Life on a tropical island with sandy white beaches and swaying palm trees might not seem like the worst option, if you've just spent eight years as a prisoner in Guantánamo. But for the six ethnic Uighur Muslims from China's western region of Xinjiang who were released last November from Guantánamo to the Pacific island state of Palau, the prospect of an eternity in a small island country, with no passport and no Uighur community other than themselves, is its own kind of confinement.
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The amenities aren't bad. The Uighurs live together in a spacious apartment with water views, on the second floor of a white villa, owned by President Johnson Toribiong's brother Joe. Downstairs is a bank. Next door and across the street are Joe's liquor store, bar and restaurant -- perhaps not the best neighbors for devout Muslims. From the street, you can see that a blanket covers one window of the Uighurs' apartment; they told journalists shortly after arriving that they would turn one room into a prayer room. They have also joined the one humble mosque on the island, frequented by Bangladeshi migrant workers, with whom they're said to get along fine. Palau Community College even built a special washroom for them, so they can wash and pray between their English classes. But they'd still rather be someplace else.
"We came here to Palau, because it's close to Australia," Ahmad Tourson, one of the six Uighurs, said to Australia's SBS Dateline program, upon arriving in Palau. They've since grown weary of talking to journalists, and now refuse almost all requests for interviews. "While we're here, if we apply again to settle in Australia, we are hoping it'll be accepted."
The Uighurs liked the idea of Australia because it has a sizable Uighur community and, they thought, was beyond China's reach. But Australia has still not agreed to accept any Uighurs, despite repeated requests from the United States. The Chinese government has applied considerable pressure, saying it sees the 22 Uighurs who'd been in Guantánamo as terrorist suspects, who must be returned to face justice. Several of the Uighurs admitted under interrogation that they did receive limited arms training in Afghanistan -- but said they were only ever interested in using it against China, not against the United States. No evidence has surfaced linking any of them to combat or to a terrorist attack.
And yet, when the Uighurs arrived at Palau's airport in the early hours of Nov. 1, a local newspaper, Tia Belau, went sensationalist: "As if lifted from a spy movie thriller, a plane arrived in wee hours at an airport in darkness without knowledge of the sleeping country, and emerged six bearded Muslim terrorists, in shackles and guarded by many armed commandos." Leave aside the fact that the Uighurs aren't terrorists. Footage of their arrival shows they weren't guarded on the ground by armed commandos, and their ankles were only tied while they were on the plane. Once they stepped onto Palauan soil, they were free.
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