Palau deal close for Uighur Guantanamo detainees

KOROR, Palau — Some Chinese Muslims still detained at Guantanamo Bay have overcome reservations about being sent to the remote Pacific nation of Palau, and a final deal on their relocation was close, a lawyer for two of them said Wednesday.

The Uighur detainees met with U.S. State Department officials on Monday and told the diplomats they are now willing to move to Palau, said lawyer George Clarke, who took part in the talks.

Clarke told The Associated Press by telephone that “more than four and less than all” of the 13 Uighurs had agreed to go, overcoming previous fears that the tiny island nation would not be able to protect them from China, which considers them separatists.

Once a deal is struck, it is expected to take weeks to organize the Uighurs’ transfer.

Palau in June offered to take the 13 detainees — a major step toward the Obama administration’s goal of finding new homes for terrorist suspects and other prisoners captured during the Afghan war who have been cleared of wrongdoing but cannot go home for fear of ill-treatment.

But the island state’s President Johnson Toribiong told the AP in June that some of the men were hesitant because of concerns about China, which has demanded they be sent home for trial. U.S. officials have said the men could be executed in China and have refused to send them there.

The 13 Uighurs, Turkic Muslims from far western China, have been held by the United States since their capture in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year that they were not “enemy combatants,” but they have been in legal limbo ever since.

The U.S. has described a lack of resettlement options for dozens of such inmates who can’t be returned to their homelands as an obstacle to emptying the Guantanamo prison.

Mark Bezner, the top American official in Palau, confirmed the State Department was putting together a document spelling out the terms of the Uighurs’ stay in Palau.

“I expect to have it soon,” he said. “We’ll be discussing it with the Palauans and then it can be relayed to the Uighurs’ attorneys.”

Once the men have signed it, Congress will be notified of the pending transfer. If no congressional objections are raised, the men will be cleared for their move after 15 days, Clarke said.

A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that a deal on sending the Uighur detainees to Palau was “close but not yet done.” The deal could come soon if there are no last-minute hitches, the official said on condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made.

Ngiraibelas Tmetuchl, special assistant to Toribiong, said Palau’s government so far had not been notified of the developments.

“That’s news to me,” he said. “We will be expecting a note from the U.S.”

Clarke said his clients, Dawut Abdurehim and Anwar Assan, had been holding out hope that another country with an established Uighur population would be willing to take them in.

“That’s been a sticking point,” Clarke said. “It’s gotten to the point where they’ve realized that other countries are not (a) reliable” option.

While there are no Uighurs in Palau, there is a Muslim population of more than 400 — most of them Bangladeshi workers — and two mosques.

Clarke said a key issue to the detainees is whether they will be allowed to travel after being settled in Palau. His clients hope to one day make the Hajj, or holy pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Palauan citizenship is strictly hereditary, so the Uighurs will not be eligible for Palauan passports.

Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this story from Nairobi, Kenya.