Terrorism
Extradition

So exactly who are these 17 Uighur detainees at the Guantánamo prison? The Bush administration concluded they were not enemy combatants. To the US, that is. But there appeared to be little doubt they were hostile to China; when they were caught in Afghanistan, “[t]here is nothing else there but to learn to fight the Chinese, and then go back again". A task force on Guantánamo Bay detainees recommended two Uighurs to be released in the US, an idea the Obama administration balked at in the end. But somehow, after over 100 countries refused to take the Uighurs, the Pacific nation of Palau (who has diplomatic ties with Taiwan, not China) was persuaded to “temporarily resettle” an unspecified number of the detainees. A Chinese FM spokesman urged the US "to implement the UN Security Council's relevant resolutions and its international obligations on counter-terrorism" and stop "handing terror suspects to any third country".

However, this "small thing that [Palau] can do to thank our best friend and ally" of the US was apparently not appreciated by the Uighur detainees, as they (but one) refused to relocate to Palau because "Palau had no army or navy to protect them and so they could be arrested by the Chinese authorities". With Palau seen by some as a tropical "paradise", maybe the Guantánamo prison isn't as horrific as human rights activists told us.

Four Uighur detainees were later released to the British territory of Bermuda as "foreign guest workers", a move that irked the British Foreign Office who was apparently not consulted in advance, and who now questioned whether the matter "is a foreign affairs or security issue for which the Bermuda Government do not have delegated responsibility."