Uighur's Human Rights

Geneva, 2000
Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (Society for Threatened Peoples) is extremely concerned about executions of political prisoners of Uighur origin taking place in the autonomous province of Xinjiang in the north-west of the People's Republic of China. Since 1997 more than 260 Uighurs have been sentenced to death on political grounds. Most of these death sentences were carried out immediately. In March 2000 alone eleven Uighur prisoners were executed. The Uighurs are the only group of political prisoners in the People's Republic of China whose resistance activities are routinely punished by the death penalty.

Many death sentences were imposed after serious disturbances in the town of Gulja in February 1997. When relatives of young Muslims arrested during celebrations for the religious feast of Ramadan held peaceful demonstrations calling for the release of the detainees a bloodbath ensued. Up to 100 people were killed as their protests were brutally suppressed and hundreds more were injured. At least 52 Uighurs were sentenced to death for their alleged participation in the disturbances and executed. The defendants were tried and sentenced in summary proceedings and show trials that contravened all the basic principles of legal justice. Enforcement of the death sentences handed down in the cases of another five individuals were deferred [Stephan - I think this is the sense of "aufschieben" rather than 'suspended' or 'commuted' - can you confirm please?] and at least another 90 Uighurs were sentenced mostly to long prison sentences

Up until now the Chinese authorities have sought to conceal the true extent and the immediate cause of the clashes. It is only in the last few months that the full scope of the terrible repression that followed the massacre has become more and more apparent. 4,000 Uighur inhabitants of Gulja were arrested after the outbreak of the disturbances. For a while one third of the town's population was being held in custody. Chinese security forces conducted searches of all Uighur houses and apartments. According to eyewitnesses conditions in the overcrowded prisons were horrific. Countless women were detained and raped in police stations and prisons. Numerous "confessions" were extorted under torture. As many as 14 detainees died as a result of being tortured while in custody. The bodies of the victims of torture and the executed prisoners were not released to relatives and were denied proper burial. By official decree the population was required to maintain an absolute silence concerning events during the disturbances, under the threat of draconian punishments. Those who disobeyed and passed information to foreign journalists received long prison sentences.

The Gulja massacre is just one of many examples of the continuous oppression of the Uighurs. In July 1999 the Chinese authorities declared a state of emergency in Khotan, in the south of the province. A short while ago a leading member of the Communist Party in the town told a Chinese newspaper that since the state of emergency was imposed 71 Uighurs had been executed by firing squad for so-called "separatist activities" and 917 other persons had been detained. Human rights organisations have been unable to confirm these alarming facts as they have been denied access to the town.

We appeal to the UN Human Rights Commission to call for an immediate halt to all executions and for the immediate release without delay of all Uighur prisoners arrested while exercising their right of freedom of worship and their right to demonstrate. The People's Republic of China should also be called upon to abstain from any further criminalisation of the Uighurs' human rights and democracy movement and to guarantee freedom of worship.