Saturday, April 24, 2010

Uyghur Teenager Gets Life

2010-04-23

Troubling allegations about how Chinese authorities handled his case.

HONG KONG—A court in China’s troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang has handed a life sentence to a Uyghur youth for alleged murder during July 2009 unrest, but rights groups and relatives say his trial was unfair and he may have been tortured.

Chinese authorities in the Silk Road town of Aksu [in Chinese, Akesu] detained Noor-Ul-Islam Sherbaz on July 27 in the wake of rioting in Urumqi, when he was just 17.

“I think under severe torture my son was forced to sign the confession,” Noor-Ul-Islam’s father Sherbaz Khan, who is a Pakistani national, said.

He said his son was convicted after his image appeared on security cameras in downtown Urumqi, the regional capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), on the night that Uyghurs demonstrated for an investigation into the deaths of two Uyghur migrants in southern China.

“On July 5, my son left the house to attend the entrance examination for the third year of high school,” Khan said.

“On his way back home, the demonstration was taking place. He was very interested in the demonstration and at this point his image was captured in the security camera.”

“I have asked my son whether he participated in the demonstration, and he told me ‘I was very afraid and returned home immediately.’”

30-minute trial

The Aksu Intermediate People’s Court handed down the life sentence on April 13, following a trial that lasted just 30 minutes, according to rights group Amnesty International.

He was found guilty of “murder (or intentional homicide)” and “provoking an incident” under Articles 232 and 293 of China’s Criminal Law.

Noor-Ul-Islam had been held incommunicado since his detention, Amnesty International said in a statement on its Web site.

“Police informed his family that he was detained because of his alleged participation in demonstrations in Urumqi on 5 July 2009 and told them that a boy of his build was suspected of attacking people with stones,” the group said.

According to the statement, the court was shown video footage of a group of Uyghurs beating a man.

“Noor-Ul-Islam Sherbaz was not present in the group beating the man in the video nor is he shown on the video carrying a stone,” the Amnesty statement said.

“The video does, however, show him on the same street.”

Possible torture

The group said the conviction appears to have been secured on the basis of a second video in which Noor-Ul-Islam confessed to killing someone.

“It is possible that his confession was extracted through torture,” Amnesty International said, adding that he was given legal representation and planned to appeal the verdict.

Sherbaz Khan called for outside pressure on the Chinese authorities.

“My son is innocent,” said Sherbaz Khan, who had been working as a vendor on the streets of Urumqi to send his son to university.

“The Chinese authorities have constantly called me and threatened me,” he added.

“They said, ‘If you try to inform foreign organizations about the situation of your son, he will be punished more severely’.”

He said his son was spared the death sentence because the authorities claimed he had confessed to his crime.

“There are thousands and thousands of innocent Uyghurs like my son suffering in Chinese prisons,” Khan said.

“I’m confident that justice will prevail and my son will be proven innocent. He is still a teenager,” he said.

Noor-Ul-Islam was a student at the No. 3 High School in Urumqi who was planning to go to university.

Khan said his wife Pashayim had lost her job after her son’s detention became known.

Deadly clashes

Official records say that nearly 200 people died in the July violence in Urumqi, the majority of them “innocent Han Chinese killed by angry mobs,” with more than 1,600 people injured in the violence, which came from both ethnic groups.

Uyghur eyewitnesses have accused the security forces of using excessive force on unarmed demonstrators, including beatings, the use of teargas, and shooting directly into crowds of protesters, with many Uyghur deaths ignored by official media reports.

China reported last August to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that they were holding 718 people in connection with the July unrest and in December they announced the arrest of an additional 94 people during a “strike hard” campaign in Xinjiang.

Campaign-style law enforcement, known in China as “strike hard” campaigns, are commonplace in Xinjiang, putting police, prosecutors, and judges under pressure to secure speedy convictions.

Rights groups contend that this short-circuits judicial process and removes legal protections.

Millions of Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate Central Asia and the XUAR in northwestern China.

Ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese settlers have simmered for years, and erupted in July 2009 in rioting that left some 200 people dead, according to the Chinese government’s tally.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Original reporting in Uyghur by Medine. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/uyghur-youth-04232010111100.html
Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved

Friday, April 16, 2010

Links to Kyrgyzstan Cut

-Chinese officials shut down transportation services between northwestern China and Kyrgyzstan.


