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China convicts 20 Uighurs of
'separatism', one executed
BEIJING, July 26 (AFP) - Twenty Uighurs
aged 15 to 30 were convicted of
"separatism" and "manufacture and storage of illegal
weapons" by a court in Xinjiang region, and one of
them has been executed, a court official as well as a
Uighur organisation in exile said Monday.
Idris Kadir, 29, was executed on July 19 according to
the East Turkestan Information Centre (ETIC) based in
Germany.
East Turkestan is the name
pro-independence groups in Xinjiang use for the state
they want carved out of the region in northwest China.
The
youths "want to split the country", said a court
official in Kargilik district, who confirmed to AFP
that the convictions had taken place.
"They appealed the convictions but the
appeals were rejected on July 19.
The main accused was executed the same
day," said the official, who declined to give his
name.
The other 19 received sentences of
three to 10 years in prison.
The only woman in the group, Biya Turpu,
was handed five years in jail for "acting as a cook
for the Party of Islam and serving as their contact",
the ETIC statement said.
Other youths in the region of Aksu were
arrested because of their links to the banned party,
the centre also said.
A man named Abdullah Halili was also
arrested near Artux, in the westernmost part of
Xinjiang, for "leading a underground political
organisation," ETIC said.
Amnesty International said earlier this
month that China was using the global war on terror to
justify repression of its Uighur community who face
torture and execution when forcibly returned from
neighbouring countries.
"China has repackaged its repression of
Uighurs as a fight against 'terrorism'," the
London-based human rights organisation said in the
report.
"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."
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