'Uighurs affair was vanity project for ex-premier'

HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC):

Opposition Leader Kim Swan has described the Uighurs affair as a vanity project for former premier Ewart Brown after United States (US) ambassador Daniel Fried confirmed there was no quid pro quo for Bermuda.

"It is the final disappointment of the Uighur debacle to learn that Brown got nothing for Bermuda in his deal with the US government," Swan said in a statement.

"It says to us the premier was either naïve or just interested in rubbing shoulders with the high and mighty in the US government."

From the beginning, Brown insisted it was merely a humanita-rian gesture to bring four former prisoners - Chinese Muslim Uighurs - at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba to the island in a move which angered political colleagues, the United Kingdom and large sections of Bermuda's public in June 2009. The Uighurs now have jobs in the private sector after being let go from the government-run Port Royal Golf Club.

Many people suspected some kind of secret deal had been struck which could have either given Bermuda cash or protected the island from the proposed Neal Bill, which targets tax avoidance by US companies using offshore subsidiaries.

But this week, Fried, a US special envoy who was involved throughout the discussions, said: "There was no quid pro quo, no secret side deal. The then premier took the step for humanitarian reasons."

Fried said Bermuda received a minimal amount to defray the costs of transportation - something offered to every country that accepts detainees. He rejected reports that some countries received millions of dollars in aid packages for accepting former detainees.

No statecraft

Swan, leader of the main opposition United Bermuda Party, who failed with a motion of no confidence against Brown in the immediate aftermath of the move, said last Friday: "Clearly, Dr Brown was not working for Bermuda when he agreed to take the detainees off US hands.

"This is the only conclusion to be drawn from the US government's unequivocal statement this week that there was no quid pro quo for the Uighurs.

"As premier of Bermuda, we expected that Dr Brown would have at least tried to exercise some level of statecraft to work a deal that could benefit the island. Not so. This appears now to have been a vanity project and nothing more.

"Yet it did serious damage to the governance of Bermuda. In his haste to please his American friends, Dr Brown showed disregard for his Cabinet colleagues, Bermuda's parliament, the governor, the United Kingdom government, Bermuda's constitution and, ultimately, the people of Bermuda."

Brown, who quit politics after stepping down as premier in October, declined to comment on Swan's statement.

Bermuda-born Brown became a US citizen but had to relinquish that citizenship when he returned to the island and became an MP for the then opposition Progressive Labour Party in 1993.