Contact: World Uyghur Congress
www.uyghurcongress.org
Tel. 0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or e-mail
contact@uyghurcongress.org
Based on several witness accounts, the
World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has serious
doubts about the official version of the
incident in Hotan, East Turkestan. While
the WUC unequivocally condemns all acts
of violence, it urges the international
community to view Chinese state media
reports on the incident with extreme
skepticism and caution since similar
events in the past have proven that the
Chinese government is systematically
spreading false information and
suppressing any information that
contradicts its official narrative.
Twenty protesters from China's minority
Uighur community were killed in a clash
with police in the ethnically tense
northwestern region of Xinjiang, a
Uighur exile group said Tuesday.
State media quoted an official in the
region calling Monday's clash a
"terrorist" attack and said four people
including a police officer were killed
when a crowd set upon a police station
in the remote city of Hotan.
But Uighur activists called it an
outburst of anger by ordinary members of
the mainly Muslim ethnic minority, and
accused authorities of attempting to
block information on the deadly
incident.
The Germany-based World Uyghur Congress,
citing sources in Xinjiang, said
security forces beat 14 people to death
and shot dead six others during the
unrest.
"The Chinese authorities should
immediately cease their systematic
oppression to prevent a further
escalation of the situation," said
Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the group.
-- Police gunned down rioters in
northwestern China's Xinjiang region
yesterday, with the official state media
and an organization representing the
Uighur ethnic group giving conflicting
accounts of the incident.
China's official Xinhua News Agency,
citing unidentified people at the
Ministry of Public Security, said
rioters rushed a police station in the
city of Hotan at about 12 p.m.
yesterday, taking hostages and setting
the building on fire. One member of the
armed police, a security officer and two
hostages were killed, one security
officer was severely injured and police
"gunned down several rioters," the news
service said.
Kanada Uyghur Jemiyiti teshviqat bolumi
teyyarlidi
5- iyul küni kechte, Toronto sheheridiki
“Catch The fire” chérkowida,kanadaliq
siyasetchiler, kishilik hoquq
paaliyetchiliri we xiristiyan hem yehudi
dinliri wekillirining qatnishishi bilen
uyghurlarni qollash we ularning heqqaniy
dawasigha medet bérish paaliyiti
ötküzüldi.Bu paaliyet Kanada Uyghur
jemiyiti bilen “Erkin bir
Dunya”jemiyitining(One Free World
International Canada) hemkarliqida
uyushturulghan bolup,bu paaliyette,
Xitay mustebitlirining hökümranliq
astida uyghurlarning tartiwatqan
zulumlirini,bolupmu 5-iyul Ürümchidiki
hökümetke qarshi tenchliq namayishi we
uningdin keyin hazirghiche
dawamlishiwatqan.....
Chinese state media are questioning
whether security forces have gone too
far in cracking down ondissidents
in western Xinjiang province two years
after deadly riots that killed nearly
200 people.
In an article marking the anniversary of
the riots Tuesday, the Communist
Party-controlled Global Times newspaper
quotes a law professor saying the region
is "over-emphasizing stability
preservation" and could be fueling
increased tensions.
The article says life has largely
returned to normal in Urumqi, the
provincial capital. But it notes
authorities have doubled the region's
security budget and installed about
40,000 security cameras.
On July 5, 2011, One Free World
International will host an interfaith
event in Toronto to raise awareness and
support for the persecuted Uyghur
community. Speakers will include members
of the Canadian Parliament, leaders from
the Christian, Muslim and Jewish
communities, and a keynote address by
Rev. Majed El Shafie. The event will
take place from 7:00 pm-9:00 p.m. at
Catch The Fire Church (formerly Toronto
Airport Christian Fellowship), located
at 272 Attwell Drive in Etobicoke.
"Our main goal is to bring awareness to
the situation in East Turkistan and the
plight of the Uyghurs living under
Chinese colonial rule," says keynote
speaker and One Free World International
founder Rev. Majed El Shafie. "We will
also promote and bring attention to the
urgent needs of the Uyghur refugees."
