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Amnesty International:
Urgent Action on fear of imminent execution of 50
people in Xinjiang
PUBLIC AI Index: ASA 17/046/2004
15 September 2004
UA 264/04 Fear of imminent execution
CHINA 50 unnamed people
More than 50 people are reported to have been
sentenced to death for "separatist and terrorist"
activities during the first eight months of this year
in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR),
northwest China. They might be executed at any time.
According to a report from the Reuters news agency on
13 September, the Secretary of the Regional Communist
Party Committee, Wang Lequan, told visiting
journalists that none of those sentenced had yet been
executed. He claimed that they had been detained in
the context of a security crackdown on 22 groups
involved in "separatist and terrorist" activities. He
added: "Due to the fact that the activities of
international terrorist forces are rampant, we believe
our fight against the crime of violent terrorists will
continue for a long time to come. Our efforts will
exist as long as there are terrorist crimes."
No further information has been made public about the
circumstances of their trials or the evidence used to
convict them. Their conditions of detention before
their trials are unknown and it remains unclear
whether they had access to legal representation.
In July and August this year, it was reported that
four Uighurs, Kuerban Tudaji, Idris Kadir, Aihe
Maititashi and Luoheman Maimaiti had been executed in
three separate cases, all for "separatist" or "terrorist"
activities. Amnesty International is deeply concerned
that they are unlikely to have received a fair trial
under international human rights standards.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
China's ongoing political crackdown on the so-called "three
evil forces" of "separatists, terrorists and religious
extremists" is continuing to result in serious and
widespread human rights violations directed against
the mainly Muslim Uighur community in the XUAR – the
only part of China where people are regularly
sentenced to death for political crimes. The Chinese
government's use of the term "separatism" refers to a
broad range of activities, many of which amount to no
more than peaceful opposition or dissent, or the
peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of religion.
The human rights situation in the region has
deteriorated further following the events of 11
September 2001, as China uses the international "war
on terror" as a pretext to justify its policies of
repression in the region. Over the last three years,
tens of thousands of people are reported to have been
detained for investigation in the region and hundreds,
possibly thousands, have been charged or sentenced
under the Criminal Law. Reports indicate that Uighurs
detained on suspicion of "separatist" or "terrorist"
offences are often detained without access to lawyers
or their families and are at high risk of torture or
ill-treatment in custody.
Ongoing ethnic tensions in the XUAR are fed by the
failure of the Chinese authorities 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 Uighurs books have been banned and burned
and Uighur has been banned as a teaching language for
most subjects in Xinjiang University. For further
information, please see Uighurs fleeing persecution as
China wages its "war on terror", AI Index: ASA
17/021/2004, July 2004.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive
as quickly as possible, in Chinese, English or your
own language:
- calling on the authorities to stay the execution and
commute the sentences of the 50 or more people who are
reported to have been sentenced to death in XUAR
province since January 2004;
- urging the authorities to make public their names
and whereabouts and issue immediate guarantees for
their safety;
- calling on the authorities to review their trials
and demanding that, if inadequacies are found, they
are either retried in accordance with international
fair trial standards or released;
- calling for an immediate moratorium on the use of
the death penalty in China.
APPEALS TO:
Chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region
People's Government
Ismail Tiliwaldi
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu
2 Zhongshanlu
Wulumuqishi 830041
Xinijiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People's Republic of China
E-mail: webmaster@xinjiang.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Chairman
Premier of the People's Republic of China
Wen Jiabao
Guowuyuan
9 Xihuangchenggengbeijie
Beijingshi 100032
People's Republic of China
Fax: + 86 10 6596 3374
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
Secretary of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regional
Party Committee
Wang Lequan
Zhonggong Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
Weiyuanhui
Wulumuqishi
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People's Republic of China
Salutation: Dear Secretary
and to diplomatic representatives of China accredited
to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the
International Secretariat, or your section office, if
sending appeals after 27 October 2004. Internet
communications are not secure and therefore Amnesty
International Ltd does not
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