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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 001012 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INSB 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF PHUM PTER EAID MOPS MV
SUBJECT: THE MALDIVES AGREES TO ACCEPT FIVE UIGHUR DETAINEES 
 
COLOMBO 00001012  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR Patricia A. Butenis.  REASONS: 1.4 (B, D) 
 
 ¶1. (C)  SUMMARY.  On October 27, Ambassador Daniel Fried, 
Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure, held meetings with 
senior officials from the Government of the Republic of the 
Maldives (GORM) to discuss the possibility of the GORM 
accepting five ethnic Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay. 
Following Fried,s meetings with the Minister of Home Affairs 
and the President, Maldivian Foreign Minister Shaheed 
informed Fried that the GORM would in principle be willing to 
accept the five Uighur detainees on a &long-term temporary 
basis.8  (Note:  Strictly protect - President Nasheed will 
announce this decision in early November, and the U.S. has 
agreed not to discuss this publicly until he has done so. 
End Note.)  President Nasheed cited a strong desire to help 
President Obama close down the detention facilities at 
Guantanamo Bay as one of his primary motivations for 
accepting the Uighurs.  He also wanted to show that the GORM 
and the Maldivian people were champions of human rights and 
willing to assist fellow Muslims who were in need; 
additionally, the GORM believed it was important to show it 
was a friend of the U.S.  While recognizing that other 
bilateral issues were not linked to the matter of Guantanamo 
detainees, FM Shaheed outlined several points where he hoped 
the GORM could work closely with the U.S. to address 
challenges facing the Maldives.  Post will report more fully 
on these via septel.  End Summary. 
 
MEETING WITH PRESIDENT NASHEED 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (C)  On October 27, Ambassador Fried, S/GC officer Brock 
Johnson, and Embassy Colombo officer Nate Jones met with 
President Nasheed, who was accompanied by Vice-President 
Waheed and Foreign Minister Shaheed.  The president explained 
that the GORM was a very new democracy, and the political 
parties and politicians were still learning how to function 
effectively under the new conditions.  Because of this, 
should the Maldives decide to accept the detainees, he would 
need to package the decision well and make a public case to 
his people.  President Nasheed said he and his cabinet would 
seriously consider this request because they wanted very much 
to help President Obama in his efforts to close down the 
Guantanamo Bay detainee facility. 
¶3. (C) The president also took the opportunity to discuss 
overall U.S.-Maldives relations.  He emphasized that though 
many countries had offered assistance to help the GORM 
consolidate its new democracy, only India had actually come 
through by giving some USD 100 million in aid.  He mentioned 
the recent lack of movement on the GORM request for IMF 
assistance, and said he wanted to be able to show to his 
people that they had good relations with the U.S.   Noting 
that the issue of GTMO detainees was not connected with any 
other bilateral issue, Fried said he knew Assistant Secretary 
Blake was actively pursuing the planned Maldives donor 
conference, to coordinate assistance to the Maldives among 
its friends.  The president pointed out that his government 
was nearing its one-year anniversary, and would have to give 
a report card to the Maldivian people.  President Nasheed 
estimated his current grade at only a C, and he had hoped to 
give himself at least a B.  The president said there were 
many good reasons for the U.S. and others to support the 
Maldives, and that he and his fellow citizens had undertaken 
all these recent reforms not because others had asked them 
to, but because they wanted the country to go in the right 
direction. 
 
