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AI Index: ASA 17/040/2003 (Public)
News Service No: 288
19 December 2003
China: International community
must oppose attempt to brand peaceful political
activists as "terrorists"
China's publication
earlier this week of a wanted list of ethnic Uighur "terrorists"
abroad and its call for their arrest and extradition
appears to be a renewed attempt to curb the political
activities of Uighur activists outside China and
garner international support for its ongoing crackdown
in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR),
Amnesty International said today.
The official document published by the Chinese
Ministry of Public Security on Monday listed four
Uighur groups as "terrorist organizations". They
include the World Uighur Youth Congress (WUYC) and the
East Turkistan Information Center (ETIC). Both are
political groups based in Germany which publicize
reports of ongoing abuses against Uighurs in China and
advocate self-determination or independence for the
region.
The statement also listed eleven individuals as
alleged "terrorists", including the presidents of WUYC
and ETIC. All are living abroad and the Chinese
authorities have called on other states to arrest and
extradite them to China.
"This latest move appears to be a renewed attempt to
silence the voices of Uighur activists abroad by
branding their political activities as "terrorism",
Amnesty International said.
The wanted list has been published amid a renewed
100-day security crackdown in the XUAR in the context
of the government's ongoing repression of "ethnic
separatist activities" in the region. The authorities
continue to make little or no distinction between
violent opposition and the peaceful exercise of the
right to freedom of _expression, association and
religion. China considers any advocacy for greater
autonomy or independence as "ethnic separatism" which
qualifies as a State Security crime under Chinese laws.
Several hundred Uighurs accused of involvement in such
activities have been executed since the mid-1990s,
thousands of others have been detained, imprisoned
after unfair trials and tortured, and growing
restrictions have been placed on the Islamic clergy
and the practice of Islam in the region.
"Lumping together peaceful acts of protest with acts
of 'terrorism' is a clear attempt by the Chinese
authorities to whip up international support for its
efforts to brutally suppress all forms of dissent in
Xinjiang," Amnesty International said.
The call for international cooperation in targeting
Uighur dissidents abroad follows China's attempts in
recent years to put pressure on neighbouring countries
to forcibly return Uighurs accused of "separatist" or
"terrorist" activities. Several Uighurs have been
forcibly returned from a number of countries,
including Nepal and Pakistan as well as Central Asian
countries. Some of those returned had been recognized
as refugees.
In October, it was reported in the official Chinese
media that Shaheer Ali, a Uighur pro-independence
activist who was forcibly returned to China from Nepal
last year, had been executed after being convicted in
an apparently unfair trial of various offences
including "separatism" and "organizing and leading a
terrorist organization." He had been recognized as a
refugee by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Nepal and was
awaiting resettlement to a third country before his
arrest and deportation.
Shaheer Ali was accused of leading the East Turkistan
Islamic Party of Allah, also known as the East
Turkistan Islamic Party or the East Turkistan Islamic
Movement (ETIM). ETIM had been classified as a "terrorist"
organization by the US and the UN last year at China's
behest and was also included on the list published
Monday.
Among other accusations, the Chinese authorities have
linked this group to the Gulja (Yining) incident of 5
February 1997 which has officially been described as a
"serious riot during which the terrorists shouted
slogans calling for the establishment of an Islamic
Kingdom." Numerous independent eyewitness reports
indicate that the incident was in fact a peaceful
demonstration by local people calling for equal
treatment for Uighurs which degenerated into violence
after security forces fired into the crowd in an
attempt to forcibly disperse the protesters. Hundreds
were arrested in the aftermath and many were subjected
to torture and ill-treatment, including being hosed
down with icy water which caused serious cases of
frostbite.
While Amnesty International does not dispute that some
Uighur groups or individuals may have been responsible
for criminal acts, including acts of violence, the
organization calls on other states to treat China's
requests for extradition with extreme caution and
ensure that the basis for such requests are given the
most thorough scrutiny.
"Even if extradition requests are substantiated, the
risk of torture and execution faced by Uighur
pro-independence supporters in China means that no one
should be returned against their will," Amnesty
International said.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International issued an
urgent action in response to reports that the US and
the Chinese authorities were quietly discussing the
return of Uighurs currently held in the US naval base
in Guantánamo Bay. They are believed to have been
taken into custody in Afghanistan in late 2001. The
organization repeats its calls to the US not to return
the Uighurs to China.
Public Document
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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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