2011-06-07
People attend a rally to protest against
the sale of Kazakh national resources to
China in Almaty, May 28, 2011
ALMATY, June 7 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan
has extradited an ethnic Uighur
schoolteacher who had been granted UN
refugee status to face charges of
terrorism in China, a diplomat said on
Tuesday, drawing condemnation from
rights groups who said the case was
politically motivated.
2011-05-22
China makes no secret of its desire, and
ability, to control internet access, but
even at a glance it's clear that the
Great Firewall Of China leaks like the
proverbial sieve.
We had the chance to try our hand at
breaching that wall on a recent trip to
visit Huawei in Shenzhen. Our hosts
kindly supplied us with China Mobile
SIMs for data access so we could see the
internet as the Chinese see it, and we
managed to test out wi-fi connectivity
at a local hotel with similar results -
only the hotel wi-fi didn't kick us off
entirely for asking the wrong questions.
2011-05-19
SHANGHAI — China has admitted that its
showcase Three Gorges Dam, the world’s
largest hydroelectric project, has
caused a slew of urgent environmental,
geologic and economic problems.
The State Council, or Cabinet, made the
rare admission in a statement late
Wednesday that said the $23 billion
project was successful but requires
action to curb pollution, counter risks
of natural disasters and improve the
living standards of the 1.4 million
people who were forced to relocate.
Chinese authorities increase
restrictions on a Uyghur economist to
include his wife and children. Chinese
authorities have extended a travel ban
on an outspoken Uyghur professor to
include members of his family and have
stepped up surveillance on the man’s
Beijing home since the New Year.
Ilham Tohti, an economist at Beijing’s
Central Nationalities University, said
he had been approached by Public
Security Bureau police before the new
year and handed a document which said
that no one, including his wife and
children, would be allowed to leave the
capital.
Three Uyghur businessmen may face
extradition to China.
Three Uyghur businessmen with Turkish
citizenship have been detained by
authorities in Tajikistan, sparking
fears that the men may have been held
due to pressure from China, according to
Uyghur groups.
They claimed that on Jan. 8, security
forces in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe
first picked up Ablimit Dawatoglu, whose
brother was executed years ago by
authorities in China’s northwestern
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
A female Uyghur student in northwestern
China was sentenced to death with a
two-year suspension following a trial
last April on charges of participating
in ethnic riots that left hundreds dead,
according to a classmate.
Pezilet Ekber became the second Uyghur
woman to receive the death penalty in
connection to the unrest. Another woman
was executed by Chinese authorities
earlier this year.
“Nobody knows what exactly led to
Pezilet Ekber receiving such a heavy
punishment, other than her ‘involvement
in violence,’ because the trial was
secret and her parents were only just
informed of the decision,” her
classmate, who asked to remain
anonymous, wrote in a letter.
A Uyghur journalist working for an
official Chinese radio service has been
sentenced to life in prison following a
secret trial conducted earlier this
year, according to a letter sent by a
friend to Radio Free Asia.
Memetjan Abdulla, an editor for the
Uyghur service of China National Radio,
was sentenced in April in a closed trial
in Urumqi, capital of China’s
northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region, the letter said.
Authorities had charged Abdulla with
helping to instigate deadly ethnic
rioting in Urumqi in July 2009 following
Uyghur protests at the beating deaths of
Uyghur factory workers in the eastern
Chinese city of Shaoguan.
A year has passed since 20 Uyghur asylum
seekers were deported from Cambodia on a
Chinese plane under cover of darkness,
and despite Chinese promises to the
contrary, no information has been made
public about their fates. The Uyghur
American Association (UAA) calls upon
the Chinese government to provide
information about the 20 Uyghurs’
whereabouts, conditions, and legal
statuses, and to ensure their safety and
well-being. UAA also calls upon the
international community to continue to
express concern about their situation
and insist that they be treated
according to international human rights
standards. UAA fears that they have
likely faced severe persecution,
including possible imprisonment,
torture, and execution.
