Chinese Uyghur Human Rights Activist Nominated for the Peace Nobel Prize
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Willy Fautré
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Datum:
26/09/2006
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Nieuws
Human Rights Without Frontiers Int.
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Information and Press Service
"Human Rights in China"
Chinese Uyghur Human Rights Activist Nominated
for the Peace Nobel Prize
UNPO welcomes Kadeer Nobel Prize nomination
China Muslim activist: From (virtual) Unknown
to Nobel Nominee
European Parliament : Question about the arrest
by Chinese authorities of three children of Rebiya Kadeer
26 September 2006
Editor-in-chief: Willy Fautre
Website: http://www.hrwf.org
Email: info@hrwf.net
Chinese Uyghur Human Rights Activist
Nominated for the Peace Nobel Prize
This month, Swedish MP
Annelie Enochson nominated Rebiya Kadeer for the Peace Nobel Prize. She
has already received the prestigious Rafto Prize for Human Rights, previous
winners of which have on several occasions proceeded to win the Nobel
Prize. Rebeya Khadeer now leads the Uyghur American Association (Washington).
The director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
Int. (Brussels) met her in the States at mid-September and discussed about
the situation of the Uyghurs in China as well as about the numerous Uyghur
refugees from Central Asia and China whose applications for political
asylum in the EU member states are routinely turned down. |
Meeting with Rebiya
Kadeer in Washington
 |
Rebiya Kadeer is among the most prominent members of China's Uyghur ethnic
group in the largely Muslim Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. She has made
significant contributions to securing women's rights in China and founded the
"Thousand Mothers Movement" to promote employment for Uyghur women.
The Chinese government itself recognized her contributions by appointing her
to its delegation for the 1995 United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing.
Two years after the Beijing Conference, however, officials confiscated her
passport. Police harassment followed, placing further restrictions on her movements.
The Chinese government apparently was attempting to silence her husband, an
outspoken critic of the government, who was living abroad, by intimidating her.
In September 1999, the government charged Rebiya Kadeer with "providing
secret information to foreigners," although the "secrets" turned
out to be publicly available local newspapers in her possession. Following a
trial held in secret, a Chinese court sentenced her to eight years' imprisonment.
Her secretary, arrested shortly after she was taken into custody, received a
three-year term of "re-education through labor" for his association
with her.
Amnesty International then considered Rebiya Kadeer to be a prisoner of conscience.
China Muslim Activist: From (virtual)
Unknown to Nobel Nominee
By Benjamin Kang Lim
Reuters (11.09.2006) / HRWF Int. (25.09.2006) - Email: info@hrwf.net
- Website: http://www.hrwf.net – China counted
on Rebiya Kadeer, a Muslim businesswoman-turned-activist, fading into political
irrelevance like most exiled Chinese dissidents when she left for the United
States last year. But it may have miscalculated.
Kadeer, 58, an ethnic Uighur jailed for more than five years in China for providing
state secrets to foreigners before her exile, won a Rafto Prize for human rights
in Norway in 2004 and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
"Rebiya Kadeer champions the rights of western China's Uighur ethnic group
and is one of China's most prominent advocates of women's rights," Annelie
Enochson, a Swedish parliamentarian, wrote in nominating Kadeer for the prestigious
Nobel award.
"Kadeer has also used her resources as founder and director of a large
trading company in northwestern China to provide fellow Uighurs with training
and employment," Enochson wrote in the nomination, a copy of which was
sent to Reuters by e-mail.
This year's winner is due to be announced in Oslo on Oct. 13.
Kadeer is probably only one of many nominees as any member of parliament worldwide
can put forward a name.
Four Rafto laureates have gone on to win the Nobel prize.
Only 12 women have won since 1901, upsetting many feminists.
The director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, said in 2001
the committee should "sooner rather than later" speak out about the
lack of democratic rights in China. He said China was the main exception to
a global move to democracy.
One-time laundress
Tibet's god-king, the Dalai Lama, won the Nobel prize in 1989, almost 40 years
after Chinese troops marched into his homeland. He fled to India in 1959 after
an abortive uprising against Chinese Communist rule.
Kadeer, a one-time laundress, was little known outside China before her exile
but a win would raise the profile of militant Uighurs' hitherto faceless movement
to make the restive region of Xinjiang an independent state called East Turkestan.
