Press Release – For immediate release
10 April 2012
Contact:  World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

As media reported, China urged Japan yesterday to prevent the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) to hold its 4^th General Assembly in Tokyo next month, stating “the organization [WUC] seeks to damage Chinese sovereignty.” From 14 – 17 May, the WUC will hold its 4th General Assembly in Tokyo, followed by its annual Leadership training Seminar (18 – 20 May). The WUC expects around 100 Uyghur delegates from around the world to attend both events. The Opening Ceremony will take place on 14 May at the Japanese Parliament and is open to the public. The WUC strongly protests China´s unjustified pressure on the Japanese authorities and calls on the Japanese government to not to bow to Chinese claims.

“While we are used to China´s pressure on peaceful Uyghur activities in exile in general and our organisation in particular, it is alarming to see how the Chinese authorities are trying to export their repressive policies even to democratic countries,” said Uyghur democracy leader and WUC President Rebiya Kadeer today. “The Chinese government systematically violates the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly within the country, especially in East Turkestan, and it is a shame that it also attempts to silence legitimate Uyghur dissident voices in exile, even in democratic countries.”

Many WUC leaders visited Japan in the past where they met with Japanese officials and parliamentarians and attended conferences as key panellists. These visits confirmed that there is a wide support for the Uyghurs in Japan, and the WUC calls on the Japanese government to continue guaranteeing freedom of expression and assembly in its country, including for the Uyghurs. The WUC also urges the international community to express its disagreement with China´s pressure on foreign governments to violate basic human rights.

“China´s accusation that the WUC ‘harms the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’ is simply preposterous,” added Ms. Kadeer. “The WUC promotes human rights for the Uyghur people through democratic and nonviolent means. Our aim is to give a voice to the Uyghur people in East Turkestan whose rights are threatened day by day by the Chinese authorities.”

The Chinese authorities have repeatedly and groundlessly accused the WUC and especially its President Rebiya Kadeer of having masterminded the violent events in the region without. Only recently, the Chinese government falsely claimed the WUC had instigated violence in Kargilik instead of attributing social tensions and protests in the region to its own discriminatory and repressive policies.

China similarly accused His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile for allegedly instigating violence in Tibet in order to deflect its human rights violations and also pressured foreign governments not to issue His Holiness a visa to visit their respective countries and speak at events. Most recently, South Africa, a nation that fought racism and apartheid, denied His Holiness a visa to attend the 80th birthday of Archbishop Desmond Tutu due to intense Chinese pressure.

As the Society for Threatened Peoples (www.gfbv.org) published in a press release in November 2009, the Chinese government started a defamation campaign against Uyghur human rights activists six years prior when “in December 2003, the Chinese Foreign Ministry termed the fore-runner organisation of the WUC, the World Youth Congress of the Uyghurs with its seat in Munich, a ’terrorist’ organisation. The German government was called on to close its office, to block its bank accounts and to deport all its members to China. The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution gave an assurance in their reply to the question from the Society for Threatened Peoples that they had no objections to the activities of the human rights activists. The Uyghurs were concerned to maintain a high level of transparency and gave regular reports to the Bavarian Office on their work.” Since that moment, the Chinese authorities have not stopped their efforts to block and defame the activities of the Uyghur diaspora.

In April 2010 during a visit to China, the Chinese government demanded of the Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer to place the WUC on a terrorist list. However, Mr. Seehofer stressed that the WUC is a legal organization in Germany and acts according to all applicable laws of this country, and that there is no reason to think that the WUC is pursuing extremist and therefore terrorist aims, or is supporting violent efforts in China.

Past efforts by the Chinese authorities to prevent Uyghur events to take place or attacks on Uyghur leaders in exile include, but are not limited to:

August 2008: WUC Secretary General Dolkun Isa Barred from Entering Turkey

WUC Secretary general was prevented from entering Turkey in August 2008, the year of the Olympic Games of Beijing. He was stopped at the airport of Antalya and was held for 25 hours before he was put on an airplane back to Germany. Also WUC President Rebiya Kadeer is not allowed to enter Turkey.

August 2009: Australia Pressured to Prohibit Rebiya Kadeer`s Visit

In August 2009, China pressured Australia to prevent WUC President Rebiya Kadeer from attending the Melbourne International Film Festival. However, the Australian authorities refused China’s demands and issued a visa for Ms. Kadeer and allowed her to attend the festival.

15 September 2009: Arrest of WUC Secretary General Dolkun Isa in South Korea

WUC General Secretary Dolkun Isa was detained on 15 September 2009 in the airport of Seoul, South Korea when he tried to enter the country legally and with a German passport to attend the “World Forum for Democratization in Asia” to which he had been invited. His detention was the result of China´s pressure on the South Korean authorities demanding his extradition. After three days, and following the intervention of Western governments and embassies international, as well as of human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, the Society for Threatened Peoples, UNPO, and the World Forum for Democratization in Asia (WFDA) itself, the authorities in Seoul released him and sent him back to Germany.

September 2009: Rebiya Kadeer Barred from Entering Taiwan

WUC President Rebiya Kadeer planned to visit Taiwan in December 2009 for a series of speeches at the invitation of an entertainer close to Taiwan’s anti-China opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). However, in September 2009, the Taiwanese authorities announced they would not allow her the visit, citing ”safety concerns,” but following pressure exerted by China. Taiwan opposition leaders had already infuriated China by hosting the Dalai Lama in early September 2009 and showing the documentary “The 10 Conditions of Love” (about Rebiya Kadeer’s life) in the same month. Media reported in July 2010, that Rebiya Kadeer in fact had been barred from entering Taiwan for three years.

April 2010: Pakistani Uyghurs Barred from Travelling

In spring 2010, two Uyghurs from Pakistan, the brothers Akbar and Omer, along with two other Uyghurs, were invited by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) to participate in an international conference entitled “Uyghurs´ Call for Dialogue with China” which took place at the end of April 2010 in the European Parliament in Brussels. However, soon after applying for their visa, they had to flee from police after neighbours told them their close relatives had been detained for several hours. They went into hiding for several days and were not able to attend the conference.

May 2011: Travel Ban for Central Asian Uyghurs

In May 2011, five Uyghur exile leaders from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, among them WUC Vice President Kahriman Ghojamberdi were prevented by the local authorities from participating in an international Uyghur conference in Washington, DC.  The Uyghur leaders who had all valid passports and visas planned to attend the international conference ”The Future of the Uyghurs in East Turkestan”, held 2 – 8 May 2011, which is co-sponsored by Freedom House, WUC, the Uyghur American Association (UAA) and the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation (IUHRDF). The men were prevented from travelling due to Chinese pressure. Central Asian countries are under strong influence from China, especially since the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, along with Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China, are members of the regional security grouping, in which Beijing wields pre-eminent influence.

June 2011: Uyghurs from Pakistan Barred from Travelling Abroad

Two prominent members of the exiled Uyghur community in Pakistan were again barred from travelling abroad. The brothers Akbar and Omer Osman, who co-founded a charity to teach Pakistani Uyghurs their own language in the northern city of Rawalpindi, planned to fly to Istanbul on 17 June 2011 to attend the one week conference “East Turkestan Brothers’ Union Summit” organized by Uyghur groups in Turkey. However, at Islamabad´s airport Pakistani authorities told them that they were not allowed to travel abroad despite holding valid passports, visas, and airplane tickets. Pakistani authorities later confirmed that they two men had been placed on a no-fly list at the demand of Chinese authorities.