By Kassi Berg
On January 28, 2013, the U.S. State Department closed the office tasked with finding global placements for cleared Guantanamo detainees and re-assigned their number one go-to-person, Ambassador Daniel Fried. Ambassador Fried was the special envoy that negotiated the Uighurs resettlement to Palau with Palau’s former President Johnson Toribiong.
Ambassador Fried will not be replaced and instead the office handling the closing of the prison is ironically itself being closed down. The notice of the office closing advised that Fried’s former responsibilities will be “assumed” by the office of the department’s legal adviser, but no person has been named to assume any of the responsibilities for the diplomatic and immigration issues that continue to plague the resettlements that were negotiated by Fried.
While Obama still holds steadfast that he intends to close the Guantanamo detention facility, his latest move indicates that closure of the prison is a declining priority.
Palau’s President Remengesau Jr. has been advised of the office’s closure and of Ambassador Fried’s reassignment.
In an interview on January 31, 2013, President Remengesau explained his unease that there is no timetable for the Uighurs “temporary” Palau resettlement. The President also explained that Palau has simply run out of funds for the Uighurs. The President feels Palau should have recognized its own “limitations” before accepting the detainees and certainly should have negotiated an end-game plan. He expressed great concern about how the Uighurs would be sustained as it “worries” him that they seem to be “loosing support from everybody.”
The question now is who, if anyone, at the Department of State will deal with the the long-term placement of Palau’s Uighurs. At the moment, the future of Palau’s Uighurs is one of uncertainty.