Each year, carefully selected human rights defenders are awarded by the Martin Ennals Foundation, an international organization based in Geneva, for their work and efforts. This year, the selection sparks controversy as one of the top three candidates, the scholar Ilham Tohti, belongs to China’s Uighur minority and has been recently sentenced to life for advocating “separatism”.
By CIPADH
APR 27 2016
Each year, carefully selected human rights defenders are awarded by the Martin Ennals Foundation, an international organization based in Geneva, for their work and efforts. This year, the selection sparks controversy as one of the top three candidates, the scholar Ilham Tohti, belongs to China’s Uighur minority and has been recently sentenced to life for advocating “separatism”.
llham Tohti, a prominent voice of the Uighur minority
Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at Minzu University, has always been vocal about the Uighurs’ situation in China, sharing his viewpoints about the Uighur’s place in the Chinese society, both in his classroom and on his Website Uighur Online, closed in 2008.
While he has been known to criticize Chinese ethnic policies, he also remained quite diplomatic, advocating for peace and stressing the importance of dialogue between Chinese authorities and the Uighur community. He was therefore considered a moderate figure of the Uighur minority.
Unfortunately, this perception did not protect Ilham Tohti and did not prevent him from being pursued by Chinese officials. He was sentenced to life in prison in September 2014, after a tremendously quick trial of two days in Urumqi.
The Uighur minority and the Chinese authorities: a long history of tensions
The Uighur community, which is essentially Muslim and feel ethnically and culturally closer to Central Asian countries than China itself, has been at odds with Chinese authorities for a long time. Residing in the region of Xinjiang, they even declared their independence in the beginning of the twentieth Century: it was short-lived, as China brought it back under control in 1949.
It did not prevent the Uighur community from protesting, especially as they became a minority in their own region as more and more Han Chinese came to live in it. They most notably did many streets manifestations in the Nineties, pointing out their lack of freedom and the restraints of the Chinese government inflicted upon their religious, commercial and cultural activities. Are listed amongst reported persecutions from Chinese authorities higher rates of detention and even execution, forced relocations, destruction of places of worship and police monitoring.
In 2008, they specifically used the Beijing Olympics as an opportunity to gain visibility: extremist Uighur coordinated several attacks, mainly suicide bombings and police shootings, which unfortunately only resulted in even more severe Chinese ethnic policies and punishments.
Violence, extremism and secessionist activities from a part of the Uighur community allegedly served as legitimization for a harsh Chinese retaliation. According to overseas Uighur groups, China is responsible not only for pushing people towards extremism through their crackdown methods, but also for exaggerating the potential threat posed by the minority in order to justify their harsh punishments and policies.
The choice of Ilham Tohti as a finalist for the award and the potential repercussions
Indeed, the sentence to life in prison for Ilham Tohti definitely appears as an extremely harsh punishment considering his activities. While he protested against Han settlements in the region historically inhabited by Uighurs and especially their lack of economic opportunities, mainly granted to Hans, he also expressed his worries on the rising violence among the Uighur community and was opposed to any idea of separatism.
To condemn him in that way is a clear sign of the growing harshness of the Chinese policies regarding minorities, especially Uighurs.
The international community did not take kindly to this condemnation: Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, deplored that “by giving him life they were sending an extreme message that there is simply no room, even through peaceful means, to criticize state policies in Xinjiang”.
In 2014, the Martin Ennals Foundation already nominated another Chinese dissident, Cao Shunli, which resulted in China actively pressuring Swiss authorities and the foundation’s partners and donors to deny her the prize – she, unfortunately, died before a winner was elected.
The choice of Ilham Tohti is therefore sure to elect a strong reaction from China. Recently, the presence of the Dalai Lama in Geneva during the Human Rights Council of March 2016 also sparked controversy, as China accused Switzerland and the UN of hosting and supporting a dangerous secessionist.
Léa Guinet, Research Assistant at CIPADH
Sources:
Nick Cumming-Bruce, “Ilham Tohti, Uighur Scholar jailed in China, is nominated for Rights Awards“,The New York Times, 27 April 1016.
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/world/asia/china-uighur-ilham-tohti-award.html?ref=world.
Edward Wong, “China sentences Uighur scholar to life“, The New York Times, 23 September 2014.
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/world/asia/china-court-sentences-uighur-scholar-to-life-in-separatism-case.html.
Jonathan Watts, “Eight dead after bombings in western China mars Olympic opening weekend“, The Guardian, 10 August 2008.
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/aug/10/china.olympics20081.
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