Wednesday, June 10

How Much Does It Cost To Ease a Nation's Conscience?

Apparently $11,764,705.88 per prisoner is the going rate for not allowing trials for Guantanamo prisoners to occur. Since the US Senate said "no" to housing detainees in the United States, the US plans to banish 17 Chinese Muslim captives from the Guantanamo Bay prison to the remote North Pacific archipelago of Palau (Palau comprises of a number of scattered islands over 500 miles east of the Philippines with a population less than 20,000 people).

The US decided to transfer the Uighur detainees to the small pacific island nation after inking an accord with the president of Palau, Johnson Toribiong, on Tuesday in exchange for a $200 million long-term aid package.

Toribiong said he “agreed to accommodate the United States of America's request” to “temporarily resettle” the Guantanamo prisoners and called his country's bid a “humanitarian gesture,” adding that he was “honored and proud” to close the deal.

Sandra Pierantozzi, Palau's minister of state, in an interview with VOA, says her nation is glad to have the Uighurs.

"If they want to settle in Palau we would welcome them," Pierantozzi said. "This is very much in line with the culture of Palau, where people who drift in and who needs settlement and place are welcome to our shores and our tradition will take care of them and insert them into our society."

The Uighurs are from China's western Xinjiang province. Beijing has accused the Uighurs, who dominate the province, as separatists who want to create an independent "East Turkestan." Washington is refusing to send the Uighurs back to China, fearing they would be persecuted.

sources: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-10-voa7.cfm
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97655§ionid=3510203

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