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China: Amnesty International
calls for release of businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer and
other Uighur prisoners of conscience
9 August 2002
On Sunday 11 August, ethnic Uighur businesswoman,
Rebiya Kadeer will have been detained for exactly
three years simply for sending newspapers to her
husband in the USA. She is believed to be in poor
health and Amnesty International is once again calling
for her to be freed together with all other prisoners
of conscience in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
Region (XUAR).
Following her detention on 11 August 1999, Rebiya
Kadeer was charged with 'providing secret information
to foreigners'. She was convicted and sentenced to
eight years in prison in March 2000. Her only 'crime'
was to send publicly available newspapers to her
husband in the United States.
"Rebiya Kadeer is a prisoner of conscience and should
be released immediately and unconditionally," Amnesty
International said.
This month Amnesty International also issued an
international appeal for the release of Uighur
historian, Tohti Tunyaz (who writes as Tohti Muzart).
Like Rebiya Kadeer, he was detained on 'state secrets'
charges after carrying out academic research into
Uighur history in the XUAR. He was arrested in
February 1998 and sentenced to 11 years in prison in
March 1999 for "inciting separatism" and "illegally
acquiring state secrets".
Prisons in the XUAR are notoriously harsh, with poor
food, inadequate sanitation, and poor standards of
medical treatment. Rebiya Kadeer's health has
reportedly deteriorated over the last few months.
"If the Chinese authorities are not prepared to free
Rebiya Kadeer unconditionally, they could at least
consider releasing her on medical grounds for
humanitarian reasons," Amnesty International added.
Political repression has increased over the last year
in the context of the "strike hard" campaign against
crime launched in April 2001, which in the XUAR has
been targeted at so-called "religious extremists" and
"ethnic separatists".
The crackdown in the region has intensified further
since the attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001,
with pro-independence supporters being branded as 'separatists'
or 'terrorists'. Uighurs, who are predominantly
Muslim, have been the main target:- mosques have been
closed down, Islamic clergy have been detained, and
Uighur books have been burnt. Freedom of expression
and association have been severely restricted and
thousands of people remain imprisoned across the
region as political prisoners or prisoners of
conscience.
"Jailing community leaders and intellectuals on
trumped up 'state secrets' charges and repressing
Uighur culture has nothing to do with combatting 'terrorism',"
Amnesty International said. "It is a systematic denial
of basic human rights."
For further information, on the case of Rebiya Kadeer,
please see :
http://www.amnestyusa.org/action/special/kadeer.html
For further information on the case of Tohti Tunyaz,
please see:
"China: Uighur historian behind bars" at: http://www.amnesty.org
For further information on repression in XUAR, please
see:
http://www.web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/asa170102002
Public Document
For more information please call Amnesty
International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20
7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW.
web: http://www.amnesty.org
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