Last week, officials here announced that this isolated republic of more than 300 scattered islands, set amid a vast stretch of aquamarine ocean 4,500 miles southwest of Hawaii, would accept several Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay. But the “humanitarian gesture” by Palauan President Johnson Toribiong has rattled cocktail glasses and scuba tanks across this former US territory whose economy is heavily dependent on eco-tourism.

With its sparkling waters, world-class diving and small-town charm, lush Palau is about as far away as you can get from a Guantanamo prison cell. The republic is one of the world’s smallest nations, with only 20,000 people.

If the US no longer considers the Uighurs a threat, why doesn’t it take them, they ask? Why dump them on some far-flung island republic with a tight-knit, everyone-knows-his-neighbour culture?

As she scrubbed floor mats at a community car wash, Chandis Cooper said even if Toribiong is her uncle, she thinks he’s flat-out wrong to bring the Uighurs to Palau. “Those men could get lost in the US if they wanted—the nation is that big. But here on Palau, there’s nowhere for them to go,” she said. “Our police department has a hard enough time chasing down kids out past curfew—what are they going to do with a bunch of Guantanamo inmates?

Under a pact that Palau signed with the US before its independence, Washington agreed to give Palau $20 million annually. In recent months, both sides have worked on a new aid package that could exceed $200 million. US State Department officials insist the aid is not tied to Palau’s agreement to accept Guantanamo detainees.

... contd.