Thursday, June 11, 2009

PARADISE 'LOST' FOR GITMO GANG

PARADISE 'LOST' FOR GITMO GANG



PARADISE 'LOST' FOR GITMO GANG
ETHNIC BACKLASH OVER RELOCATION TO PACIFIC

New York Post
By GEOFF EARLE, Post Correspondent
Last updated: 3:41 am
June 11, 2009
Posted: 3:10 am
June 11, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Hell no, Uighurs won't go!

A leading advocate for 17 ethnic Uighurs from China held at Guantanamo Bay prison is throwing cold water on the Obama administration's plan to transfer the detainees to the tropical island paradise of Palau. Although the tranquil archipelago in the Pacific seems like a place to get away from it all, the Uighurs -- who have been held for years by the United States at Guantanamo -- want to be resettled at a place where they can interact with other Uighurs.

Rights activist Nury Turkel, a Uighur-American attorney, acknowledged Palau's stunning natural beauty, but asked: "Can you sit in a house and just look at the weather without doing anything? You need to have a prospect, an economic and a cultural prospect."

Turkel, who testified in Congress about the Uighurs yesterday, said he planned to contact the Obama administration to express reservations about the resettlement plan, which was confirmed by Palauan President Johnson Toribiong.

"These men suffered the last seven years tremendously in Guantanamo," he said. "The society or the city or the area that has a cultural accessibility for the men would be much, much preferred."

Turkel, who has met with the Uighurs at Guantanamo, said the Uighurs want to come to live in Washington, DC; Munich, Germany; Istanbul, Turkey; or Oslo, Norway, where there are existing Uighur communities.

The United States won't send them to China for fear they might be tortured or killed.

The Uighurs, who practice Islam and hail from a far-western, landlocked outpost of the Chinese empire, have their own culture and values -- which won't necessarily blend in on Palau, which is known for tourism and world-class scuba diving.

But Uighur democracy activist Rebiya Kadeer said Uighurs "are the kind of people, if you're in desolate places, they would turn them into a beautiful garden or heaven."

Referring to the Palau government's offer, she said: "We are happy if they could take these Uighurs."

Most thrilled about the prospect are lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are pressing their human-rights cause. "We should do a field trip, in fact," to the Pacific island, said Rep. Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts.

Representatives of the Palau government are planning an immediate visit to Guantanamo to meet with the Uighurs to discuss the details of the arrangement.

Palau "is an amazingly beautiful place," said Joan Yang of the Palau mission to the United Nations.

She said the officials would discuss what jobs the Uighurs might be able to do -- like working for the government or at restaurants and diving shop

geoff.earle@nypost.com

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