Uighur leader to visit former Guantanamo detainees

KOROR: Exiled Chinese Muslim leader Rebiya Kadeer will travel to Palau as soon as next week to visit six fellow Uighurs released from Guantanamo Bay, a spokesman for the men said on Friday.

The six detainees arrived in Palau on Sunday as part of US President Barack Obama's drive to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

Palau President Johnson Toribiong said on Thursday that three members of the World Uighur Congress would be arriving in the country to visit the six men, possibly as soon as next week.

Mampimin Ala, the translator for the six former detainees, confirmed that Kadeer, the US-based head of the congress, would be among the visitors.

"She will be here to give spiritual solace to the Uighurs," Ala said.

Kadeer, who is labeled a criminal by China, is also expected to meet Toribiong to discuss the future of her fellow Uighurs.

The six were transferred to Palau, a former US-administered territory that achieved independence in 1994, after Toribiong agreed to provide a temporary home.

The six had been held at Guantanamo for nearly eight years despite being cleared of all charges four years ago. The US has refused to send them back to China for fear they would be persecuted.

Palau, which relies heavily on US aid, has agreed to take up to 12 Uighurs.

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

China has blamed Kadeer for inciting rioting between Uighurs and members of China's dominant Han ethnic group in July, in the Uighur homeland in the vast Xinjiang region of western China.

Beijing said the unrest left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, mostly Han.

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

They said they had fled to Afghanistan to escape persecution in their home region.