HONG KONG—Road and public transportation links have been suspended between China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang and neighboring Kyrgyzstan, where the president was ousted last week following deadly riots across the country, residents said.

"After the riots in Kyrgyzstan, the international bus service running from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) to Kyrgyzstan has been suspended," said a resident of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, who is a member of the Turkic-speaking and mostly Muslim Uyghur minority who live in Xinjiang.

"The Xinjiang foreign transport department and road transport authority has been suspended until Kyrgyzstan's international transport operations resume," said Bishkek-based Uyghur Azat Khasim.

"Uyghur traders have expressed concern and a general hope for long-term stability in Kyrgyzstan," he said.

As many as 4,000 Uyghur businessmen and women reside in Kyrgyzstan, while Bishkek's Madina Bazaar is home to around 2,000 Uyghur traders, Khasim said.

According to official Kyrgyz statistics, an estimated 50,000 Uyghurs live in Kyrgyzstan, although some Uyghur groups put the number as high as 250,000.

Khasim said the Kyrgyz capital had returned more or less to normal life this week following several days of rioting, looting and clashes between opposition supporters and security forces.

"The situation in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek has gradually become calm," Azat Khasim said. "From the 12th onwards all the banks and schools are re-opening."

"More of the Uyghur markets and restaurants are re-opening, too," he said.

A Turkish resident of Bishkek said that some Turkish businesses had suffered damage in last week's unrest.

Khasim said that one ethnic Uyghur resident of Bishkek, Parhat Ahmad, was killed during last week's violence, which saw the ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who remained defiant Tuesday, addressing a 3,000-strong rally in his native town of Dzhalal-Abad.

Bakiyev says that the opposition had been preparing a coup for a long time.

"I do not recognize these actions," Bakiyev told Russian media. "I was elected by the people of Kyrgyzstan. That is why what this interim government adopts is illegitimate."

Strong ties

Kyrgyzstan and China share a 1,000 kilometer land border, with two main border crossings at the Irkestan and Torugart passes.

The XUAR's exports to Kyrgyzstan were valued at around U.S. $2.97 billion in 2009, with Kyrgyzstan replacing Kazakhstan for the first time as the number-one export market for the Uyghur region.

According to the World Trade Organization, Kyrgyzstan imported U.S. $14.7 billion in goods from China in 2008.

Khasim said that some Han Chinese shops were looted and burned during the unrest in the Goyong and Tatan areas.

"Only one Uyghur restaurant was looted and burned," he added. "Its name is Haway."

Thousands of angry supporters of Bakiyev heard him deliver a fiery speech in his stronghold of Jalalabad in a defiant rebuttal to the interim government of Roza Otunbayeva, which has demanded his arrest.

While the interim government blames Bakiyev for the bloodshed, the ousted leader and his supporters insist it was the fault of the anti-Bakiyev forces who have seized power in Bishkek.

Assistant Secretary Robert Blake said at a briefing at the U.S. State Department Monday that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had pledged U.S. support for the "efforts of the Kyrgyz administration to resolve peacefully Kyrgyzstan’s current political problems and renew its path to democracy and prosperity and human rights."

Blake was to arrive in Kyrgyzstan early on Wednesday to meet with members of Kyrgyzstan’s provisional government to listen to steps they plan to take in organizing democratic elections during the course of their six-month interim administration.

Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian country which emerged as an independent nation following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, is divided along ethnic, class, and clan lines.

The Tian Shan, or Tengritagh, mountains mark a sharp divide between the rural southerners—who are more religiously and culturally conservative—and the Russian-leaning north, which includes the capital, Bishkek.

The same mountain range extends across the border into the Uyghur homeland of Xinjiang.

China has voiced concern about events in the neighboring republic, saying it is "deeply concerned" about the situation in Kyrgyzstan, which borders its troubled Muslim region of Xinjiang in the northwest.

Chinese official media have given full coverage to the unrest, and Internet news reports and commentary on the topic have remained apparently uncensored.

Original reporting in Uyghur by Mehriban. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/kyrgyzstan-04132010105126.html
Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Pakistan Uyghurs in Hiding

2010-04-06
Brothers blame raids and arrests on pressure from China.


RFA

Omer Khan observes the 12th anniversary of the Ghulja Massacre, Feb. 5, 2009.

