Uighurs explore Pacific paradise with Palau president

The Uighurs, flown secretly to their temporary Pacific island home on Sunday, spent the afternoon at the Rock Islands, an area dotted with hundreds of foliage-covered limestone isles famed among divers.

The contrast with their arid home in Xinjiang province in western China was not lost on the six men.

Interpreter Mampimin Ala said the men, who spent nearly eight years locked up at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison, were happy and excited over the trip to the Rock Islands.

One of the Uighurs said that he had only ever previously seen the sea on television and was glad he could finally touch the water, Ala said.

Palau president Johnson Toribiong hosted a barbecue lunch for the Uighurs on one of the small islands. "If my guests are happy, then I am happy," Toribiong said.

After their relaxed lunch the Uighurs said "sulang" -- Palauan for thank you -- to the president, the first word of the local language they have learned since arriving at the weekend. Toribiong said the process of acclimatizing the men will continue when they start learning written and conversational English at a community college next week.

On Friday, they will go to the local mosque to pray and meet the leaders of 480 Muslim Bangladeshis living and working in Palau.

The six Uighurs were transferred to Palau, a former U.S.-administered territory which achieved independence in 1994, as part of U.S. President Barack Obama's promise to close the controversial Guantanamo prison. The six Uighurs had been held at Guantanamo despite being cleared of all charges.

Palau, which relies heavily on US aid, has agreed to take up to 12 Uighurs. Seven remain at Guantanamo, where 215 "war on terror" suspects are still held. Toribiong has denied any link between accepting the former detainees and the aid issue, saying Palau was offering a temporary home to the men as a humanitarian gesture.

On Monday Beijing expressed anger over the release of the Uighurs, describing them as terrorist suspects who should be repatriated to China.

The former prisoners were among 22 Uighurs -- a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from China's remote Xinjiang region -- living at a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led invasion of the country began in October 2001.

Five were released to Albania in 2006, and four were resettled in Bermuda this year, with the United States fearing they would be persecuted if returned to China.

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