Friday, August 26, 2005

Washington – The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) condemns the Chinese government’s terror allegations against prominent Uyghur human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer and demands Beijing to apologize for such serious and groundless allegations.

“We demand the Chinese authorities to immediately apologize for such unfounded allegations against Ms. Kadeer and stop such demonizations against prominent Uyghur political leaders in the future,” Erkin Alptekin, President of WUC, said.

Wang Lequan, party secretary of ‘Xinjiang’, said on Thursday that Ms. Kadeer while abroad conspired with separatists and religious extremists about how to plan terror attacks and jeopardize the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ‘Xinjiang’ Uyghur Autonomous Region on October 1.

In response to such baseless allegations, Ms. Kadeer said, “the Chinese government wants to silence my voice before the international community with such unsubstantiated charges of tax evasion, fraud, huge debts, and terrorism.”

“Speaking out against the Chinese government’s gross violations of the fundamental human rights of the Uyghur people is not terrorism,” she added.

According to Ms. Kadeer, the Chinese authorities warned her prior to her release to the U.S.that her business and children would be “finished” if she did anything against the interest of the People’s Republic. According to Human Rights Watch, the Chinese police raided Ms. Kadeer’s trading business in ‘Xinjiang’, tried to arrest one of her sons and beaten up and detained two of her associates in May.

Today the Chinese government continues to harass her family members in Urumchi, obstruct her business entrusted to her sons, and detain her associates without any charges. By taking such excessive measures against her family and associates in China, and by demonizing her with “terrorist” allegations internationally, Beijing is attempting to crush Ms. Kadeer’s human rights activism around the world. Yet, she is determined to fight peacefully for the human rights of the Uyghur people until China stops violating them.

The World Uyghur Congress condemns terrorism in all shapes and forms whether it is being committed by a state, a group, or an individual. WUC promotes the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine the political future of East Turkestan.