HONG KONG—Two prominent members of the exiled Turkic-speaking Uyghur community, many of whom oppose Chinese rule in their homeland, are on the run from the authorities following police raids on their homes.

Omer and Akbar Khan, who co-founded a charity to teach Pakistani Uyghurs their own language in the northern city of Rawalpindi, said they had fled from police after neighbors told them their close relatives had been detained for several hours.

"We didn't do anything wrong, but we have decided to stay away from the police for some time, because of the unknown fate of two other guys [we know]," said Omer Khan, 35, who recently applied for a Belgian visa to attend a training program for Uyghur activists outside China.

"A few other Uyghurs were arrested and disappeared last year," Omer Khan said.

Police detained the Khans' 52-year-old father and 50-year-old mother, along with their two younger brothers, aged 15 and 18, according to a Uyghur source who asked not to be named.

According to a neighbor, the Khan family was released after 10 hours in detention.

"The raid was so harsh," one neighbor said.

"The two brothers' faces were forcibly covered as they were being pushed to the police car."

Pressure from China

The brothers blame China, rather than their adopted homeland, and say the raid came in response to pressure from Beijing on the Pakistani authorities to step up pressure on Uyghur exiles, many of whom are vocal campaigners for independence for the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

"We believe that all this is happening under instructions from the Chinese government," Akbar Khan said.

The brothers said Pakistani authorities also detained Abdul Haliq, 29, on March 22, while Memet Rozi, 80, and Eneyetullah, 28, were detained March 26.

Omer Khan, who said his house was searched March 31, added: "They don’t like Uyghurs to undertake organized and established activities, whether they are social, cultural, or political."

He said the Khan brothers were in regular communication with the president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, Rebiya Kadeer.

"Ms. Kadeer always encourages us to protect our national identity. Maybe this also makes the Chinese government upset," Omer Khan said.

Training planned


The Omer Trust charity organization sets up a relief tent to help feed and provide support to war refugees after the Taliban occupied northern Pakistan, May 27, 2009. Credit: RFA The Khan brothers had planned to attend a meeting in Belgium from April 25-27 which offered training for Uyghur activists around the world.

"This also may have made the Chinese government upset. In short, being a Uyghur makes the Chinese government uncomfortable," Omer Khan said.

He said those Uyghurs already detained in Pakistan had all been close to Kadeer, whom Beijing blames for instigating deadly ethnic riots in the regional capital of Urumqi last July.

Pakistan is home to around 1,000 Uyghur families, mostly those who left China during the 1950s and 60s.

Last December, Xinjiang authorities detained Pakistani Uyghur Kamirdin Abdurahman on suspicion of "harming public order," before asking him to infiltrate Uyghur groups back in Pakistan.

Uyghur exiles fear surveillance once they leave China, especially if they have left family behind, and they say their fears have worsened since deadly ethnic riots last July—which prompted a major security crackdown.

Xinjiang has been plagued in recent years by bombings, attacks, and riots that Chinese authorities blame on Uyghur separatists.

Cambodian case

Cambodian authorities in December returned to China a group of ethnic Uyghurs who had sought political asylum, despite international concern that they could face torture and execution for allegedly taking part in deadly ethnic riots in China this year.

Rights groups, which urged Phnom Penh to stop the deportations, say Cambodia is bound by a 1951 convention on refugees pledging not to return asylum-seekers to countries where they will face persecution.

Cambodia has already received more than U.S. $1 billion in foreign direct investment from China, which in October agreed to provide U.S. $853 million in loans to the impoverished country for dams, infrastructure, and irrigation projects.

The Chinese government has detained hundreds of Uyghurs, and at least 43 Uyghur men have disappeared in the wake of ethnic violence that erupted in Urumqi on July 5, according to Human Rights Watch, which says the actual number of disappearances is likely far higher.

Nearly 200 people were killed in the clashes, by the Chinese government’s tally. Twelve people have since been sentenced to death in connection with the violence.

Uyghurs, a distinct and mostly Muslim ethnic group, have long complained of religious, political, and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities, and tensions have simmered in the Xinjiang region for years.