"Rebiya has undisputed legitimacy and the capacity of uniting Uighurs
in exile," said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher in Hong Kong for
the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Kadeer, president of the Uighur American Association, is tipped to be elected
president of the World Uighur Congress in October, a source close to her said.
Her biography in German, "A Woman's Struggle against the Dragon",
will be published next year.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the nomination but
denounced Kadeer for "frequently engaging in anti-Chinese splittist activities".
"This kind of person is not qualified to represent Chinese Uighurs,"
the ministry spokesman's office said in a statement.
China keeps a tight grip on oil-rich Xinjiang, which shares borders with three
former Soviet Central Asian republics, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and Mongolia.
China calls Uighur militants terrorists and blames them for a string of bombings
and assassinations in the 1990s.
But human rights groups say China has used its support for the U.S.-led war
on terrorism to justify a wider crackdown on Uighurs, including arbitrary arrests,
closed-door trials and use of the death penalty.
Kadeer was once a member of the top advisory body to China's parliament but
fell from grace and was arrested in 1999 while on her way to meet U.S. congressmen
visiting Xinjiang.
Her assets were worth 270 million yuan ($33.8 million) at the time of her arrest
but her trading firm and other businesses in real estate are now almost bankrupt
due to official harassment.
She said two of her sons were beaten up by Chinese police when they were detained
in June and accused of tax evasion. The whereabouts of a third son who faces
subversion charges are unknown and a daughter has been put under house arrest.
"Wang Lequan rushed to arrest my sons but Beijing may not rush to sentence
them," Kadeer, a mother of 11, told Reuters by telephone from her office
in Washington, referring to Xinjiang's Communist Party chief. She insisted her
children were innocent.
Kadeer pledged to champion the rights of Uighur women and children at any cost,
lamenting that many girls ended up working as prostitutes in Chinese cities
and boys became thieves or pickpockets.
"I'm ready to pay the price," she said. "The more the Chinese
government tries to destroy me, the more respect and influence I will have from
my people."
UNPO Welcomes Kadeer Nobel Prize
Nomination
Uyghur American Association (13.09.2006) / HRWF Int. (26.09.2006) - Email:
info@hrwf.net - Website: http://www.hrwf.net
– The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) welcomes the nomination
of prominent Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer for the Nobel Prize, made by Swedish
parliamentarian Annelie Enochson.
The Uyghur American Association (UAA), which represents the collective voice
of the Uyghur people in the United States of America, has issued a press release
in which Ms. Kadeer states that “I am honored to have been nominated for such
a prestigious prize. I view it as a mark of recognition of the plight of all
Uyghur people. I am a woman of peace.”
She adds, “Therefore I oppose all violence and acts of terrorism. I am committed
to campaigning peacefully for the human rights of Uyghur people. I will continue
to speak out against China’s persecution of not only the Uyghur people, but
also Tibetans, Mongolians, and the Chinese people themselves until all of them
can enjoy their rights and freedoms.”
Rebiya Kadeer has relentlessly worked to draw attention to the suffering of
the Uyghur population in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang, tirelessly
pressuring both the international community and the Chinese authorities to address
the human rights violations common to the region. Rebiya Kadeer has already
received the prestigious Rafto Prize for Human Rights, previous winners of which
have on several occasions proceeded to win the Nobel Prize.
Kadeer, a mother of eleven, rose to prominence in her home province of Xinjiang
after a number of successful business ventures earner her the praise of Chinese
authorities and a prestigious consultative position. Her main focus fell however
on directing her wealth towards the creation of employment and opportunity for
the native Uyghur population. The Chinese authorities’ regard for Kadeer suffered
a drastic reversal in 1999.
After a long period of continuous surveillance, she was placed under arrest
for allegedly transmitting “secret information,” in the form of clippings from
publicly available newspapers, to her husband exiled in the United States. Whilst
sentenced to imprisonment for eight years in a secret trail in 2000, intensive
international pressure secured her early release in 2005.
The Uyghurs are a distinct, Turkic-speaking ethnic group whose homeland enjoyed
a brief period of autonomy as East Turkestan in the late 1940s, but who have
lived under Chinese rule since 1949. Eastern Turkestan is a founding member
of UNPO. UNPO is especially encouraged by the timing of Kadeer’s nomination,
as reports continue to suggest a steady deterioration in the conditions of the
Uyghur population of East Turkestan.
