Display:
From Hell to Paradise: Palau Offers to Take Uighur Guantanamo Inmates - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Seventeen Guantanamo inmates of Uighur origin may soon be leaving Cuba for Palau after the remote Pacific island nation announced its willingness to take the detainees. The Uighurs, refused by Germany, will encounter "paradise" there, said one Palau representative.

The tiny Pacific island nation of Palau has stepped in to help in the tricky question of where 17 Guantanamo inmates of Uighur origin are to go when the camp closes.

 The island nation of Palau: A new home for the Uighurs? In a statement released to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Palau President Johnson Toribiong said his country would be "honored and proud" to take the detainees as a "humanitarian gesture." Palau, he said, had "agreed to accommodate the United States of America's request" to "temporarily resettle" the detainees, "subject to periodic review."

Toribiong said he had discussed the issue with Daniel Fried, the US diplomat who has been charged with the effort to resettle Guantanamo detainees, during his recent visit to Palau. Representatives of the Palau government will travel to Guantanamo to make preparations for the transfer of the inmates, Toribiong said.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 10th, 2009 at 03:09:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
good luck to them. I wish them, and all the detainees at Gitmo, well.

But the US needs to sort out its own mess and prolonging the detention is simply sick. If they can't release them, turn Gitmo into a luxury holiday camp. give them some recompense for the brutatlity of the Bush/cheney era, don't prolong it.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 10th, 2009 at 05:09:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Fran:
 The island nation of Palau: A new home for the Uighurs? In a statement released to the Associated Press on Wednesday, Palau President Johnson Toribiong said his country would be "honored and proud" to take the detainees as a "humanitarian gesture."

that's the first statement about these victims i've seen that had some heart.

my inner cynic wonders what sweetener the palauans are getting to be so noble, but it is so unutterably appalling to think of what's happened to these people, and the u.s. attitude that others clean up their mess really stinks too.

they should be expensively apologised to, not shuffled off to random points around the globe like asylum seeking refugees.

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Jun 11th, 2009 at 02:45:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password
Occasional Series