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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: ASA 17/032/2004 (Public)
News Service No: 164
Embargo Date: 7 July 2004
01:00
GMT
China: Fleeing Uighurs forced back to "anti-terror"
torture and execution
China is using the "war on terror" to justify its
longstanding repression of the rights of the Uighur
community, according to a new report by Amnesty
International. Many Uighurs flee to neighbouring
countries, but growing numbers are being forcibly
returned to China where they face torture and
execution.
"China has repackaged its repression of
Uighurs as a fight against 'terrorism'," said Amnesty
International. "Since the 11 September 2001 attacks on
the USA, the Chinese government has been using
"anti-terrorism" as a pretext to increase its
crackdown on all forms of political or religious
dissent in the region."
Over the last three years, tens of thousands
of people are reported to have been detained on
grounds of "anti-terrorism" in the Xinjiang Uighur
Automonous Region (XUAR), north-west China. This is
despite the claim by the head of the regional
government in April that "not one incident of
explosion or assassination took place in the last few
years".
The Chinese government continues to detain
prisoners of conscience -- who have never used or
advocated violence -- showing that China's policies of
repression in the region stretch far beyond combating
acts of violence or "terrorism".
One prisoner of conscience, Rebiya Kadeer, 57,
used to be celebrated as a model businesswoman by the
Chinese government: she was part of the official
delegation to the UN World Conference on Women in
1995. Then in 2000 the mother of eleven was sentenced
in a secret trial to eight years in prison for
"providing secret information to foreigners". It
turned out she had sent publicly available local
newspapers to her husband, a former political prisoner
who went to live in the USA. Rebiya Kadeer now suffers
chronic gastritis and is on daily medication in
prison. Amnesty International welcomes the reduction
in her sentence by one year announced in March, but
continues to call for her immediate and unconditional
release.
The government has also shut down a number of
mosques and banned some religious schools and
practices, as it tightens restrictions on the
religious rights of Uighurs, most of whom are Muslims.
As well as sweeping restrictions on religious,
cultural and social rights, suspected "separatists,
terrorists or religious extremists" have for years
faced imprisonment or execution after unfair trials,
as well as torture and long-term detention without
charge or trial or access to lawyers or family.
"At current levels of repression, the space
for independent expression of Uighur cultural or
religious identity is narrowing dangerously", said
Amnesty International.
Many Uighurs choose to flee to neighbouring
countries, such as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakstan, Nepal and
Pakistan. But even then they are not safe, as the
Chinese government pressures such countries to
forcibly return the asylum-seekers. Back in China,
they face serious human rights violations, including
torture, unfair trials, and even execution.
In one recent case, Shaheer Ali was executed
in China after being forcibly returned from Nepal even
after he had been recognised as a refugee by the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees in Nepal. The Uighur
activist had been awaiting resettlement when he was
detained by Nepalese immigration. According to one
eyewitness, he was later taken away with at least one
other detainee by officials from the Chinese embassy
in Nepal.
While in Nepal, Shaheer Ali described eight
months of torture in a XUAR prison in 1994. He said he
was beaten with shackles, given electric shocks, and
had metal nails pushed under his toenails in an
attempt to make him confess to various offences.
A US official recently stated 22 Uighurs held
in Guantanamo Bay could not be returned to China,
apparently because of fears they would be tortured or
even executed there. Amnesty International has
received credible allegations that during a visit to
Guantanamo by a Chinese delegation the Uighurs were
subjected to intimidation and threats and "stress and
duress" techniques such as sleep deprivation and
forced sitting for many hours. Some of this abuse
allegedly occurred on the instructions of the Chinese
delegates.
Background
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Ongoing ethnic tensions in the XUAR are fed by the
failure of the Chinese government to address
widespread violations of Uighurs' civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights. For example,
the continuing influx of Han Chinese into the region
has increased the level of high unemployment among
Uighurs. There are increasing reports of Han Chinese
property developers forcing Uighurs from their land.
Tens of thousands of Uighur books have been banned
and burned and Uighur has been banned as a teaching
language for most subjects in Xinjiang University.
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Even if they are not party to the Refugee
Convention, all countries are bound by the
principle of non-refoulement, which bars
all states from returning individuals to a country
where their lives or liberty are at risk or where
they are likely to face torture. This is a
fundamental principle of customary international
law.
To see the full report, People's Republic of
China: Uighurs fleeing persecution as China wages
its "war on terror",
please go to:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-chn/index
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