MEETING WITH MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C)  Mohamed Shihab, Minister of Home Affairs, confirmed 
 
COLOMBO 00001012  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
that his ministry was reviewing the dossiers of five Uighur 
detainees and highlighted several concerns/questions he had 
about accepting the detainees, including what could be done 
with them if they violated local laws.  Ambassador Fried 
replied that these Uighurs would be subject to Maldivian law 
just as anyone else living there would be.  Fried said the 
U.S. would not wash its hands of these persons once they had 
arrived in the Maldives, but he reassured Shihab that these 
detainees had been motivated by Uighur nationalist sentiment 
far more than anything else, and that their only desire now 
was to get out of Guantanamo Bay and lead normal lives. 
Fried noted that the Uighurs who have been resettled in 
Albania and Bermuda have jobs and are engaged in the 
community; they have not gotten into legal or other trouble. 
Shihab stated that he did not foresee finding jobs for the 
resettled men to be problematic.  Fried said the U.S. would 
understand that the path to Maldivian citizenship might be 
difficult, and the U.S. would not insist on commitments in 
this regard.  In fact, the U.S. was willing to look at longer 
term resettlement options (e.g., in Australia or a European 
country with Uighur populations) once some time had passed. 
Although he seemed to appreciate this clarification, Shihab 
did say that in a few past cases, foreign nationals who lived 
in the Maldives for a very long time and married locals had 
actually been granted citizenship.   Fried said that this was 
also a viable possibility for the Uighurs. 
 
MEETING WITH FOREIGN MINISTER SHAHEED 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C)  Foreign Minister Shaheed informed Ambassador Fried at 
the end of the day that President Nasheed had convened his 
cabinet after the morning meeting and that the cabinet had 
decided that the GORM would accept the detainees.  He said 
that President Nasheed would make an announcement in early 
November, possibly by the end of the first week of November, 
and would give three reasons why he was helping: first, to 
assist President Obama in his efforts to close Guantanamo 
Bay; second, to uphold human rights, and assist these Uighur 
men, their Muslim brothers; and third, they would do this to 
show to the U.S. that the people of the Maldives were their 
friends.  Shaheed said he would need to speak with Assistant 
Secretary Blake before President Nasheed,s announcements, 
but that the cabinet had given its consent, virtually 
ensuring that it would happen.  Fried warned Shaheed there 
would likely be heavy press coverage once the news was out, 
and Shaheed said they would announce that they had been 
pursuing better relations with the U.S. since coming into 
office, and this issue came up in the process of discussions. 
 Shaheed gave his consent when asked by Fried if he should 
mention this decision to the Government of the United Arab 
Emirates on his way back to Washington.  When asked by 
Shaheed about the logistics of the transfer and how much 
assistance the U.S. would provide, Fried replied that other 
countries had received anywhere from USD 25,000 to USD 85,000 
per detainee to cover temporary living expenses and other 
costs, and that the GORM should plan on the higher side of 
this range.  Fried said that the GORM should plan to keep an 
eye on the men, as much to ensure their own well-being as 
anything.  He said he would inform President Obama and 
Secretary Clinton of this decision.  Fried asked if the 
detainees could be transferred as early as the end of 
December, and Shaheed replied that this wouldn,t be a 
problem. 
¶6. (C)  FM Shaheed separately asked Ambassador Fried to pass 
along three requests to Assistant Secretary Blake when he 
returned to Washington.  First, the GORM hoped the upcoming 
donors conference would go well, and they hoped to be able to 
tell the Maldivian people that the U.S. would be a very 
strong supporter of them in that conference.  Second, the 
GORM hoped that the U.S. would encourage the IMF staff to 
 
COLOMBO 00001012  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
proceed with consideration of their assistance request. 
Third, the GORM would appreciate assistance from the U.S.in 
combating corruption, working in concert with a project 
already begun through the World Bank.  Shaheed went on to 
mention the ongoing discussions about restoring GSP status 
for the Maldives, and expansion of defense cooperation 
between the U.S. and the GORM.  (Note:  Post will report on 
these issues and options for cooperative efforts via septel. 
End Note.)  Fried replied that while there was of course no 
linkage between these issues and his own work, he would 
certainly pass these points on to Assistant Secretary Blake. 
He mentioned his own past work with emerging democracies in 
the former Communist bloc, and said he would make sure that 
President Obama knew not only of this decision on the 
detainees, but also more about the recent democratic 
developments in the Maldives, and the great story which had 
developed there. 
BUTENIS