Australia 'pressured' to refuse Uighurs: Palau president

Toribiong, who has welcomed the six Muslims who spent close to eight years in detention at the U.S. military base, has told television station SBS he is puzzled as to why Australia has rejected the group.

“It's strange, it's a big country,” the Palau president said in an interview to be aired here later Sunday.

“I assume they were pressured by China to take the position they did, but in my opinion the problem or dispute between the U.S. and China over these people is between them.”

Palau, a former U.S.-administered territory which relies heavily on U.S. aid, has agreed to provide a temporary home to the six Uighurs who were cleared of all charges four years ago.

The U.S. has refused to send them back to China — which expressed anger over their release, describing them as terrorist suspects — for fear they would be persecuted.

One of the six, Ahmad Tourson, told SBS's Dateline programme that the group would like to settle in another country, preferably Australia where he said there was an established Uighur community.

“We came here to Palau because it's close to Australia. While we're here, if we apply again to settle in Australia, we are hoping that it will be accepted,” he said.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was unable to comment on specific cases but confirmed that China had made representations to Canberra on the issue.

The six Uighurs arrived in Palau two weeks ago as part of U.S. President Barack Obama's drive to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

The former prisoners were among 22 Uighurs — a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority — living at a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the U.S.-led invasion of the country began in October 2001.

They said they had fled to Afghanistan to escape persecution in their home region of Xinjiang in northwest China. Last week Beijing said it had executed nine people over ethnic unrest between Uighurs and members of China's dominant Han ethnic group in July in Xinjiang.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email