|
INCREASE OF CHINESE
REPRESSION IN EAST-TURKESTAN: THE CASE OF Mrs REBIYA
KADEER
Brussels, July 9, 2002. Rebiya Kadeer,
a businesswoman, is one of the most prominent members
of the Uighur people in the occupied region of East
Turkestan (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region). She has
made significant contributions to securing women's
rights in China and founded the "Thousand Mothers
Movement" to promote employment for Uighur women. The
Chinese government itself has recognized her
contributions by appointing her to its delegation for
the 1995 United Nations World Conference on Women in
Beijing. Two years after the Beijing Conference,
however, officials confiscated her passport. Police
harassment followed, placing further restrictions on
her movements. The Chinese authorities were attempting
to silence her husband, an outspoken critic of the
government living abroad, by intimidating her. In
august 1999, while she had an appointment to discuss
Human Rights issues with delegates from the U.S.
Congressional Research Service, Chinese authorities
arrested her and took her to a local prison notorious
for torture. In September 1999, the government charged
Rebiya Kadeer with "providing secret information to
foreigners," although the "secrets" turned out to be
publicly available in local newspapers in her
possession. Following a trial held in secret, a
Chinese court sentenced her to eight years'
imprisonment. Her secretary, arrested shortly after
she was taken into custody, received a three-year term
of "re-education through labor" for his association
with her. He was reportedly beaten in custody and is
now in poor health.
Question to the EU Commission of Olivier Dupuis,
member of the European Parliament, radical
“What are the information that the Commission can
provide about the situation of Mrs Kadeer and her
secretary ? What kind of inititives has the Commission
undertaken or will undertake to obtain from the
Chinese authorities the immediate and unconditional
relase of these prisonners of conscience, the respect
of the foundamental rights and freedoms of the People
of East Turkestan and the opening of negociations
between the Chinese government and representatives of
the Uyghur people, including the East Turkestan (Uyghuristan)
National Congress (ETNC), a democratic umbrella
organisation which seeks peacefull political solution
to the problem in view of a political and equitable
solution of the issue of occupied East Turkestan ?
Furthermore can the Commission assure the European
Parliament that no programm financed by the EU in the
occupied East Turkestan is used by Beijing to increase
or implement the policy of colonization, repression,
destruction and apartheid imposed against the Uighur
People by the Chinese authorities since their invasion
and occupation of Turkestan in 1949 ?”
www.radicalparty.org
|
