Occupation of Uighuristan/East Turkestan

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SITUATION IN XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

East Turkestan, known as "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" in present-day China, continues to be a region where the Uyghurs are waging a life and death struggle for survival. Their fundamental freedoms and human rights, including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are being violated by the Chinese authorities on a massive scale. At the same time, the influx of Chinese settlers, together with coercive birth control among Uyghur women and the systematic sinozation of the Uyghur language pose the biggest threat to the survival of the Uyghurs. The people of East Turkestan continue to be arrested, tortured and executed on political grounds. (see the rest of this article at http://www.unpo.org/news_detail.php?arg=21&par=2245)

Fear of forcible return - New concerns: Execution/Fear for safety/Fear of torture or ill-treatment

Amnesty International 24 October 2003

1. Shaheer Ali (also known as Xieraili, Wujimaimaiti Abasi or Ghojamamat Abbas) (m)

2. Kheyum Whashim Ali (also known as Washim Ali) (m),

3. Abdu Allah Sattar (also known as Abdullah Sattar) (m)

Amnesty International is deeply concerned that Shaheer Ali, a member of the
Uighur ethnic group from the Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwest
China, has reportedly been executed after being forcibly returned to China
from Nepal last year. There are concerns for the safety of Kheyum Whashim
Ali, Abdu Allah Sattar and other Uighurs who have also been forcibly
returned to China after seeking asylum in Nepal and elsewhere.

The exact date of Shaheer Ali's execution is unclear, but he was reportedly
sentenced to death in March 2003 after being convicted of various offences
including "separatism", "organizing and leading a terrorist organization"
and "illegal manufacture, trading and possession of weapons and explosives".
His sentence was confirmed on appeal by the Xinjiang High People's Court and
he was reportedly executed "recently".

According to a report on the official Chinese website http://www.tianshan.net/ on 21
October, the court accused Shaheer Ali of leading a number of "terrorist"
organizations including the East Turkistan Islamic Party of Allah (ETIPA),
also known as the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) or the East
Turkistan Islamic Party. ETIM was classified as a "terrorist" organization
by the US and the UN last year at China's behest. The court claimed this
group was linked to the Gulja (Yining) incident of 5 February 1997 which was
described as an incident of "beating, smashing and looting". Independent
eyewitness reports indicate that the Gulja (Yining) incident was in fact a
peaceful demonstration by local people calling for equal treatment for
Uighurs which degenerated into violence after security forces fired into the
crowd in an attempt to forcibly disperse the protesters. Hundreds were
arrested in the aftermath and many were subjected to torture and
ill-treatment.

Shaheer Ali was tried in secret and it is not known what evidence was
presented in court to substantiate the accusations against him. According to
interviews that Shaheer Ali gave to Radio Free Asia while he was in Nepal
and which were made public yesterday, he claimed to belong to a group called
the East Turkistan Islamic Reform Party which he described as a non-militant
organization. He also described eight months of torture while imprisoned in
Guma (Pishan) County, XUAR in 1994, including being beaten with shackles,
shocked in an electric chair and being kicked unconscious.

Shaheer Ali was among several Uighurs, including Kheyum Whashim Ali and Abdu
Allah Sattar, who had been recognized as refugees by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) after they fled to Nepal in 2000. Shaheer
Ali and Abdu Allah Sattar were detained by Nepalese immigration authorities
in December 2001 and forcibly returned to China in January 2002. Kheyum
Whashim Ali was forcibly returned in mid-2002 after being detained by
immigration and police authorities in Nepal. The fate and legal status of
Abdu Allah Sattar and of Kheyum Whashim Ali remain unknown. According to
reports, they were detained in the XUAR after they were forcibly returned,
but it is not clear whether they have been charged or tried. Unofficial
reports received earlier this year indicate that Kheyum Whashim Ali was
being held in Michuan prison, outside Urumqi. They are at serious risk of
torture or ill-treatment in detention, and may be at risk of execution.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA, China has intensified
its political crackdown, closing down mosques and branding those in favour
of independence for the region as "ethnic separatists" or "terrorists". On
24 September 2003, the Chinese authorities publicly announced a renewed
security crackdown in the XUAR which is due to last for 100 days from 1
October 2003 (National Day) to Chinese New Year in late January 2004. The
authorities claim that the crackdown would target "violent crime, terrorist
crimes, crimes involving explosives and guns and so on". There are concerns
that it will lead to an intensified crackdown on peaceful political dissent
in the region.

