Two more Chinese Muslim detainees held at Guantanamo Bay have agreed to be relocated to the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, their lawyer said bringing to six the total who will resettle. Palau has offered 13 ethnic Uighurs held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba a chance to move there – an arrangement that would ease President Barack Obama’s plans to close the contentious facility.
The men have been held by the U.S. since their capture in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year they were not “enemy combatants” but they have been in legal limbo ever since. China regards the Uighurs (pronounced WEE’-gurs) as terrorist suspects and wants them returned.
But Uighur activists claim the detainees face persecution or death if they are returned there, and U.S. officials have struggled to find a country to take them in.
Two more of such detainees have agreed to go to Palau. Their acceptance means six of the detained Chinese Muslims have now decided to move to the mid-Pacific state, which offered in early June to take in the Turkic Muslims from far western China.