Former Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen
said Tuesday that he was not cautioned
by Chinese officials against accepting
Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay for
resettlement in Finland. Supposedly, a
U.S. diplomatic cable published by the
New York Times indicates American
diplomats believed this was the case.
China obstructed efforts to move 17
Chinese Muslim Uyghurs
Germany considered taking seven but was
warned "a heavy burden" could follow
The 17 ended up in Palau, Bermuda,
Albania, and Switzerland
The relocation of 17 Chinese Muslim
Uyghurs detained at Guantanamo Bay was a
thorny issue for the United States,
according to cables released by the
website WikiLeaks.
Attempts to find new homes for the 17
detainees was met with resistance
because of fear of retribution from
China.
At one point, Germany considered
accepting seven of the Uyghurs. But the
government was "subsequently warned by
China of 'a heavy burden on bilateral
relations'" between Germany and China if
the Germans accepted the detainees.
BEIJING (AFP) – Seven people were killed
Thursday when a man drove a vehicle
loaded with explosives into a crowd and
it blew up in China's Xinjiang region,
the scene of deadly ethnic unrest last
year, an official said.
Police detained the injured suspect -- a
member of Xinjiang's Uighur minority --
at the site of the blast in the
outskirts of Aksu, a city near the
border with Kyrgyzstan, regional
government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin told
AFP.
Three Uighur-language website managers
were sentenced Friday to prison terms of
three to 10 years after being found
guilty under broad charges of
“endangering state security.” The men
had been jailed after ethnic rioting in
July 2009 in Urumqi, capital of the
far-western, predominantly Muslim,
Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Nijat Azat, who managed the website
Shabnam, was sentenced to a 10-year
prison term; Dilixiati Paerhati, whose
ran the website Diyarim, was given a
five-year term; and the webmaster of
Salkin, who goes by the single name
Nureli, was sentenced to three years.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) condemns
in strongest possible terms the 15-year
sentence handed down to prominent Uyghur
journalist Gheyret Niyaz by a court in
East Turkestan (also known as the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of
China) on July 23, 2010. After a one-day
trial, the court convicted and sentenced
Mr. Niyaz to 15 years in prison on
charges of “endangering state security”
for giving interviews to media about the
aspects of Uyghurs’ situation that he
perceived to be the root causes of the
July 2009 ethnic unrest in Urumchi (the
regional capital) and for peacefully
exercising his freedom of speech in
other ways with regard to problems faced
by the Uyghur people.
According to media reports, Uyghur
journalist and webmaster Gheyret Niyaz
was sentenced to 15 years in prison
today (July 23) for endangering state
security by speaking to foreign
journalists. Niyaz reportedly informed
government officials about plans for
demonstrations that had been posted on
websites prior to unrest that occurred
on July 5, 2009 in Urumchi, the regional
capital of East Turkestan, and later
criticized the government’s handling of
the unrest. The Uyghur American
Association (UAA) believes the harsh
sentence represents the Chinese
government’s policy of no tolerance for
any type of Uyghur dissent, as well as
the government’s campaign to tightly
control the flow of information and stem
public criticism of official policy.
Two prominent members of the exiled Turkic-speaking
Uyghur community in Pakistan , many of whom oppose
Chinese rule in their homeland, are on the run from the
authorities following police raids on their homes.
Below an article published by Radio Free Asia :
Omer and Akbar Khan, who co-founded a charity to teach
Pakistani Uyghurs their own language in the northern
city of Rawalpindi, said they had fled from police after
neighbors told them their close relatives had been
detained for several hours.
Cyber hackers have targeted the Yahoo (NSDQ:YHOO) e-mail
accounts of journalists and activists who have
previously written about or been outspoken about China
with a malicious attack this week, following Google
(NSDQ:GOOG)'s announcement to move its search office out
of the mainland.
Specifically, several journalists in both China and
Taiwan said that they were unable to access their Yahoo
accounts, in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault
starting March 25.
