For immediate release
August 15, 2014
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 (Munich, Germany), +1 (202) 535 0048 (Washington, DC, USA)

After hearing the news distributed by the official Chinese media and alleged confessions, the WUC (World Uyghur Congress) is concerned about the well-being of, and would like to draw the world’s attention to, the fate of a Uyghur blogger Mr. Ababekri Rehim.

As per Chinese media, Mr. Ababekri Rehim has confessed on state TV of providing misleading information about the latest events in Yarkent to the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), which allegedly posted it on its website. We would like to stress that the information about the latest events in Yarkent region was obtained though the multiple sources on the ground. The sources’ identities are known to us and the name of Mr. Ababekri Rehim is not among them. Also, as seen on TV as well as the images shown of Mr. Ababekri, some can doubt whether these confessions were made under duress or torture.

Even if we accept that those confessions were sincere (taking into consideration that the information which was provided is trustworthy) please note that the alleged information was more or less the same and reflected the previously obtained statistics and updates on Uyghur victims in the region from the different sources on the ground.

Regardless of whether this information was provided by Mr. Ababekri Rehim or not, the provision of information by itself should not be considered a crime, and his forced confession and imprisonment is a direct violation of his freedom of thought and speech as well as the free exchange of information.

Again, as per allegations advanced by the Chinese state, Mr. Ababekri did not go to Yarkent, but collected his information from sources on the street. His information is based upon street rumours and on his estimates and imagination solely. It is worth mentioning that the worsening situation in the region is such that Chinese authorities did not reveal any information regarding the violence which was taking place in the region until July 6. We suppose that China is acting this way with the sole purpose of hiding the truth and one of the alleged crimes advanced by authorities towards Mr. Ababekri is that, “he tried to draw the world’s attention” to the events.

So, his alleged crimes are not criminal, but exemplary behaviour of a concerned, responsible and heroic human being. If he is accused in spreading the false information by providing the inflated numbers to the media it can be checked easily by granting full and unrestricted access to international media in the area.

Chinese authorities have no right to accuse Mr. Ababekri Rehim in providing the false information because they did not grant such an opportunity to the international independent media or even to its own Chinese media outlets. There was much delay in announcing the number of victims as it was stated that 13 were killed from the beginning, but when Mr. Ababekri Rehim announced his information, Chinese media stated the number of victims as 96. How can we trust these numbers?

The information provided by Chinese authorities is biased and there is no independent media present in the area reporting from Yarkent. The information provided by Mr. Ababekri in comparison is trustworthy.

Again, the accusations against Mr. Ababekri by Chinese authorities in gathering information on the streets are groundless since China maintains control over all information at all times.

Most importantly, the letter which was allegedly sent by Mr. Ababekri is describing the overall deteriorating situation in the region well, particularly in Yarkent, and is not far from the reality.

One thing is clear, that by sending out the alleged letter to the international community, Mr. Ababekri did not seek any material advantages for himself, but rather fulfilled his human and national ethnic duty. We recognize Mr. Ababekri Rehim as a prisoner of conscience.

There are two points which worry us most: First, by extracting the forced confession of Mr. Ababekri Rehim, Chinese authorities are pursuing the goal of hiding the true scope of the massacres that happened in Yarkent which leads the international community to believe the Chinese official interpretation of the events. Secondly, by punishing Mr. Ababekri, China wants to send out a signal to all Uyghurs in forcing them to silence.

We ask all concerned Human Right’s defending organizations and world’s state democracies to demand China to free Mr. Ababekri Rehim. His only alleged crime was to inform the world about the ongoing massacres happening in the Uyghur region and to break the wall of silence imposed by China and in doing so, putting his life in the danger.