China is also putting pressure on neighbouring countries, such as Nepal,
Pakistan and Central Asian countries, to repatriate Uighurs, including
asylum seekers and refugees. Amnesty International believes that any Uighurs
suspected of being involved in pro-independence groups or activities and
perceived by the authorities to be "terrorists, separatists or religious
extremists" would be at risk of serious human rights violations, including
torture, detention without charge and execution, if forcibly returned to
China.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in
Chinese or your own language:
- condemning the recent execution of Shaheer Ali (also known as Ghojimamat
Abbas or Wujimaimaiti Abasi or Xieraili), and expressing concern that his
trial was held in secret and urging the authorities to substantiate the
accusations against him;
-  expressing concern for the safety of Kheyum Whashim Ali and Abdu Allah
Sattar, who were forcibly returned from Nepal in 2002, and calling on the
authorities to make public their whereabouts and their legal status, and to
guarantee that if they are in detention, they are not being tortured or
ill-treated, and will not be subjected to the death penalty;
- expressing deep concern at the massive use of the death penalty in China
and at its increase during security and anti-crime crackdowns, and urging
the authorities to immediately stop executions and to commute any death
sentence handed down as part of the current security crackdown in the XUAR;
- while acknowledging the duty of the Chinese authorities to bring to
justice those accused of acts of violence, expressing concern that the
Chinese authorities are using the "anti-terrorism" campaign as an excuse to
crack down on peaceful political dissent and to restrict the human rights of
the ethnic Uighur community in the XUAR.

APPEALS TO:
 Chairman of XUAR Regional People's Government
Ismail TILIWALDI Zhuxi
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu
2 Zhongshanlu, Wulumuqishi 830041
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu, People's Republic of China
Telegram: Chair of XUAR, Wulumuqi, Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu, China
Email: webmaster@xinjiang.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Chairman

President of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China
XIAO Yang Yuanzhang, Zuigao Renmin Fayuan,
27 Dongjiao Min Xiang, Beijingshi 100726, People's Republic of China
Telegram: President, Supreme People's Court, Beijing, China
Fax: + 8610 6 529 2345 (c/o Communications Ministry)
Salutation: Dear President

Director of the XUAR Regional Justice Department
Rozi Simayi Tingzhang, Sifating, Jiangkanglu
Wulumuqishi 830002, Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People's Republic of China
Telegram: Director, XUAR Department of Justice, Wulumuqi, Xinjiang Weiwuer
Zizhiqu, China
Fax: + 8610 6 520 6722 (c/o Justice Minister)
Email: minister@legalinfo.gov.cn (c/o Justice Minister)
Salutation: Dear Director

COPIES TO: Diplomatic representatives of People's Republic of China
accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat,
or your section office, if sending appeals after 5 December 2003.

Thirty-five Days in East Turkestan (from posting to talk.politics.tibet)

A young Uygur woman returns to her homeland, offering us an eye-opening taste of daily reality for her people, the sick joke of communist Chinese "ethnic policy", and some truly shocking examples of Han chauvinist attitudes:

http://www.etgiv.org/articles/35days.htm

Don't miss her links at the end of her story, especially on the linguistic violence conducted upon the Uygurs' very names. Something which is very familiar to anyone who has been perplexed over the Chinese persistent mangling of Tibetan names and places as well.

Note that the Muslim Uygurs do not follow anything remotely like the fanatic Salafist ideology which informs the violent and racist global jihad movement - by contrast they are generally of the gentle Sufi spiritual tradition, precisely one of the subsets of Islam which the world needs to assist and encourage and befriend, now more than ever.

Tashi

PS: Interesting site for current news on Uygur issues, The Uygur Letter: http://uygurletter.blogspot.com/ Very worthwhile for regular visits, frequently updated; it also covers, and comments upon, the latest Tibet developments. Interesting under-reported ongoing story of a group of Uygur cultural performers (used like dancing bears for the CCP) who recently slipped their guards and defected to Canada while on tour. The young woman mentioned above is also now a Canadian citizen, by the way.