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Report on Lukchun, Hotan and Urumchi Incidents 2013

Press Release — For immediate release
27 August 2013
Contact: World Uyghur Congress
 www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

Between March and August 2013, several incidents rocked the Uyghur people in East Turkestan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), representing a great cause for concern and a serious degradation in their full enjoyment of their fundamental human rights.

Reports emerged of arbitrary detentions, harsh sentencing, extra-judicial killings and curbs on the freedom of the press as the authorities try to manipulate the narrative of what has been happening in East Turkestan. These human rights violations have principally happened in predominantly-Uyghur areas at Maralbeshi County (Bucha in Mandarin), Lukchun, Urumchi and Hotan.

In this report, the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has documented, based on reports by media and the Chinese authorities, that a conservative number of 103 people have died, possibly rising to 138, and either 125 or 136 arrests, detentions or both thereof since March 2013; however, the amount of deaths and detentions are potentially much higher, according to information that the WUC has received from the ground. Additionally, this figure for the detentions could again rise further to possibly 735 people, assuming the figures of 200 (or 400) and 199 people detained released by Chinese media on 28 June 2013 and 23 July 2013 respectively are not the same people as those detailed in this report.

In view of the recent developments, the WUC concludes that, rather than embracing a freely pluralist society in which the Uyghur people, their rich language, culture, history and religion can play an important role in an emerging China, the Chinese authorities have been cutting off their nose to spite their face with their continued repressive policies, ignorance and reticence towards the underlying issues, and their placing of legitimate peaceful dissent within the framework of a global war on terror.

The report can be read in full here.