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Uyghur exile group calls on Merkel
to lobby Wen for their rights
Munich- The World Uyghur Congress called Tuesday on
German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of this week's
visit by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to Germany
to lobby for the rights of the Muslim minority in
China. "The World Uyghur Congress urges you to
publicly express your government's commitment to
ensuring that fundamental values such as basic human
rights and freedom are a part of any trade and
investment agreement between your two countries,"
Dilxat Raxit, president of Munich-based World Uyghur
Congress, said in an appeal to the chancellor.
In an open letter to Merkel ahead of Wen's visit
Wednesday and Thursday, the group of Uyghur exiles
accused China of using the global war on terrorism
launched after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks on the United States as a pretext to suppress
and persecute the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region
of north-western China.
"Arbitrary arrest, mass detention, unfair trial and
torture are commonly and systematically used for
Uyghur dissidents," the letter said.
China's communists absorbed the region after winning
the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but many Uyghurs have
since agitated for the reinstatement of their earlier
republic of East Turkestan.
"Prime Minister Wen, as a head of paramount political
power in China, has an ultimate responsibility for the
systematic denial of basic human rights of Uyghurs,
Tibetans and other people in China," Dilxat wrote in
his appeal to Merkel.
© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur ...
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