Yahoo e-mail service seemed to be restored Wednesday
after a five-day outage.
Altogether, those targeted in the Yahoo e-mail attack
included a U.S. law professor, an analyst who had
written about China's security and several print
journalists based in Beijing and Taipei, The New York
Times reported.
The men were among 17 Uighurs held at the Guantanamo
prison camp in Cuba
The transfer of two ethnic Uighurs from the US detention
centre in Guantanamo Bay to Switzerland has triggered an
angry reaction from China.
The two men, who are brothers, were recently resettled
in Switzerland after spending eight years in the
Guantanamo camp, the US justice department announced on
Wednesday.
At least 20 Uighurs who fled China after deadly ethnic
violence earlier this year have been deported from
Cambodia, a government official has said.
Khieu Sopheak, a Cambodian interior ministry spokesman,
said the group had been put on a plane, sent from China,
that left Phnom Penh International Airport at about 9pm
(14:00 GMT) on Saturday.
The June uprising in Iran and the July Uyghur uprising
in Xinjiang, western China, featured a number of
striking similarities. In both cases, an unelected,
undemocratic government brutally suppressed
demonstrators addressing legitimate grievances, killing
dozens of unarmed civilians in the process. Now, some
months later, the cases are coming to the same appalling
conclusion: Tehran and Beijing are carrying out
executions of those accused of organizing the
demonstrations.
BEIJING — Nine Uighurs have been executed for taking
part in ethnic rioting that left nearly 200 people dead
in July, the first suspects put to death in the unrest,
Chinese state media reported Monday.
The nine were put to death recently after a final review
of the verdicts by the Supreme People's Court as
required by law, the official China News Service said,
but gave no specific date or other details.
BEIJING — Four months after ethnic rioting in western
China’s Xinjiang region killed nearly 200 people,
security officials there have started a fresh dragnet to
track down accused rioters and other so-called terrorist
elements, a state-run regional newspaper reported
Tuesday.
Enforced Disappearances in the Wake of Xinjiang’s
Protests
This 44-page report by Human Rights Watch documents the
widespread campaign of unlawful arrests carried out by
Chinese security forces in the Uyghur areas of Urumchi
in the wake of July 5. The “enforced disappearances” of
Uyghur men and teenagers in Urumchi occurred as a result
of large-scale sweep operations as well as targeted
raids. While Human Rights Watch was able to secretly
document the cases of 43 "enforced disappearances", the
total number of unlawfully arrested Uyghurs is likely
much higher.
BEIJING — Residents in China's restive Xinjiang region
remain isolated from the outside world with long-lasting
Internet and phone cuts that have prompted some
businesses to relocate, locals said Saturday.
Emails are still blocked nearly four months after deadly
ethnic unrest erupted in the regional capital Urumqi, as
are text messages and international phone calls,
residents told AFP.
"Our business has been seriously affected, and we have
had to set up an office in Lanzhou (capital of
neighbouring Gansu province)," said the head of an
Urumqi-based firm, who asked to remain anonymous.
Title: PRESS RELEASE: Providing Uyghur Leaders with the
Means to Protect & Promote their Human Rights and
Democracy (2008.04.10) | Read
More
Date: April 10, 2008
Title: WOLRD UYGHUR CONGRESS EXPRESSES ITS SOLIDARITY
WITH THE TIBETAN PEOPLE (2008.03.18) |
Read More
Date: March 18, 2008
Title: WUC welcomes the Resolution 497 of the House of
Representatives of Congress of the USA (2007.09.20) |
Read More
Date: September 20, 2007
Title: No Prosperity without Respect for Human Rights
(2007.06.04) | Read More
Date: May 6, 2007
Uyghur Canadian Society (UCS)
3205 Nawbrook Road, Mississauga, Ontario L4X 2V6
Tell: (647) 210-0709 Facsimile: (289) 232-8678 Email:
info@uyghurcanadiansociety.org
dissidents
in western Xinjiang province two years
after deadly riots that killed nearly
200 people.
