Three Chinese Muslims imprisoned for years at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay have agreed to be released to the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, their lawyers said.
The deals struck recently with US officials are the first among a group of 13 Uighur detainees at Guantanamo who have been offered relocation to Palau under US President Barack Obama’s plans to close the controversial prison in Cuba. Negotiations are continuing with the rest of the group.
Relocating the Uighurs would bring the Obama administration a step closer to its goal of finding new homes for terrorism suspects and others captured in Afghanistan who have been cleared of wrongdoing but cannot go home for fear of persecution.
But it has also raised tension with Beijing, which regards the inmates as terrorist suspects and wants them returned to China.
George Clarke, the lawyer for two of the Uighurs, Dawut Abdurehim and Anwar Assan, said on Tuesday that they had both recently formally accepted Washington’s offer to relocate them to Palau. Eric Tirschwell, the lawyer for four other Uighurs at Guantanamo, said on Wednesday that one of his clients had also accepted the offer.
“They’re excited,” Clarke said by telephone 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.”
A State Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks with other Uighurs are continuing, confirmed “some of the Uighur detainees have agreed to resettlement in Palau” but declined to give details.
Uighurs who have accepted the offer could be transferred to Palau as soon as next month, Clarke said.
The 13 Uighurs, Turkic Muslims from far western China, have been held by the US since their capture 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.
Mark Bezner, the top US official in Palau, said on Wednesday he had not yet received formal notification on the Uighurs.
“Perhaps we’ll get a confirmation in the next couple of days from Washington,” he said.
Tirschwell declined to reveal which of his clients has agreed to the deal, but said “he’s looking forward to enjoying the freedom that he deserves and that he’s been denied for almost eight years.”
The lawyers also declined to give details of agreements struck with US officials.
Of the 10 other Uighur detainees remaining at the US military base in Cuba, none have ruled out moving to Palau. Attorneys representing the other men declined to comment or did not return messages left by reporters.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS