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UCA Press Release on the recent arrest of Ms. Rabiya Kadeer Children

Immediate Release
June 17, 2006

The Uyghur Canadian Association echoes the international community in strongly condemning China’s recent arrest of Mrs. Rabiya  Kadeer’s three children and demands their unconditional release immediately.

“Rabiya Kadeer is not alone; the Uyghur diaspora and international community will stay firm by her side to secure the release of her three children, who have been unlawfully arrested by Chinese authorities as revenge for Rabiya’s courageous struggle for Uyghur human rights,” said Mohamed
Tohti, President of the Uyghur Canadian Association.

According to media reports, the Chinese government has targeted Rabiya Kadeer’s family before, and has now jailed her three adult children, Kahar Abdureyim, Ablikim Abdureyim and Alim Abdureyim, under the charges of “tax evasion, conspiracy to overthrow the government and rejection of cooperating with police authority.” Currently, the rest of the family members are kept under house arrest with strict police surveillance at their residence.

The initial arrest of Ms. Rabiya Kadeer’s children by China’s authority came on May 30th, 2006, as a U.S. Congressional delegation was on an official visit to Urumqi, the capital of East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur

Autonomous Region) to assess the status of Uyghur human rights in the region. After news of the arrest broke, the U.S Congressional team cancelled its visit, and returned to the U.S to protest the unlawful arrest of Mrs. Kadeer’s children.

Rabiya Kadeer has been imprisoned more then six years in China prior to her release March 17, 2005 on medical parole, just days before the official visit of U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to China.

Mrs. Kadeer has been an outspoken critic of China’s systematic abuse of Uyghur human rights in East Turkistan, and has peacefully campaigned for the basic rights of all Uyghur people. For her work, she has been honoured with the Norwegian Rafto Human Rights Prize and has also been nominated for the Noble Peace Prize in 2005.

The Uyghur Canadian Association is deeply concerned about the fate of Mrs.Kadeer’s children in China and demands that the Canadian government, in following suit with the international community, put the utmost pressure on China to seek their immediate release.

Contact:
Mohamed Tohti
Uyghur Canadian Association
President
www.uyghurcanadian.org
[email protected]
416 825 8641