Uighurs Leave Guantánamo for Palau - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — Six Chinese Muslims were flown from the United States military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Palau, the island nation in the Pacific Ocean, as part of the Obama administration’s effort to close the prison, an administration official said Saturday.
The transfer leaves seven of the Chinese detainees, known as the Uighurs, still confined at the naval base, along with 208 other men.
The Uighurs have been at the heart of a long-running legal, political and ethical debate about the detention center since their incarceration there more than seven years ago. The prison has become an international symbol of American excesses in the war against terrorism, and an increasingly frustrating problem for the White House.
The release of the men had been announced by the Justice Department, but the timing was kept a secret for security reasons until the detainees were safely in Palau, where they are expected to remain while seeking a permanent home elsewhere.
Wells Dixon, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents three of the men, said, “Palau is courageous to offer our Uighur clients a temporary home. We are hopeful that other countries like Australia and Germany will resettle them permanently.”
In a news release late Saturday, the Justice Department identified the men as Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori. “As we near the completion of our review of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, we will continue to work closely with the Department of State to implement transfer decisions,” Matthew Olsen, executive director of the Guantánamo Review Task Force, said in the release.
The Uighurs, from western China, were taken into custody in 2001 in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have long been determined by American authorities to pose no security threat, but they are regarded as terrorists by the Chinese government and have said that they fear persecution if they are returned there.
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