After Guantanamo, An Empty Freedom

"It was shocking. We had no forewarning," said Pinney, a Boston lawyer who represents Uighurs still at Guantanamo -- 17 others remain there. "The confusing thing is that the ones who are still in custody are there on basically the exact same fact pattern, but they're still in prison."

Many countries, including some highly critical of U.S. detention policies, refused to accept the men. But Albania, Europe's second-poorest country, agreed to take them and, so far, three other former Guantanamo detainees.

While esteem for the United States is falling in much of the world, pro-Americanism among the population here has deep and virtually uninterrupted roots. This sentiment began, as many Albanians can recite, with President Woodrow Wilson's support for Albanian independence. The United States also won gratitude by opposing more than four decades of communist dictatorship that ended in the early 1990s.

Intervention by warplanes of the United States and other NATO countries on behalf of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999 boosted that standing further. Today, Albania is a steadfast ally of the United States, sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and pursuing hopes of joining the NATO alliance itself.

A visit by President Bush to Tirana this summer prompted tumultuous celebration on the streets. One local newspaper had just run an editorial headlined: "Please occupy us."

Taking the Uighurs "was a human rights gesture and a normal one. These men could not have gone back to their own countries, that is for sure," Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said in a recent interview. "I have been very surprised that others are unwilling to do this. On the one hand they are blaming Guantanamo, on the other they say, 'Don't send them here.' "

Two days after the Uighurs arrived in Albania, Vice President Cheney publicly endorsed NATO membership for the country.

In the interview, Berisha denied that the United States offered any incentives for Albania to take in the Uighurs. He said the country might take more Guantanamo detainees.

It is unlikely, however, that Albania will take in any more Uighurs. China, a longtime ally and trading partner in Albania's communist days, has strongly objected to the men's presence.

But Albania has rebuffed all requests to extradite the Uighurs. "I asked the Chinese to bring me any evidence, if they have them, of terrorist activities, but nothing came," Berisha said. "We cannot send them somewhere when we aren't sure due process is applied. We are European. Now that file is closed. They are here and they will slowly, step by step, be integrated. They will have a good life here."

The Uighurs say they are not so sure and are beginning to feel abandoned. Their Albanian language classes, for example, stopped over the summer after they had reached Page 95 in their 210-page book.

They had been promised new $200-a-month apartments in Tirana by the end of September, to be paid for in the first year by the government and the United Nations, but for now they remain in the camp. No progress has been made, they said, on reuniting them with their families or finding them work.

"Albania has tried to help us and we are grateful, but this is an undeveloped country, and even many Albanians can't work or make enough money. They can give us an apartment for a year, but it isn't sustainable, when most Albanians only make about $300 a month. Then what do we do?" said Adel Abdul-Hakim, who said he left China in search of economic opportunity.

Like the other men, he was interviewed with the help of an interpreter in the United States reached by a mobile phone, which was passed back and forth.

Unfailingly polite despite their frustration, the men have earned the admiration of the camp's director, Hidajet Cera, who communicates with them through a Chinese-speaking interpreter (though their main language is a Uighur dialect) when one can be found. Other times, the translation is done by an Algerian refugee who speaks French and Arabic, which the Uighurs can speak conversationally.

"They are the best guys in this place. They have never given us one minute's problem," Cera said. "We try to do what we can for them. We offer them a special menu. We have a van and a driver at their disposal if they want to go into town. It is hard because if you look at Albanian society, the way they live, they are not at the bottom."

Basim, who has a round face, a trimmed goatee and a slight paunch, said the men go to a Tirana mosque every Friday to pray, but otherwise have more or less stopped venturing out of the camp.

"It is frustrating not to be able to speak with anyone. So we basically spend the whole day here, praying and going on the Internet. It's a very simple life," he added. "Outside of the camp, you see people with their families, and it makes us think of our families and our kids."