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

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) condemns the recent killings of Uyghurs Yilkiqi township in Kargilik (Yecheng in Mandarin) county in Kashgar prefecture. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Uyghurs were killed following a lightning police raid on 20 Augst 2013, but the revealed information fails to adequately stand to question, leaving a dark shadow over the actions of the Chinese authorities. In light of recent events in Maralbeshi and Lukchun, the WUC urges pause for caution and reflection on this latest incident, and calls upon the international community to press for more information, clarity and accountability surrounding it.

According to the RFA report, armed police undertook a raid in the in Yilkiqi township in a planned anti-terror operation in which a number of Uyghurs and a Han Chinese police officer were killed after the former were accused of illegal religious activities and terrorism. Although the exact number of Uyghur fatalities was not officially disclosed, one police assistant not present at the scene revealed that 15 Uyghurs had been reportedly killed.

Other reports have however differed in their narrative, revealing that police surrounded a group of Uyghurs who were peacefully praying in the desert, following which they began to fire upon the Uyghurs, swiftly burying the deceased in a hole dug up by a bulldozer. In this narrative, the death toll was put at 26. It was also reported that security has now been bolstered to quell any dissent at the incident.

As with previous incidents in Maralbeshi, Lukchun, Hotan and Urumchi during recent months, the authorities were quick to label the incidents as the result of terrorism, whilst subsequently vowing to strike hard on terrorists.

Yilkiqi township police chief Batur Osman boasted to RFA that they had “successfully and completely [destroyed] the terrorists” during their anti-terror raid, which reveals that the authorities were intent on killing those present rather than allowing them to stand before a court to defend themselves against these allegations on which little has been disclosed.

Moreover, a second representative revealed that only 6 knives and axes were found at the scene, leaving the question as to why a pre-planned operation consisting of armed police aplenty were unable to deal with a group of Uyghurs with very little by means of weaponry in comparison.

WUC President Ms Rebiya Kadeer said, “the Chinese authorities continue to use the same banal rhetoric for such incidents which fails to adequately address the longstanding issues underlying the bubbling tensions in East Turkestan and equally only serves to exacerbate increasing distrust in the authorities due to the pervasive impunity of their actions.”

The WUC is deeply concerned about this recent incident, and even more so as incidents of this kind continue to emerge in which persistent questions remain on the revelations of some of the most serious human rights violations, including torture, arbitrary detentions, extra-judicial killings and the application of the death penalty. “The international community must keep a watchful eye upon developments in East Turkestan, and ensure that they do not fall foul to the erroneous and leaky narrative of the Chinese authorities.”

The WUC therefore calls on the international community to utilise the upcoming 24^th Session of the UN Human Rights Council and the Second Cycle of China’s Universal Periodic Review to raise these very real and deeply troubling human rights violations.