Oct. 24, 2009


Guantanamo's indigenous Chinese Uyghurs not safe on Palau Islands in the north Pacific
 
By Rebecca Sommer
Special to Huntingtonnews.net
 
Human Rights groups -- including the Society for Threatened Peoples International (STPI) -- warned this week against moving the Uyghur Guantanamo prisoners to the Palau Islands. Their safety is not guaranteed in the small island republic.
 
“If the Uyghurs with the aid of their US American lawyers are trying to win proceedings for their right to remain in the USA then there is no question of their being cantankerous, but a matter of life or death,” said STPI Asia consultant Ulrich Delius from Germany. “The Uyghurs who were illegally suspected of terrorism must come to a third country which can really offer them protection,” Delius added.
 
Fears that Beijing could at any time abduct or have the Uyghurs killed in a secret commando operation is certainly not unjustified. In July 2002 China had the internet author Wang Bingzhang -- who was living in US exile -- kidnapped during a journey to Vietnam and later brought to court in China. The author was sentenced to life imprisonment on Feb. 10, 2003 for “spying” and “terrorist activities.” The Uyghurs -- also called "Uighurs" -- called terrorists by Beijing, are threatened with death sentences should China capture them.
 
The government of the Palau Islands can with the best will in the world not provide adequate protection, warned the human rights expert. Only the Philippines and Taiwan separate the island state, which is inhabited by only 20,000 people, from the People's Republic of China. Palau does not even have an army of its own and the US troops stationed there and the US Coast Guard, who supervise the islands, would be completely over challenged. The nearest US armed forces are stationed on the island of Guam, which is several thousand miles away and would not be able to prevent a Chinese commando attack. China has considerably increased its naval presence in the northwest Pacific in the past three years.
 
The other point is that no other Uyghurs live in the island state, so integration of the stateless people would be very difficult. Meanwhile six of them have bowed to the pressure of the USA and declared that they would be prepared to settle on Palau. “Good integration is however the basic prerequisite for ensuring that the Uyghurs, who have been severely traumatized by almost nine years incarceration, can live peacefully and present no danger for security in future,” said Delius.