Amnesty slams China for Uighur crackdown three years after riots

Reuters ^ | Thu Jul 5, 2012 2:15am EDT | (Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Ron Popeski)

[Olog-hai]

China has detained and intimidated dozens of ethnic Uighurs in the far western region of Xinjiang for speaking out on rights abuses following riots in the regional capital three years ago, Amnesty International said.

In July 2009, the capital city of Urumqi was rocked by violence between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people. Many of the Muslim Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language and call Xinjiang home, chafe at Beijing's rule.

Since then, China has executed nine people it accused of instigating the riots, detained and prosecuted hundreds and ramped up spending on security, according to state media and overseas rights groups.

Amnesty, in a report issued late on Wednesday, said it had new testimony that Beijing continues to "intimidate" families seeking information on missing relatives who have revealed human rights abuses during and after the July 2009 protests.

Catherine Baber, Amnesty's director for the Asia-Pacific, said "the general trend toward repression that we see all over China is particularly pronounced" in Xinjiang.

"Chinese authorities must reveal the whereabouts of those individuals subject to enforced disappearance, and end the persecution of their family members seeking answers," Baber said.

The London-based rights watchdog said dozens of Uighur families have come out publicly with stories of family members disappeared since July 2009, though all fear retribution. …

[SunkenCiv]

Three years for AI to get back to us on this.

It rarely takes AI three hours to condemn Israel for defending itself.

Thanks Olog-hai.

[BobL]

Perhaps the crackdown had something to do with the rioting.

...just sayin’

[bert]

Alas poor Chris..... he showed such promise.

He went over to the Dark side and to work for Amnesty International

[Venturer]

Amnesty seems to spend a lot of time trying to protect Muslims.

[rmlew]

And the rioting occurred because of the ethnic cleansing of Uyghurs in ChiCom-occupied East Turkestan. The ChiComs are resettling Han Chinese in East Turkestan, which they conquered in 1949. The Uyghurs have the same right to national determination and cultural sovereignty that Tibetans do.

[BobL]

“Uyghurs have the same right to national determination and cultural sovereignty that Tibetans do.”

Well they just picked the wrong bunch to play jihad with.

[rmlew]

What strategy do they have left? For 60 years, Uyghurs looked to soft power and dipolmacy, reaching out to other Turks for support, just as Tibetans reached out to Buddhists and westerners. However, as the economic power of the PRC has grown, the West has stopped caring about human rights abuses there.

What is to be done today? Shall they burn themselves in public like Tibetans? No one cares. Will they tweet and protest to their kin like the Mongols of Chinese-occupied inner Mongolia do? No one notices. All that is left is terrorism. And this terrorism is a good thing, since it will drive a wedge between the Muslim (or at least Sunni) world and China.

[BobL]

“And this terrorism is a good thing, since it will drive a wedge between the Muslim (or at least Sunni) world and China.”

I give you that. It’s a tough ethical decision for me - do I want the Chicoms to win, or the Jihad? Maybe just a protracted war would be best for us.

[cradle of freedom]

Somehow I don’t think that the Chinese really understand the jihad mentality. The Chinese seem very self controlled but they will find out. I think the controlled organized mind will win out over the deranged type of mind.