The predominantly Muslim population is known to have suffered as a result of
a range of government actions in the region, conducted under the cloak of the
“war on terror.” Arbitrary detention, including that of members of Kadeer’s
own family and staff, are especially troubling. A renewed focus on the Uyghur
is also welcome in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, an event which
has revived the international community’s interest in China’s human rights record.
UNPO General Secretary Marino Busdachin is proud to count the remarkable Rebiya
Kadeer amongst the leaders of UNPO. “We are confident that there is no better
candidate for the prize with respect to the cause of universal human rights
and as a means of forcing China to confront its exceptionally poor human rights
record and to recognise its peoples’ desire for brisk and far-reaching democratic
reform,” Mr. Busdachin states.
This year’s winner of the Nobel Prize will be announced in Oslo on 13 October.
Kadeer’s selection would undoubtedly do a great deal to advance the universal
cause of democratic and human rights, as well as raising awareness of the plight
of indigenous populations such as the Uyghur.
European Parliament - European Commission
Question about the arrest by Chinese
authorities of three children of Rebiya Kadeer
Written Question E-2808/06 by Marco Cappato (ALDE)
to the Commission
Subject: Arrest by Chinese authorities of three Uyghur adult children
of human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer
According to a recent report published by the UNPO, three adult children of
Uyghur human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience, Ms Rebiya Kadeer,
have been detained by Chinese police and are being refused legal counsel. Two
of the adult children were severely beaten up by Chinese police officers outside
the regional capital of Urumchi. One was taken to hospital upon losing consciousness
after the event was witnessed by four of Ms Kadeer’s grandchildren when they
were told by the Chinese police that they were leaving Urumchi to do some ‘sightseeing’.
This detention coincides with the arrival of a United States Congressional team
in East Turkestan also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
On Monday 29 May 2006, Ablikim and Alim Abdiriyim and Rushangul were taken
into custody one day before the US Congressional visit to the region. Last year,
Ms Kadeer contacted a US Congressional team visiting the area. As a result,
she was accompanied by a small envoy of US State Department officials in Beijing
to be escorted with them back to the US, where she has lived in exile ever since.
Chinese officials have reportedly threatened her, citing consequences for her
children and her business, not to speak out on behalf of the Uyghur people.
The current whereabouts of Alim and Rushangul remain unknown, although they
are reported officially by the Chinese Government to be under house arrest.
Based on the above facts, can the Commission say:
- if the Commission is aware of the above mentioned facts;
- what action has been taken in order to ensure the immediate release of
Ablikim, Alim Abdiriyim and Rushangul from Chinese custody;
- whether the question of minority rights in East Turkestan (Xinjiang Autonomous
Region) will be raised in the framework of the human rights dialogue with
the Chinese authorities?
Answer E-2808/06EN given by Mrs Ferrero-Waldner on
behalf of the Commission (4.09.2006)
The Commission is aware of the detention and allegations of torture of the
children of Rebiya Kadeer. It has already raised its strong concerns in this
regard on several occasions, most recently in a meeting with the Chinese Ministry
of Foreign Affairs on 27 June 2006. In addition, the Commission is increasingly
troubled by the practice of Chinese law enforcement officials of targeting the
close family of political dissidents and well known human rights defenders.
This issue is currently being discussed among the Member States and the Commission
delegation in Beijing.
Minority rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are regularly raised
in the framework of the EU-China human rights dialogue. Indeed, they were a
key concern of the 20th Round of the dialogue in October 2005, after which a
three-day field trip took place in Xinjiang. This gave the EU an opportunity
to discuss minority rights in greater depth with local officials and religious
leaders in both Urumqi and Aksu.
Minority rights throughout China will remain high on the EU’s agenda in forthcoming
dialogues on human rights.
Rebiya Kadeer meets with Kofi Annan,
Secretary-General of the United Nations
The director of Human Rights Without
Frontiers Int.
meeting with Dennis P. Halpin, a member of the U.S.
Congressional team visiting Xinjiang at the time of the
arrest of Rebiya Kadeer's children (Washington, 13.09.06)
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