Chinese Repression

China official seeks tougher rules on religion after Xinjiang blasts

Muslim Uyghurs attend afternoon prayers at the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, 17 September 2003, in northwest China's Xinjiang province. (Photo: RFA)

BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese official called for stricter management of religious activities, state media said on Monday, following explosions in China's western region of Xinjiang which authorities say were masterminded by a religious extremist. Police shot dead six people and six more died when explosives they were carrying detonated in Xinhe county, according to weekend media reports. Blasts struck a beauty salon and a vegetable market.

China Steps Up 'Strike Hard' Campaign in Xinjiang

A SWAT team trains in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi, Dec. 16, 2013. Photo: AFP

Chinese authorities in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang have launched a New Year "strike hard" campaign targeting cell phones, computers, and religious materials belonging to ethnic minority Uyghurs, an exile group and local residents said on Thursday. "Since Jan. 1, the authorities have been engaged in raids and searches for cultural products ... and a 'strike hard' campaign in Uyghur neighborhoods," Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exile World Uyghur Congress (WUC) group said.

Uyghur Muslims face 'oppression' in East Turkistan

Tension in Uyghur Autonomous Region between Uyghur Muslims and the police has been escalating recently, leaving many people dead and wounded.

Police in East Turkistan (Xinjiang) killed eight people who had attacked the pollice station with knives and explosives in the early hours of Monday, Xinjiang government news portal Tianshan reported.

A previous incident on December 17 killed sixteen people including two police officers in the old Silk Road city of Kashgar.

China needs rethink on Uighurs before more blood is spilt

Uyghurs gathering in front of Idkah Mosque in Kashgar, East Turkestan. Photo: World Policy Blog

The bloody clash between ethnic Uighurs and the Chinese police that took place on December 15 in Xinjiang reflects a reality that rising China faces today. It was the fourth outbreak of such violence in Xinjiang since April, leaving at least 84 killed and 25 others injured. Then, on Monday, Chinese security forces killed eight people who allegedly attacked a police station in the region. As usual, Beijing called both incidents "terrorist" attacks, blaming a "violent terrorist gang" in Xinjiang, and scaled up security measures. However, enhanced security measures alone will not curb violence in the region, especially when the social and economic discontent of its Uighur minority remains unresolved.

China voices anger over release of Uighur Guantanamo trio

Huzaifa, Abdullah, Khalil and Salahidin, four previously released Uyghurs in Bermuda in 2009 (Photo: William Farrington)

BEIJING: China voiced anger on Thursday over the transfer of three Uighurs from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay to Slovakia, branding them "terrorists" who will pose a threat to their new home. The trio were freed earlier this week as part of Washington's efforts to close the jail, and were the last of 22 Uighurs to be held in the prison, with the others being resettled in six countries including Albania, Bermuda, El Salvador, Palau, and Switzerland. Beijing had previously protested about the release of the men, who it says have links with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which the United Nations lists as a terrorist group and which China accuses of having separatist aims in Xinjiang.

Four Uyghur Women Forced to Abort Their Babies in Xinjiang

A Uyghur woman with her children in Kashgar, Xinjiang, July 1, 2012. Photo: PHOTONONSTOP

Four Uyghur women in China's troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang have been forced by authorities to undergo abortions—one of them nine months into her pregnancy—under Beijing's brutally-enforced one-child policy, local officials and parents said. They were among six forced abortions that had been planned over the last week in Hotan prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, home to some 10 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs who say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination and oppressive religious controls under Beijing’s policies. "We had planned to perform forced abortions on six women. Four of them have already undergone the abortions," Eniver Momin, deputy chief of Hotan's Arish township where the mothers were injected with abortion-inducing drugs, told RFA's Uyghur Service.

Tibet neither seeks separation nor high degree of autonomy: Sikyong

Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay delivering his tatement during the 10 December function at the main Tibetan Temple in Dharamshala, India. Photo: TPI/Yeshe Choesang

In a statement marking the Human Rights Day, observed across the world every year on 10 December, Dr. Sangay recalled that the Nobel Peace Price was awarded to His Holiness for his consistent resistance to the use of violence in his people's struggle for basic freedom. "The Nobel Peace Prize to His Holiness the Dalai Lama catapulted the Tibetan struggle to greater international visibility. His Holiness the Dalai Lama's global stature directly and positively impacted on the image of the Tibetan people and fundamentally strengthened the Tibetan cause. Tibet became synonymous with non-violence and justice." Sikyong Dr Sangay reiterated the Central Tibetan Administration's commitment to Middle-Way Approach. "Dialogue is the most realistic approach and the only way to find a mutually beneficial solution to the Tibet issue. The Middle-Way Approach neither seeks separation from the People's Republic of China nor "high degree of autonomy", but Genuine Autonomy for all Tibetan people under a single administration. This is consistent with both the National Regional Autonomy Law and the Constitution of the People's Republic of China."

Xinjiang Public Security Department Called for Respect and Protection of Human Rights

Human Rights for the victims of Enforced Disappearances!

I, Mutellip Imin, from Lop County of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, am the master student of IstanbulUniversity, majoring in Sociology. I was illegally intercepted by the customs police of BeijingCapitalInternationalAirport in the name of ‘criminal detention’, on my way back school on July 15, 2013. Officers from the Public Security Department of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region deported me to Urumqi, where I was interrogated and held in three different hotels for 79days, without any legal procedure or notifying my family.

I Was a Victim of Enforced Disappearance for 79 Days

Human Rights For the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (2013-12-10)

My name is Mutellip Imin. I am from Lop County in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. From July 15 to October 1, 2013, I was incarcerated by the Xinjiang police in three different hotels, without any legal procedures. On the evening of July 14, 2013, I arrived at Capital International Airdrome in Beijing and went to the ticket counter to check in for my flight from Beijing to Istanbul. The ticket agent told me to wait and left with my passport. I was waiting for an hour until I was taken to the Airdrome police station where my backpack and PC were inspected. The customs agents told me that there were no suspicious items found in my belongings and that I would not miss my flight to Istanbul. I was, however, retained at the police station until two police officers came to inform me that I was wanted by the police in Xinjiang. My passport, cell phone, Turkish residency permit, and my Turkish language proficiency certificate were all taken by the police, and I was handcuffed and brought to the repatriate center near the Airdrome. On the way, I begged the officers to let me contact my loved ones. They refused even to send my girlfriend, Atikem, a message that I was incarcerated. They told me I would be able to contact my relatives when I got back to Xinjiang.

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