07-15-2004, 05:09 PM
Central Asian Uighurs Voice Concern of Deporting Uighur Refugees
July 07, 2004
ANKARA, - Ethnic Uighurs fleeing China's northwest Xinjiang Uighur
Autonomous Region (XUAR) to Central Asia as a result of Beijing's
crackdown
on political and religious dissent are allegedly being deported back to
China, where they face persecution, Uighur leaders in Central Asia say.
Their claim is endorsed by Amnesty International (AI).
"Human rights abuses are the main driving force behind the flow of
asylum
seekers from Xinjiang. But Uighurs seeking asylum in Central Asia are
deported back [to China] because the countries [in the region] don't
give
them political asylum," Kahriman Gojamberdi, representative of the
German-based World Uighur Congress, told IRIN from the Kazakh
commercial
capital Almaty on Wednesday.
In the past a number of Uighur asylum seekers who came to Kazakhstan
were
deported back to China, where they were subsequently executed, he
claimed,
conceding that fresh information on such incidents was not transparent.
"Kazakhstan now deports or sends them back secretly," he maintained.
The situation in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan is no different. Although
there
have been no recent incidents in which Uighurs have been deported to
China,
there were cases in 2001 and 2002, Nurmuhammed Kenji, director of the
Kyrgyzstan-based Central Asian Uighur Information and Project Centre,
told
IRIN from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
"As China hasn't yet abolished the death penalty, handing people over
who
could be executed is a violation of international law," he said.
"There is an agreement between the intelligence services of Central
Asian
states and China within the framework of Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation
[regional security and cooperation body comprising China, Russia and
the
ex-Soviet Central Asian republics except Turkmenistan]. Based on that
agreement, they exchange such persons [wanted by the respective secret
services]," Gojamberdi explained.
Such comments coincide with a new report by AI saying Beijing was using
the
"war on terror" to justify its longstanding repression of the rights of
the
Uighur community. As a result, many Uighurs flee to neighbouring
countries -
including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, home to an estimated 360,000
ethnic
Uighurs - only to be forcibly returned to China where they face torture
and
execution.
"China has repackaged its repression of Uighurs as a fight against
'terrorism'," AI said in a statement. "Since the 11 September 2001
attacks
on the USA, the Chinese government has been using 'anti-terrorism' as a
pretext to increase its crackdown on all forms of political or
religious
dissent in the region."
Gojamberdi agreed. "Human rights abuses are the main driving force
behind
the flow of asylum seekers from Xinjiang," he said.
Over the past three years, tens of thousands of people have been
reportedly
detained on "anti-terrorism" grounds in the XUAR, AI said. This is
despite
the claim by the regional authorities in April that "not one incident
of
explosion or assassination had taken place in the last few years".
Gojamberdi said that the international community should influence the
parliaments and other state bodies in the region so that Uighur
asylum-seekers were not returned to China.
Meanwhile, Kenji from Kyrgyzstan called for a constructive dialogue
with the
participation of Beijing and Uighur organisations in the world. "We
should
begin with establishing a platform for exchanging views. Confrontation
never
leads to a solution," he maintained.
For the complete copy of the report please go to
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa170212004
The material contained in this article is from IRIN, a UN humanitarian
information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the
United
Nations or its agencies.
Copyright ?? UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2004