Original reporting by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur service. Translated by Zubeyra Shemshidin. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/pakistan-uyghur-04062010143250.html
Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

Sunday, April 4, 2010


Sherqiy Türkistan Sürgündiki Hökümitining Bayanati
- Barin Inqilawining 20 Yilliqini Hatirleymiz



Sherqiy Türkistanning 60 yildin béri Xitay tajawuzchilliri teripidin bésiwélinghan bir dölet ikenlikini dunyagha küchlük bir shekilde tonutqan yüzligen herketlirimizning biri dunyagha meshhur Barin Inqilawidur. Igilmes-sunmas Sherqiy Türkistan xelqi Xitaylarning toluq mustemlikisige uchrighan 60 yildin béri özlirinng heq-adalet we höriyetke érishish üchün élip bériwatqan küreshlirini bir minutmu toxtatqini yoq. 1990-yili 5-Aprilda Sherqiy Türkistanda Xitay mustemlikichillirige qarshi küresh yéngi bir dolqungha kötürülüp, Barin yézisida milliy zulumgha qarshi keng-kölemlik Barin Inqilawi partilidi.Bu Xitay tajawuzchillirining yérim esirdin artuq waqittin béri Sherqiy Türkistanda yürgüziwatqan chékidin ashqan milliy zulumlirining muqerer netijisi boldi.

U qétimqi küreshke Sherqiy Türkistan jemiyitini teshkil qilidighan Ziyalilar, Diniy ölimalar, Puldar tijaretchiler, Memurlar, Déhqanlar, Charwichilar we Sheher ahalisi birdek ishtirak qilghan bolup, ular 7 yashtin 70 yashqiche qozghulup, Sherqiy Türkistan xelqining qul bolmaydighanliqini, Uyghur xelqining zulumgha tiz pükmigenlikini, azatliq we musteqilliq üchün élip bériliwatqan küreshlirimizning menggü toxtap qalmaydighanliqini dunyagha yene bir qétim debdebe bilen jakarlidi.

Barin Inqilawi yüz bergendin kéyin Xitay tajawuzchilliri Sherqiy Türkistanni menggülük ishghaliyitide saqlap qélish, Uyghur we uning qérindashlirini millet süpitide tarix sehipisidin öchüriwitish shirin chüshidin oyghunup, bir milletni we bir medeniyetni yoq qiliwétishning undaq asan ish emeslikini ésige élishqa bejbur boldi. Barin inqilawi qanliq basturulup, teshkillügichilliri siyasiy jehettin qattiq éghir jazalargha uchrap yoq qiliwétilgen bolsimu, buningdin 20 yil awal ortigha chiqqan bu inqilapning uchqunliri wetinimizning bulung-pushqaqliri we pütün dunyagha chachrap, ot déngizi shekillendürdi. Barin Inqilawi yoqarqidek alahiyidilikliri bilen Dunya Tarixi Jümlidin Sherqiy Türkistan tarixigha altun hel bilen yézildi.

Barin inqilawi rehberlik kommititi mukemmel bolghan siyasiy ghaye we teshkiliy programmigha ige bir qétimliq xeliq herkiti bolup, u Sherqiy Türkistanda yüz bérip turidighan Xitay tajawuzchillirigha qarshi istixiyilik we dogma shekilde ortigha chiqidighan yüzligen herketlerning ichide siyasiy ghayisining keskin we toghra otturgha qoyulishi, yaman süpetlik xelqara tesirlerdin we düshmen küchlerning buzghunchiliqidin asasen dégüdek xaliyliqi, teshkily qurulmisining puxtiliqi, istratigiye we taktika jehetlerdin zamaniwiylashqa qarap yüzlengenliki, hés-hayajangha bérilip ish qilishtin Inqilap nezeriyesi, eskiriy bilim, téxnika we teshkilatlinishqa alahiyde köngül bölgenlikidek bir qatar alahiyidilikliri bilen qarangghuluq qaplighan milliy azatliq herkitimizge quyashtek nur chéchip, tajawuzchi Xitaylargha untulghusiz qaxshatquch zerbe bergenidi.

Biz Sherqiy Türkistan Sürgündiki Hökümiti bolush süpitimiz bilen, Barin Inqilawining 20 yilliqini qizghin tebrikleymiz, we Barin inqilawiy sewebidin qurban bolghan milliy qehrimanlirimizning rohiygha shadliq, aile twabatlirigha sewir we shukuraniler tileymiz. Barin Inqilawida gerche Sherqiy Türkistandin Xitay Tajawuzchillirini qoghlap chiqirip, wetinimizni üzil-késil musteqilliqqa érishtürüshtin ibaret büyük meqsetke yételmigen we 10 minglighan qérindishimizdin ayrilip qalghan bolsaqmu, u inqilapning büyük siyasiy ghaysi we milliy qehrimanlirimizning küresh iradisi qelbimizde menggü yashnaydu.

