China before the Olympic Games: Uighurs report in Berlin on increasing persecution

World Congress of the Uighurs (Munich)

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO, Den Haag)

Society for Threatened Peoples (Göttingen)

The National Endowment for Democracy (Washington D.C.)

Uighurs reject China’s charge of terror and emphasise peaceful protest

At the beginning of a three-day conference of the World Congress of the Uighurs in Berlin leading representatives of the Muslims in China will be reporting on the increasing persecution of the Uighurs in the period leading up to the Olympic Games. During the recent unrest in Tibet there were also many protests among the people in the neighbouring Xinjiang / East Turkistan. The Chinese authorities are paying close attention to the situation and have ordered a curfew. On 23rd March 2008 about 600 Uighurs were arrested in the town of Hoten at a demonstration of more than 1000 Uighur women against violations of human rights. Another 45 Uighurs were arrested on the charge of having prepared terror attacks. In this way the Chinese authorities are trying to discredit the largely peaceful resistance of the Uighurs and to criminalise the ethnic group.

The umbrella association of the Uighur organisations throughout the world will be emphasising once again at its conference in Berlin with the prominent human rights worker, Rebiya Kadeer, in the chair that the Uighurs only protest in a peaceful fashion against violations of human rights on the part of China and reject Peking’s charges of terror. Many journalists had their doubts in the last fortnight about the truth of these charges.

Ms. Kadeer spent many years in a Chinese prison and now lives in exile in the USA. She was several times seen as a likely candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. In the year 2008 she was once again nominated for this distinction.

For the beginning of the Conference of the World Congress of the Uighurs we cordially invite you to our

Press Conference on Monday, 21st April 2008 at 10 a.m. at the Quality Inn, Landsberger Allee 203 / corner of Weissenseer Weg in Berlin.

With: Rebiya Kadeer, President of the World Congress of the Uighurs,

Marino Busdachin, General Secretary of the UNPO,

Ulrich Delius, Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV)