So it looks like the Uigurs held in Guantanamo are finally going to be released — not to the DC area as originally planned, but to the Pacific Island nation of Palau.  NYT:

The United States has won an agreement to transfer up to 17 Chinese Muslims from the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Palau, a sparsely populated archipelago in the North Pacific, according to a statement released by Palau to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The president of Palau, Johnson Toribiong, said his government had “agreed to accommodate the United States of America’s request” to “temporarily resettle” the detainees, members of the Uighur ethnic group, “subject to periodic review.” Palau, the president said, would be “honored and proud” to take them in a “humanitarian gesture.” . . .

Three Obama administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity Tuesday because the negotiations were not yet complete, said it was not certain how many of the Uighurs would be settled in Palau. With barely 20,000 people, Palau, about 500 miles east of the Philippines, is one of the world’s least-populated nations, made up of 8 main islands and 250 smaller ones. . . .

The United States has pledged $200 million in long-term development aid to Palau. But a senior State Department official flatly denied it was a quid pro quo for the detainee deal.

Palau is known more for its tropical scenery and scuba diving than for its involvement in international politics. But despite its tiny size, it is diverse, with Philippine and Chinese populations. The Uighurs, some say, could do a lot worse for themselves. “What they will encounter in Palau is paradise,” said Stuart Beck, an American lawyer who is Palau’s permanent United Nations representative. “From the time the first British vessel hit a reef in Palau in 1783, it has welcomed refugees.”

When I saw this, my first reaction was not unlike Beck’s:  they’re going to paradise.  My second reaction was that they’re coming from a nightmare.  And I’m not sure that seven years of enforced (and largely unnecessary) hell was worth it — especially given the fact that they’re being dropped into what is going to feel like the middle of nowhere.  In addition, keep in mind that they’ve been on a semi-tropical island for the past seven years and it hasn’t exactly been beach blanket bingo.

Interestingly, Palau is one of the few countries left that continues to recognize Taiwan instead of the PRC, so this must be doubly galling to the Chinese.  But given the fact that there is a Chinese minority there, it’s not going to be that difficult for the ChiComs to dispatching someone to watch them.

One other thing I haven’t seen anywhere else:  it’s largely forgotten now, but Palau was a member of the “coalition of the willing.”  If I’m not mistaken (I couldn’t find confirmation in a brief review of the intertubes), they got additional development assistance back then as well.

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