Barin Shéhidlirining rohi shad bolsun!
Düshmenler her-terepte mat bolsun!

S.T.S.H Kultur we Teshwiqat Menistirliki

Korash Atahan
Email:Uyghurorgan@gmail.com
Tel:+157-75-38-38-06

Thursday, April 1, 2010

China Casts Veil Over Executions
2010-03-31



The country is believed to be the world's leading executioner.


AFP

Graphic showing number of known executions around the world following report by Amnesty International condemning widescale capital punishment in China.
(enlarge image)

HONG KONG—China's ruling Communist Party has declined in recent years to make public the number of people it executes every year, in spite of challenges from international human rights groups.

According to Harry Wu, founder of the U.S.-based Laogai Foundation, which produced evidence of extensive organ harvesting from executed prisoners, recent years have seen executions transformed from a spectator sport into a state secret, carried out behind closed doors.

"The Chinese Communist Party in the past always regarded executions as positive news," Wu said. "The suppression of evil elements was regarded as a cause for celebration."



Overview of the death penalty for 2009
© Amnesty International

Amnesty International on Tuesday called on Beijing to reveal how many people they execute and sentence to death, as the organization published its world overview of the death penalty for 2009.

It said thousands of executions "were likely to have taken place" in China, where information on the death penalty remains a state secret.

The group said that estimates based on publicly available information grossly under-represented the actual number of people killed by the state or sentenced to death.

"The death penalty is cruel and degrading, and an affront to human dignity," Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International's Interim Secretary General, said in a statement on the group's Web site.

"The Chinese authorities claim that fewer executions are taking place. If this is true, why won't they tell the world how many people the state put to death?"

Slow reforms

Hospital employees in the southern province of Guangdong indicated a roaring trade in organs for transplant in interviews in 2005, boasting that a liver could be available in as short a time as a week, with one nurse saying that "most" were taken from executed prisoners.

"They would always execute a bunch of people on the eve of a major festival as a public spectacle," Wu said. "This was seen as something the ordinary people like to see, and as a basic method of keeping down the number of criminal offences and counterrevolutionary acts."

Chinese courts then moved to putting up a notice for a single day, following new guidelines in 2002, Wu said.

"Then they stopped even putting those up. They don't even inform the relatives now," he said. "And now they no longer announce the numbers of those who have been killed."

Deputy director of Amnesty International's Asia Pacific division, Roseann Rife, said it should be remembered that China's officially published execution figures may be less than the true number of executions carried out.

But she said China had reported fewer executions since new guidelines on the use of the death penalty were issued by the country's Supreme Court. She also called on Beijing to make its execution figures public.

'Miscarriages of justice'

Beijing-based rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who attended the United Nations’ Fourth World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Geneva in February, said the fact that China's judicial system still lacks political independence is a cause for grave concern.

"When judges and courts handle cases, they are unable to proceed according to their own understanding of the law," Jiang said.

"What's more, China engages in proactive law-enforcement tactics, which means that if something happens, they will go on a campaign to 'strike hard' [at such crimes]."

"It's very easy for miscarriages of justice to occur under wave after wave of campaign-style law-enforcement," Jiang said.

He said China would be unlikely to abolish the death penalty while it is still under single-party rule, since moves to abolish the death penalty are linked to respect for human rights and democracy.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong-based Joint Committee for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, whose members include Amnesty International Hong Kong, Community of Sant'Egidio, and the Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese, said nearly 130 Hong Kong citizens had been executed in mainland China in the past decade, all for nonviolent crimes.

"Out of these, more than 80 were executed for drug-trafficking offenses," Ke Enen said.

"We call on China at least to reform its use of the death penalty, even if it is unable to abolish it yet, and to abolish the use of the death penalty for economic and nonviolent crimes."

Amnesty International's report, Death Sentences and Executions in 2009, reveals that at least 714 people were executed in 18 countries and at least 2,001 people were sentenced to death in 56 countries last year.

Original reporting in Cantonese by Grace Kei Lai-see, and in Mandarin by Xi Wang. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/executions-03312010130242.html
Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.