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At a year of their disappearance, the Nonviolent Radical Party calls on international organizations to urge Beijing to disclose the whereabouts of the 20 Uyghurs deported from Cambodia to China

15 December 2010

For more information, contact:
Mr. Marco Perduca
Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational and Transparty (Rome, Italy), www.radicalparty.org
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel.: +393490815747

Statement by Senator Marco Perduca, co-vicepresident of the Nonviolent Radical Party and Treasurer of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization:

“In patent violations of international procedures, the Cambodian Government transferred on December 19 of last year 20 Uyghurs before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) could make a determination about their refugee status.

Since then, as usual, China has rewarded Cambodia for her collaborative stance by signing an agreement two to provide US$1.2 billion in aid to Cambodia. Phnom Penh returned these Uyghurs to China knowing that they would encounter harsh prosecution from the State violating the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol to the Refugee Convention, of which it is a party.

The group of Uyghurs had fled to Cambodia and sought protection from UNHCR there following the protest and the ethnic unrest in July 2009 in Urumqi, the regional capital of East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China). One of the Uyghurs in the group had fled to Cambodia shortly before July 2009 with a valid visa issued by the Cambodian government. Among the nineteen Uyghurs who fled after the July 2009 incidents were Uyghurs who had witnessed  Chinese security forces arresting and using brutal and lethal force against demonstrators during the peaceful Uyghur protests in July 2009 in Urumqi. A couple of the Uyghurs in the group of returnees gave eyewitness accounts during their time in Cambodia. All of the 20 Uyghurs applied for protection from UNHCR in a foreign country.

The Nonviolent Radical Party calls on international organizations, starting from the European Unione, to urge Beijing to disclose the whereabouts of the 20 Uyghurs deported from Cambodia to China.

Originally published at: http://www.radicalparty.org/en/content/year-their-disappearance-nonviolent-radical-party-calls-international-organizations-urge-bei