Press Release – For immediate release
14 October 2014
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) condemns the recent death sentences given to 12 Uyghurs in relation to an incident that left scores of innocent civilians dead many other injured back on July 28 of this year. Death sentences have become increasingly common in the region with scores of others suffering the same fate in the past few months. The increase in frequency of these trials and sentences signals that the state has stepped up its one-year anti-terror campaign by exhibiting excessive force against its population. Such an approach will invariably exacerbate an already tense situation in East Turkestan and prove that the Chinese government has no intention to ease such tension, address root causes of the problems and resolve the long-standing conflict.

The initial mass protests were in response to the arrest and brutal beating of a number of women who had gathered to pray to celebrate the end of Ramadan as well as the extra-judicial killing of a family of five in a dispute over the wearing of the traditional headscarf in a house to house search by security forces. The subsequent march of Uyghur protesters to a police station and government office triggered the mass shootings. The protesters merely looked to ensure that those arrested were released and that those involved in the killings could be held to account.

State-controlled media initially reported that a knife wielding gang of Uyghur terrorists had killed a number of Han and Uyghur residents, though overseas media such as the Guardian and the BBC stated that such a narrative could not be corroborated, however. The final death toll has also been a major point of contention, with Chinese sources initially suggesting that only dozens had been killed, while later announcing that 96 had been shot dead. Uyghur sources in the region, however, cite the death toll in the hundreds and potentially thousands, based on interviews with Uyghur and Han residents, as security forces conducted house-to-house searches following the protests.

As has been seen over the past six months, it has become increasingly common for the Chinese government to sentence Uyghurs without the proper observance of legal procedures. The most recent death sentences doled out in 2014 have shown that the majority, if not all, of these decisions are implemented quickly by Chinese authorities. None of these sentences have been delivered transparently or with any opportunity for external scrutiny by third parties. There has been no evidence that the suspects were provided any kind of legal representation or defence. What this approach likely signals is that the government is looking to set a precedent by which absolutely no Uyghur dissent is tolerated. The most recent one year anti-terror campaign beginning at the end of May has led to increasingly harsh measures including house to house searches, hundreds of arbitrary arrests, and even greater curbs on cultural and religious freedoms.

The WUC urges states and other international organizations to pressure the Chinese government to stop issuing death sentences to Uyghur political prisoners and ask Chinese authorities to provide a full account of these trials including information regarding the detention, indictment and defence of the suspects. What is needed most at a time like this is international scrutiny of the entire process. It has been particularly clear in 2014 that the Chinese government will stop at nothing to make an example of those that challenge the state, a fact that is deeply troubling to Uyghurs who wish to live in peace in the region.

Amnesty International has called the death sentence “the ultimate denial of human rights” and reminded us that its use is in clear violation of the right to life under the Universal Declaration. The WUC reminds the international community that China has consistently been in clear violation of a number of internationally recognized human rights norms and continues to disregard the essential principles of freedom of speech and assembly as well as the right of legal due process. We must call attention to these abhorrent crimes and ensure that there is an effective response.

Following the inauguration of the “anti-terror” campaign, security and police have taken any and every opportunity to exercise force against Uyghurs. It is often said that it is tempting that if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat every problem as though it were a nail. This aphorism is indeed instructive in this case, as China’s approach to Uyghur dissent has solely been to treat Uyghurs as terrorists and innocent civilians as collaborators.