Uyghur scholar says he was intimidated by Chinese public security
GlobalPost, 4 November 2013
A prominent Uyghur scholar in Beijing said Sunday that Chinese security authorities have warned him not to talk to foreign journalists about a car crash near Tiananmen Square on Oct. 28 that killed eight people, including a family of three ethnic Uyghurs inside the car.
Ilham Tohti, an associate professor at Minzu University of China, said he was given the warning after a public security vehicle deliberately rear-ended his car shortly after he drove out of his home in Beijing on Saturday evening.
He said his wife and two children were also in the car but none of them was injured.
The Chinese government has called the car crash and subsequent fire near Tiananmen Square a terrorist attack carried out by a Uyghur separatist group seeking independence in the Xinjiang region.
Tohti has cast doubt on the Chinese government’s version of the event in interviews with foreign media.
Tohti said the security personnel who rear-ended his car berated him for speaking to foreign journalists and left the scene after threatening to kill him.
Tohti is listed as an associate professor of economics at Minzu University of China, but university officials have declined to confirm whether Tohti is still on its staff.
Chinese public security put Tohti under house arrest following ethnic riots in Xinjiang in July 2009 that Chinese officials said left 197 people dead and 1,721 injured.
Uyghur separatists, who call the Xinjiang region East Turkestan, say the Communist Party’s high-handed policies fuel discrimination against them by Han Chinese.
The sports utility vehicle carrying a Uyghur couple and the man’s mother crashed into a crowd of pedestrians and was then set alight by the vehicle’s occupants near Tiananmen Square on Monday. The three Uyghurs, a female tourist from the Philippines and a male Chinese tourist were killed in the incident.
The Chinese government renewed its resolve to fight terrorism on Thursday, a day after police announced the capture of five people from Xinjiang on suspicion of involvement in the car crash near Tiananmen Square.
==Kyodo
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