Finnish officials are deliberating on whether to offer asylum to former terror suspects detained at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay. The US has proposed that Finland take in Uighur prisoners, members of the Turkic minority in western China. Some 15 Uighurs are currently imprisoned at Guantánamo, and are unable to return to China for fear of being tortured. The facility houses about 250 prisoners and has held about 750 prisoners since it began operations. It is unclear how Finland would classify the detainees, who have not been charged with any crimes. Most likely, they would be considered refugees. (UNPO, Jan. 8)

China's official media reported the arrest of 59 Tibetans Dec. 25 on charges of inciting protests during the March unrest in the region. Reports cited Xin Yuanming, deputy director of the public security bureau of Lhasa, as saying "some people started making up stories and spreading rumors, posing a threat to the security of the region and its people." The 59 are accused of acting under orders of the Dalai Lama, and of downloading "reactionary" songs from the Internet for distribution within Tibet.

This weekend, the Dalai Lama told his followers he has lost hope of reaching agreement with China on the future of his homeland. The future course of the Tibetan movement—including the possibility of an historic switch from demanding autonomy towards seeking full independence—will be the focus of a meeting next month of around 300 delegates representing the global Tibetan exile diaspora.

At least 20 members of Turkmenistan's security forces were killed in clashes in the capital Ashgabat Sept. 12, according to to media reports and diplomatic sources. Police battled "a religious group, possibly radical Islamists," according to a diplomatic source quoted by Gundogar.org, a website maintained by Boris Shikhmuradov, founder of Turkmenistan's opposition Popular Democratic Movement. "Witnesses said that 20 police were killed and their bodies were taken in secret to an Ashkhabad hospital." Information is strictly controlled in the former Soviet republic, and state media did not report on the violence.

When Russia's President Dmitri Medvedev formally recognized the Georgia's separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, activists in the Russian autonomous region of Tatarstan reacted quickly. The All-Tatar Civic Center published an appeal for Moscow's recognition of Tatarstan's independence. Rashit Akhmetov, editor of Zvezda Povolzhya, an opposition newspaper in Kazan, Tatarstan's capital, said, "Russia has lost the moral right not to recognize us."

Hundreds of Tibetan exiles Aug. 24 staged a peaceful march in Kathmandu to protest China's rule in Tibet, coinciding with the concluding ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. There were heavy deployment of riot police in the area, but no arrests were reported. Over 2,000 Tibetans—including women, children, nuns and monks—marched from Buddhanath to Swoyambhu, two of the city's historic Buddhist stupas. Many recited hymns in memory of those killed in the Chinese repression this year.

From the Uyghur American Association (UAA), Aug. 22:

The Uyghur American Association (UAA) believes that recent comments made by Wang Lequan signal an upcoming period of fierce repression against Uyghurs across the People's Republic of China (PRC), particularly in East Turkestan, also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

With the Olympics in Beijing in full course, three security officials were killed Aug. 12 at a road block 30 kilometers from Kashgar, Xinjiang. The official Chinese press agency “Xinhua said assailants jumped from a vehicle passing through the checkpoint and stabbed the agents. "These were just some terrorists," said a local police officer in Yamanya, Shule county, where the attack occurred. A fourth security official was wounded in an attack in Yamanya town, according to the New China News Agency. The assailants remain at large. (WP, Aug. 13; AGI, TVNZ, Aug. 12)