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China uses 9/11 to crack down on Xinjiang: World Uyghur Congress

Want China Times, 12 September 2011

Over the past decade China has used global campaigns targeting terrorists to jail thousands of ethnic Muslim Uyghurs in the autonomous Xinjiang region, a minority rights group says.

The Germany-based World Uyghur Congress said Beijing has attributed any social unrest in Xinjiang to the forces of “terrorism, separatism and religious extremism” and has jailed or executed alleged perpetrators.

“The Chinese authorities found in 9/11 the perfect excuse to crack down on all forms of peaceful political, social and cultural Uyghur dissent,” the exiled head of the congress, Rebiya Kadeer, said.

“While the number of protests against government policies is increasing day by day in the whole country, only Uighur protests are labeled as ‘terrorism.'”

The government blamed the Pakistan-based East Turkistan Islamic Movement for organizing attacks by Uyghurs carried out in late July that left at least 20 dead in southern Xinjiang. At least 26 people were sentenced to death, most of them Uyghurs, after riots in July 2009 left some 200 people dead and 1,700 injured in the regional capital, Urumqi.

The incidents are examples of the many outbreaks of ethnic violence that have plagued the region in recent years as the Uyghur minority reacts to what it regards as cultural and religious oppression, as well as an unwanted influx of ethnic Han Chinese.

Up to 7,000 Uyghurs may have been jailed for violations of state security laws since 2001, when China joined the global “war on terror” following the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the group said, citing press reports and independent rights groups.

The World Uyghur Congress also criticized Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Uzbekistan for repatriating at least 180 Uyghurs to China since 2001 “without respect for their rights, including the right to seek asylum.”

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