Press Release – For immediate release
31 May 2011
Contact:  World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

Ershidin Israel, 38, a Uyghur refugee currently in detention in an unknown location in Kazakhstan, is in imminent danger of being extradited to China after Kazakh authorities rejected his asylum application. Mr. Israel was taken yesterday at 8.00 p.m. (local time) from the prison in Almaty where he was detained by one Kazakh prosecutor and two Chinese men, probably police, to an unknown location. Neither his family nor his lawyer where informed about his whereabouts and his legal status and the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) believes that his is on the way to be extradited to China today at 9.00 p.m. (local time) in a flight from Almaty to Urumqi, the regional capital of East Turkestan.

The WUC is extremely worried about Mr. Israel’s fate and calls on the international community to stand up for Mr. Israel and call on the Kazakh authorities to not send him back to China where he would face detention and torture. Uyghurs who have been extradited to China in the past, were detained, imprisoned, sentenced, tortured, executed or disappeared after their return to China.

On 2 July 2010, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, together with the Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, sent an urgent appeal to the Chinese government regarding Ershidin Israel.

Ershidin Israel fled East Turkestan in September 2009 after having provided information to Radio Free Asia (RFA, www.rfa.org) about the apparent torture to death of a young Uyghur man named Shohret Tursun.

Shohret Tursun had been detained by the Chinese authorities soon after the July 2009 protest and ethnic unrest in Urumqi, East Turkestan´s regional capital. His dead body was returned by the Chinese authorities to his family in September 2009 covered in wounds and bruises, strongly suggesting that he had been tortured to death. According to Mr. Tursun’s father, the authorities claimed he died of a heart attack, but he had no history of heart problems and at 31 years old, he was a relatively young man. His family was forced to bury the body without any inquiry about his death. RFA broadcasted and published stories on this case in September 2009 based on information that Ershidin Israel and other witnesses provided.

Very soon thereafter, the Chinese authorities arrested two Uyghur men, Haji Memet and Abdusalem Nasir, whom the authorities accused of also providing information to RFA about the case of Shohret Tursun.  Mr. Israel informed RFA also on these arrests whereupon the Chinese authorities started to seek for Ershidin Israel who then fled to Kazakhstan.

After Mr. Israel arrived in Kazakhstan in the fall of 2009, he applied for refugee status from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees´ (UNHCR) office in Almaty.  In March 2010, UNHCR’s office in Almaty granted Mr. Israel UN mandate refugee status and secured a resettlement offer for Mr. Israel from Sweden.  Mr. Israel was scheduled to depart to Sweden on April 1, 2010.

But while making final preparations to leave Kazakhstan, a UNHCR official informed Israel that Kazakh authorities had refused to supply him with the necessary documents to leave the country. On April 3, Israel was moved into an apartment guarded around the clock by Kazakh police officers while the UNHCR investigated the delay in his resettlement.

In June 2010, he was detained by local authorities and has since attended a total of five hearings on his application for refugee status, all of which rejected his bid and ruled that he must be returned to China. The arrest was largely made as a result of China’s false and baseless terrorism allegations against Mr. Israel and China’s request that Kazakhstan return Mr. Israel to China. Mr. Israel is not a terrorist. The Chinese government often labels Uyghurs who peacefully dissent and exercise their freedom of speech as terrorists. The real reason that the Chinese authorities want Mr. Israel is that he exercised his freedom of speech and provided the aforementioned information to RFA.

The WUC believes that the Kazakh authorities are not willing to grant Ershidin Israel asylum due to Chinese pressure. All Central Asian countries are under strong influence from China, especially since the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).  Kazakhstan, along with Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China, are members of the regional security grouping, in which Beijing wields pre-eminent influence. The Chinese government misuses the SCO to adopt its own domestic approach to counter-terrorism and expand it throughout Central Asia, often at the expense of human rights. Particularly ethnic groups such as Uyghurs, suffer violations of their right to freedom of expression, association, and religion. According to Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China (HRIC), the SCO also obliges to forcible return to China any individual or group suspected of terrorism, separatism, or extremism, including individuals who may have been granted refugee status by UNHCR.

The WUC urges the international community to call on China to stop pressuring the Central Asian governments to violate the civil rights of their own citizens.

The WUC also calls on the international community to immediately demand Mr. Israel´s protection and remind the Kazakh government of its obligations to respect the international treaties it is part of.

