Australia says China has not complained about exiled Uighur activist’s latest Australian visit
Originally published by The Canadian Press,16 March 2011
By Rod McGuirk
CANBERRA, Australia — An exiled Uighur activist’s planned speaking tour in Australia next week has failed to provoke a repeat of Chinese protests that strained diplomatic ties when she last visited two years ago, the government said Wednesday.
Rebiya Kadeer, a U.S.-based ethnic Uighur from China’s west, has championed the rights of her Chinese minority Muslim group since the late 1990s.
China accuses Kadeer of inciting riots between Uighurs and members of the dominant Han Chinese group in Xinjiang in July 2009 that killed at least 197 people and injured more than 1,700. She denies it.
China repeatedly urged Australia to refuse her a visa ahead of her visit in 2009 to attend an international film festival in Melbourne that screened a documentary about her life.
China retaliated for the visit weeks later by cancelling Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei’s trip to the northern city of Cairns where he was to attend a summit of 16 Pacific nation leaders and a bilateral meeting.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement Wednesday that “China has made no representations asking Australia to block” Kadeer’s latest visit.
“In any case, Australia’s visa decisions are made in accordance with our standard visa and immigration processes,” the statement said.
China’s embassy in Australia failed to respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment on Wednesday.
Mamtimin Ala, president of the Australian Uighur Association which invited Kadeer to Australia, suspected China was attempting to play down the significance of her visit through its silence.
“The Chinese this time are extremely quiet and this silence is quite upsetting and a bit unusual,” Ala said.
“Perhaps China has learned some lessons from its quite bad response to Rebiya Kadeer’s previous visit to Australia,” he added.
Kadeer will speak about China and democracy at New South Wales state Parliament House in Sydney on Monday and Tuesday.
Two federal government lawmakers have invited her to speak to an audience of legislators, political staffers and journalists at Australian Parliament House in the national capital Canberra on Wednesday before she flies to the southern city of Adelaide to address local Uighurs.