 187 CSRT transcripts 31-44	Allegedly recruited by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Tajikistan Claimed he was tricked into the IMU, and that he escaped as soon as possible.
208	Maroof Saleemovish Salehove	3/3/1978	.	No record that he participated in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
257	Omar Hamzayavich Abdulayev	10/11/1978	CSRT allegations 42 CSRT Transcripts 1	Allegedly captured carrying suspicious documents. Allegedly studied at a madrassa.
641	Abdul Karim Irgashive	5/7/1965	.	No Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened.
665	Sadee Eideov	1/1/1953	.	No Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened.
729	Muhibullo Abdulkarim Umarov	10/6/1980	.	Released on March 31 2004.
731	Mazharudin	12/1/1979	.	Released on March 31 2004.
732	Shirinov Ghafar Homarovich	1/9/1974	.	No Combatant Status Review Tribunal was convened.
1095	Jumma Jan Zain Al Abedin	1978	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. Said he had only had a single 20 minute interrogation since he arrived in Guantanamo.

Tajik captives who were not listed properly

There are Combatant Status Review Tribunal trasncripts for two Tajik captives that aren't list properly.

A Combatant Status Review Tribunal transcript marked with the ISN 1037 said he was a father, from Tajikistan, who was crossing Afghanistan, by foot, after a visit to Pakistan to see his son. However captive 1037 is said to be an Afghan, born in 1980.

Another transcript from an Unknown Tajiki captive in Guantanamo had his ISN redaceted. He told his Tribunal he had been twenty when captured, and was about 23 when he had his Tribunal.

Tajik captives missing from the official list

On August 7 2007 Radio Free Europe reported that a former Tajik captive named "Mukit Vohidov" had been repatriated from Guantanamo to Tajikistani custody, in March 2007, and was about to stand trial. The report also stated that another former Tajik captive named "Ibrohim Nasriddinov" had recently stood trial, been convicted, and received a 23 year sentence.

References