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WORLD UYGHUR
CONGRESS CONDEMNS OUTRAGES ACTS OF THE SWISS
POLICE
For Immediate Release
World Uyghur Congress
Contact: Dilxat Rexit
Email:
uygur52@hotmail.com
The World Uyghur Congress
(WUC) strongly condemn the outrageous acts of Swiss
Police Officers in respect to Mr. Dolkun Isa, the
General Secretary of the WUC.
Mr. Isa travelled from Munich, Germany, to Geneva,
Switzerland along with some of his countrymen in order
to take part in the sanctioned demonstration organized
by the Tibetan Community in front of the United
Nations building on April 7, 2005, at 13:30. The
principle purpose of the demonstration was to attract
the attention of the international community to the
grave human rights situation in China. Mr. Isa was
officially the WUC in the capacity of democratically
elected General Secretary. I would like to note that
the WUC is the umbrella organization of all Uyghur
people living abroad. The Congress was incorporated
according to the German legislation on January 20,
2005, in Munich, Germany, Registration Number VR
18781. Uyghur’s are the indigenous people of Eastern
Turkestan, also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region, in Northwest China.
By the end of peaceful manifestation around 17:00 p.m.
Mr. Dolkun and his countrymen were surrounded by the
Swiss civilian policemen as they were entering the car.
The police officers asked Mr. Dolkun Isa to show them
his ID card. They then asked that he steps out from
the car and follow them to the police station for
questioning . The ID’s of the other Uyghurs sitting in
the car were not checked. This fact demonstrates that
the police officers were purposefully looking for
Dolkun Isa.
The policemen did not give any explanations for Mr.
Isa’s detention which was a violation of his right to
liberty and security. Mr. Isa was taken to the police
station at 17 Bouleauard Carl Vogt, 1207, Geneva.
Please note that despite Mr. Isa’s requests, the
address of the police station was not givin to him. He
could find out the address on his own only after he
was released.
At the police station, Mr. Isa was treated like an
ordinary criminal. He was dumped into a room and
locked up ; until his finger prints and photographs
were later taken. Mr. Isa’s request for legal
assistance was denied without any reasonable
explanations. Mr. Isa was later taken for a long
interrogation and subsequently locked up again.
After some time, the inerrogater came into the room
and asked Mr. Isa to sign his statement written in
French. Mr. Isa refused to sign the document arguing
that he cannot read, speak and understand French. The
police officer’s response was-?You sign it or you sit
here forever? Mr. Isa was forced to sign the statement
after being roughly threatened by the policeman. The
officers refused to provide him with any copy of the
signed statement, constituting and infringement of
procedural norms and the rights of detained persons.
During the entire time of detention, the Swiss police
officers did not communicate with the German
authorities, never asking for any clarification of the
situation. They ignored Mr. Isa’s assertion that the
Bavarian authorities would be able to elucidate the
outstanding matters or doubts the Swiss police may
have had with regard to Mr. Isa’s activity. Mr. Isa,
an ethnic Uyghur, left his motherland in December
1996. He came to Munich, Germany to seek political
asylum that was granted to him on February 1997. Mr.
Isa holds a German travel document while his
application on German citizenship is under
consideration.
It is deplorable that such an outrageous incident took
place in the “capital?of human rights advocacy. The
inhumane treatment and groundless abuse of human
rights occurred in Geneva ?in a democratic country,
location of the UN Human Rights Bodies, where
thousands of oppressed people come to lobby for their
fundamental human rights. Suffice it to say that Mr.
Isa was faced with flagrant violation of his civil and
political rights, including the right to liberty and
security, access to legal counsel and an official
interpreter, the right to humane treatment, and the
right to informed promptly on the grounds of detention.
The arbitrary detention of Mr. Isa in Geneva by the
Swiss police demonstrates that the Chinese government
is exerting undue influence on the Swiss government to
persecute the Uyghur people on its behalf.
In conclusion , I would like to express on behalf of
the WUC our complaint against the groundless detention
of Mr. Isa and the deprivation of his fundamental
human rights in breach of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, to which Switzerland
has been a party ince June 1992.
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