17 Chinese prisoners held in Guantanamo for years, having been declared innocent by the American military’s own review system back in 2005, were finally released to the island nation of Palau in 2009.
The prisoners were Uighur (Uhghur), an ethnic group in central Asia. The Chinese government has often referred to Uyghur nationalists as “terrorists”. None of the Uyghurs wanted to be returned to China for fear of being executed. The United States declined to grant the Uyghurs political asylum, or to allow them parole, and instead continued to imprison them at Guantanamo for years after declaring them innocent. The US had transferred some Uighur’s to Albania. But China threatened Albania and Albania said it would not take any more Uighurs.
So the United States promised the tiny island nation of Palau a lot of money 200 million dollars in exchange for Palau taking 17 of the Uighur from Guantanamo. The entire population of Palau is 20,000 people. Two hundred million dollars is a lot of money for a country that small. Not surprisingly, on 10 June 2009, Palau agreed to take the Uighurs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_captives_in_Guantanamo
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/06/2009610224138374759.html
Post a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.