1st Guantanamo Uighurs agree to go to Palau

[September 10, 2009]  KOROR, Palau (AP) -- Three Chinese Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay formally accepted an offer to take up new lives in the Pacific island nation of Palau and could be moved there as early as next month, lawyers say.

They were the first among 13 ethnic Uighurs held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba who had been offered resettlement in Palau -- an arrangement that would clear a major hurdle to President Barack Obama's plans to close the contentious facility.

Negotiations were still under way with the 10 other Uighurs at Guantanamo.

After months of talks with U.S. officials, lawyer George Clarke said his two Uighur clients had recently formally accepted the offer to go to Palau.

"They're excited," Clarke told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday from Washington. "They want to get the heck out of Guantanamo Bay. They look forward to getting to Palau and getting on with their lives."

Eric Tirschwell, the lawyer for four other Uighurs at Guantanamo, said Wednesday that one of his clients had also accepted the offer and was "looking forward to enjoying the freedom that he deserves and that he's been denied for almost eight years."

The 13 Uighurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs), Turkic Muslims from far western China, have been held by the United States since being captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year they were not "enemy combatants," but they have been in legal limbo ever since.

Beijing said Thursday it considers the group suspected terrorists and wants them returned to China.

"We firmly oppose any countries receiving Chinese terrorist suspects. They should be repatriated to China as soon as possible," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regularly scheduled news conference.

But Uighur activists claim the group faces persecution or death if they are returned there, and U.S. officials have struggled to find a country to take them in.

In June, four Uighur detainees were resettled in Bermuda. The same month, Palau offered to take the remaining 13 Uighur detainees at Guantanamo.

Negotiations have gone on since then, with officials saying some of the issues have included the detainees' fears about the tiny country's ability to protect them from China, and whether they would be able to freely practice their religion there.

The lawyers declined to give details of the agreements struck with U.S. officials.

A State Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks with other Uighurs were continuing, confirmed "some of the Uighur detainees have agreed to resettlement in Palau" but declined to give details.

Uighurs who accepted the offer could be transferred to Palau as soon as October, Clarke said.

Mark Bezner, the top American official in Palau, said Wednesday he had not yet received formal notification on the Uighurs.

Palau is a developing country of 20,000 about 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of the Philippines that is dependent on U.S. development funds.

The Uighurs will not be eligible for Palauan passports but the government has said the men would be free to travel so long as another country accepted them. It's not clear what passports they would have.

No Uighurs currently live in Palau, though there is a Muslim population of about 400 -- mostly Bangladeshi migrant workers.

Isaac Soaladaob, chief of staff to President Johnson Toribiong, said the government had not been informed yet of any formal agreements but the country was expecting the Uighur relocation plan to go ahead.

"We know that a number of men plan on coming and we are working on the technical aspects of their arrival," Soaladaob said.

[Associated Press; By JONATHAN KAMINSKY]

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