Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer says the popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East have given her people fresh hope of freedom.

Ms Kadeer has told a gathering of Australian MPs, political staffers and journalists in Canberra that the so-called Jasmine Revolutions have sent “shockwaves” through China.

“It gives the oppressed people hope for a better world and hope for change,” Ms Kadeer said through a translator on Wednesday.

The uprisings have sent a powerful message to the Chinese government: “Patience could run out – people will one day rise up and challenge the authoritarian regime.”

The US-based Ms Kadeer is the highest-profile representative of the predominantly Muslim Uighur minority group fighting for their own homeland in China’s west.

Ms Kadeer’s visit to Australia this week has drawn only a muted response from the Chinese government, which describes her as a terrorist and separatist.

Her 2009 visit strained Canberra’s diplomatic ties with Beijing after the Rudd government rebuffed a Chinese request to deny her a visa.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd last week made it clear he had no intention of meeting with Ms Kadeer during this week’s visit.

“I won’t be meeting with Rebiya Kadeer, but I did provide the authorisation for her visa, consistent with Australia’s universal principles on human rights,” Mr Rudd told a March 18 press conference.

Ms Kadeer on Wednesday said she had requested a meeting with Mr Rudd.

Visit organiser Mamtimin Ala said Mr Rudd did not respond to the request: “We received no response, positive or negative.”

But Mr Rudd’s office said it was not aware of any request for a meeting.

China accuses Kadeer of inciting deadly riots between Uighurs and members of the dominant Han Chinese group in Xinjiang in July 2009.

She denies the claim.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/9062647/uighurs-take-heart-from-middle-east-events/