Kazakhstan has ratified the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol to the Status of Refugees, and the UN Convention against Torture. Importantly, the two Conventions contain various safeguards against the expulsion of refugees. The principle of non-refoulement is so fundamental that no reservations or derogations may be made to it. It provides that no one shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee against his or her will, in any manner whatsoever, to a territory where he or she fears threats to life or freedom. By extraditing Ershidin Israel to China, the Kazakh authorities would therefore clearly violate the Conventions they are part of.

Rebiya Kadeer, WUC president and former prisoner of conscience, said that she was “very disappointed by Kazakhstan´s decision to not grant Mr. Israel asylum and put his life under serious threat.”

The WUC calls on the international community to urge the Kazakh authorities to refrain from forcibly returning Israel back to China and grant him instead political asylum and allow him to resettle in a third country.

Kazakhstan as well as other countries of the region have a terrible track record of repatriating or forcibly removing Uyghurs to China who were suspected of being involved in any political activities. Past cases include, but are not limited to:

• Ahmet Memet and Turgun Abbas, Islamic students from Kashgar, who both applied for UNHCR´s refugee status, are believed to have been forcibly returned to China after reportedly being detained in Kazakhstan in December 2001. There is no further information about their current whereabouts, legal status or state of health.

• In spring 2003, Abdukakhar Idris “disappeared” in Almaty after having been forcibly returned from Kazakhstan to China. He had approached UNHCR for refugee status before he went missing. His current whereabouts, legal status or state of health are unknown.

• Ismail Semed was executed in February 2007 after being deported from Pakistan to the PRC in 2003. Semed was known to have been politically active in support of Uyghurs’ human rights. Semed was sentenced to death in October 2005 on charges of “attempting to split the motherland” and other charges. PRC authorities accused him of having been a founding member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). This accusation, which apparently led to the “splittism” charge, appears to have been based solely on second-hand testimony that was obtained through torture.

• Husein Celil fled China in the 1990s after suffering persecution and detention in East Turkestan for his work advocating for the religious and political rights of the Uyghur people.  Through UNHCR he was resettled in Canada in 2001 and has been a Canadian citizen since November 2005.  In February 2006, he was picked up by Chinese police in Uzbekistan where he was visiting his wife’s family.  He was extradited to China to face trial.  He was reportedly accused of “terrorism” and was detained without access to a lawyer, his family, or Canadian officials.  He was subjected to threats that he would be “disappeared” or “buried alive” unless he signed a confession.  The Chinese authorities refused to recognize his status as a Canadian citizen and Canadian officials were not allowed to attend the trial.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment after an unfair trial.

• On December 19, 2009, the Cambodian government – in severe violation of international law – repatriated 20 Uyghurs, who included two children (6 month, 1 year old), to China, the country from which they had escaped several months ago because of the immense risk that they would be persecuted on account of their peaceful political activities, Uyghur ethnicity, and Muslim religion. These Uyghurs were deported before the UNHCR had made a determination about their refugee status. Until today the whereabouts of these people are unknown.

The WUC has therefore well-founded fears that Mr. Israel will be detained, tortured and/or disappeared upon his return. The Chinese government is known to punish harshly any form of Uyghur dissent without any respect for national or international law. Through its repressive policies towards Uyghur in East Turkestan and abroad, Chinese authorities aim to discourage the Uyghurs people from taking part in the Uyghur democracy movement.

See also:

Uyghur Repatriation Imminent
RFA, 27 May 2011

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, A/HRC/17/27/Add.1, 27 May 2011, p.188

The World Uyghur Congress Is Gravely Concerned Over the Enforced Disappearance of 20 Uyghurs by the Chinese Government Since Their Forcible Return from Cambodia Almost One Year Ago
World Uyghur Congress (WUC), 15 December 2010

Standoff Over Death in Custody
RFA, Sept. 19, 2009

Police Enforced Family Burial
RFA, Sept. 21, 2009

Two Held for Leaks
RFA, Sept. 23, 2009

China: Forcibly Returned Uighur Asylum Seekers At Risk
Human Rights Watch, December 22, 2009

Documented cases of Uighurs forcibly returned to the XUAR
Amnesty International

Amnesty International concerns on Uighur asylum seekers and refugees
Amnesty International, June 2005