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Uyghur pilgrims
denied Saudi visas in Pakistan
For immediate release
September 15, 2006
Contact: Uyghur Human Rights Project +1 (202) 349 1496
The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) has learned
that several thousand Uyghurs in Rawalpindi, Pakistan,
have been refused visas to travel to Saudi Arabia to
participate in a religious pilgrimage, apparently as a
result of interference from the Chinese embassy in
Islamabad. According to some estimates, as many as
6000 Uyghurs in Rawalpindi are awaiting visas.
The vast majority of the pilgrims, who are all hoping
to carry out the Umrah Hajj and have traveled to
Pakistan on Chinese passports, were told to return to
East Turkistan – also known as Xinjiang – by the
Chinese ambassador, and threatened with various
punishments if they do not do so immediately.
“We request the Saudi Arabian embassy in Pakistan
issue visas to these Uyghur Muslims whose lifetime
wish is to make the hajj in Mecca,” said Ms. Rebiya
Kadeer, president of Uyghur American Association. “The
Chinese government should allow these Uyghur Muslims
to perform their Islamic pilgrimage, which is one of
the five pillars of Islam.”
According to UHRP’s sources, a dozen or so Uyghurs
were invited into the Chinese embassy in Islamabad on
the morning of September 13 by the Chinese ambassador
to Pakistan, Zhang Chunxiang. The ambassador and his
staff, some of whom had apparently traveled to
Islamabad specifically because of the situation in
Rawalpindi, told the Uyghur representatives that
people who did not immediately return to East
Turkistan would be suspended from their government
posts, that any retirees would lose their pensions,
and that people who were neither government employees
or retirees could expect punishments to be leveled
against members of their families.
Ambassador Zhang told the Uyghur representatives
called to the embassy that the People’s Republic of
China (PRC) has brokered an agreement with the Saudi
government not to issue visas to PRC passport-holders
in a third country.
By yesterday afternoon, police were telling Uyghurs at
guest houses in Rawalpindi that police were under
orders to try and stop Uyghurs from going to nearby
Islamabad in case they stage protests outside the
Saudi or Chinese embassies.
According to UHRP’s sources, Uyghurs have been waiting
in Rawalpindi for more than two months to receive
visas for Saudi Arabia ever since the Saudi
authorities stopped issuing visas through approved
travel agencies in late July 2006.
However, in late August, Uyghurs protested outside the
Saudi Embassy in Islamabad asking to speak to the
ambassador about the refusal to issue visas. A source
reports that a senior Saudi embassy official emerged
from the embassy and explained that it was not Saudi
policy to deny visas to Muslims hoping to go on
pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia; rather, the Saudi
government was abiding by a request from the Chinese
government not to issue visas to Uyghurs. This
conversation between the Saudi official and the Uyghur
demonstrators could not be confirmed.
In previous years, Uyghurs with PRC passports have
traveled with relative ease to Saudi Arabia from
Pakistan, preferring to travel overland as far as
possible to reduce the cost of pilgrimages. The
Chinese government’s insistence that Uyghurs apply for
and acquire their Saudi visas only in the PRC could be
a way to control the number of Uyghurs undertaking
pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia, or it could be a measure
to more effectively monitor who is going on pilgrimage.
It is not known if the same restrictions apply to
other Muslims from the PRC, such as the Hui people.
Religious practices in East Turkistan are tightly
controlled and monitored by the Chinese authorities.
Under a gamut of highly restrictive measures which
have resulted in religious texts being burned, homes
being raided to ‘catch’ people observing Ramadan, and
even forbidding state workers from wearing beards or
head-scarves, many Uyghurs are compelled to leave East
Turkistan to pursue their faith.
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