AP Interview: Detainee move to Palau is tentative

Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 7:23 AM Posted by Beijing News


KOROR, Palau – The president of Palau is flattered by all the publicity he's had since agreeing to take in more than a dozen Guantanamo detainees, but he said Saturday their transfer is not a done deal.

The likelihood that 13 Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, will actually arrive on this tiny Pacific nation is about "50-50," President Johnson Toribiong said. And even if they do, it won't be for another two or three months.

"It's still tentative, it's not definite yet," Toribiong told The Associated Press. "Maybe some other country may say if a little island like Palau is willing to accept them, why not us?"

Palau, a former U.S. trust territory about 500 miles 800 kilometers east of the Philippines, made news last week after agreeing to President Barack Obama's request to take the Uighurs. Other countries had turned it down.

It is one of the world's smallest countries, with about 20,000 people scattered over islands of lush tropical jungle. Most work in tourism, construction and farming.

Toribiong, interviewed by AP at a beachfront resort, said he had never heard of the Uighurs until the U.S. approached him earlier this month. He has sent four Palauan officials to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to learn more about them.

"They come from a high-altitude country," he said. "I don't know if they like the ocean." He said the men are between 30 and 40 years old but knows little more.

The Uighurs pronounced WEE'-gurs, a Turkic people from China's far western region of Xinjiang, were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001, but the Pentagon determined last year that they were not "enemy combatants."

Sending them back to China was not an option because of concerns that Chinese authorities, who consider them violent separatists, would immediately arrest the men. Four other Uighurs left Guantanamo Bay Thursday for a new home in Bermuda.

China has demanded all be sent home. Beijing has filed a formal objection to Palau's mission to the United Nations, Toribiong said. Palau, however, has no diplomatic relations with China. It recognizes Taiwan instead.

The Palau team, which includes a doctor and education specialist, will interview the detainees, assess their medical and psychological conditions and tell Toribiong how his government should prepare for their possible arrival.

"Then we wait for the U.S. to tell us whether they agree to bring them here or change their minds," Toribiong said.

Toribiong said he has yet to determine where the Uighurs would live in Palau, or what they would do. The government will build houses for them if needed and offer orientation to the nation's language and culture.

They'll be given work permits, he said, but they will likely be confined to Palau since they do not have passports.

Their stay will be temporary and subject to periodic review, though the president declined to specify what "temporary" meant.

"If they come to Palau and become constructive, positive, friendly residents, it will be OK," he said. "We have 445 Muslims living with us right now. We have no problems."

About 30 percent of Palau's inhabitants are foreigners, mainly Filipinos and Bangladeshis. The majority of the nation is Christian.

He described those opposed to the idea as "misinformed" or motivated by a political agenda.





Schalit

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