DOES THE UR NEVER TIRE OF SCREWING OUR FRIENDS?:

Some in Palau are worried about Guantanamo detainees: The laid-back island republic is unaccustomed to geopolitics, and some question why the U.S. is sending them Chinese Muslims. But others say their culture is welcoming to foreigners. (John M. Glionna, June 14, 2009, LA Times)

The U.S. achieved hero status here after American forces fought and died to free Palau from Japanese rule in World War II. For decades afterward, Palau was a U.N. trust territory administered by U.S. officials.

Its citizens still celebrate American Independence Day. They use their old U.S. ZIP Code (96940), and the island currency remains the greenback. Most Palauans speak English along with their melodic native tongue.

The new government center, an imposing building that's visible for miles as it rises incongruously out of the jungle with its gleaming white dome, is modeled on the U.S. Capitol.

But all this America worship has become unhealthy, critics say. They say a compact Palau signed with the U.S. before its independence created an economic reliance on Uncle Sam.

Under the pact, Washington agreed to give Palau $20 million a year. The two recently worked on a new aid package that could exceed $200 million -- more than the gross domestic product of about $160 million. The per capita income here is less than $10,000 a year.

State Department officials insist that the aid is not tied in any way to Palau's agreement to accept Guantanamo detainees.

In an interview Saturday, Toribiong said no amount of aid or diplomatic arm-twisting could have influenced his decision to accept the inmates.

"This wasn't an obligation; it was an honor," Toribiong said as he drank a bottle of Perrier a few feet from the crashing surf. "We're showing that we're a partner to the U.S. in good times and in bad.

"Palau can enter the world stage as a little guy helping a big guy, a tiny island republic going to bat for a world superpower."

Toribiong said he initially agreed to accept 17 Uighurs but later learned that the U.S. had unexpectedly sent four to Bermuda. He now expects 13 detainees to soon arrive.

Once here, they will be put in a halfway house until homes and jobs are found for them -- the cost of their relocation covered by the U.S., Toribiong said.

He said that the arrangement was temporary and would be periodically reviewed.

Some have doubts

The people of Palau weren't waiting to review the arrangement.

At a Mobil gas station mini-mart in downtown Koror, a dozen residents, including mechanics and former senators, sat around white plastic tables drinking coffee and hashing out the country's problems.

Most often the banter revolves around the occasional marijuana bust, string of burglaries or illegal shark killings.

But recently the men have dissected the fate of the Uighur separatists from China's Xinjiang region, a rugged landscape of snowy mountains and sweltering deserts so foreign to Micronesia that it sent many Palauans scrambling for a map.

The Uighurs now headed for Palau were captured and sent to Guantanamo in 2001 after traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan for firearms training as part of their fight for independence from China.

"My question is, where are we going to put these people? Are we going to let them roam around? Are we going to put them in jail?" asked Evans Beches, a former politician. "And where was the referendum on this? Don't people have a right to debate something so important to the future of this island?"