After the disturbances in Xinjiang / East Turkistan China maligns Uighur human rights workers

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) accused the Chinese government on Monday of systematically maligning Uighur human rights workers in the international media with carefully prepared false information. "The aim of the attacks is above all the "World Congress of Uighurs”, which is based on Munich, and its chairperson, Rebiya Kadeer”, criticised the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. "With the maligning of the most important voice of the Moslem minority in exile no service is paid to either peace in Xinjiang (East Turkistan) or reconciliation between the ethnic groups in the north-west of China.”

Chinese media had reported that the World Congress of Uighurs had asked the Dalai Lama for support after the outbreak of the disturbances at the beginning of July 2009 in an eMail on 14th July. A request for help of this kind was however never sent by the Uighurs to the temporal and religious head of the Tibetans. The office of the Dalai Lama also made it clear that no such authentic message from the organisation in Dharamsala had been received.

Reports were also found to be false that the organisation in Munich planned to travel with a delegation of 15 Uighurs to the "World Games” arranged in Taiwan for 16th – 26th July 2009 with the object of protesting during the sporting events against infringements of human rights in China. False also was the assertion that Ms Kadeer was refused a visa for India on 27th July 2009. She had not planned a visit to India, nor had she applied for a visa.

Finally the government news agency Xinhua reported today, Monday, that Kadeer’s daughter Roxinghul, her son Khahar and her younger brother Memet, had accused their mother in a letter of being responsible for the death of many innocent people in the disturbances in July. "Since the letter is couched in the language of the government propaganda it seems very unlikely that it was written by Kadeer’s family”, said Delius. Five of her eleven children are still living in China and are exposed to great pressure from the authorities. Two of her sons have been arrested on the grounds of family complicity to long prison sentences in China to silence their mother.

The GfbV draws attention to the fact that in December 2003 China’s foreign ministry issued a ban of the World Congress of Uighurs in Germany and called for deportation of its members to China. German security authorities have always rejected these charges as unfounded and confirmed that the organisation acts in Germany in a perfectly law-abiding manner.

The GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius, can also be reached at u.delius@gfbv.de