Deteriorating Uyghur human rights conditions should be raised at November 12 meeting in Beijing<\/p>\n
Deteriorating Uyghur human rights conditions should be raised at November 12 meeting in Beijing<\/em><\/p>\n For immediate release The Uyghur American Association (UAA) requests President Obama to urge Chinese president, Xi Jinping to immediately and unconditionally release Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti. President Obama will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing from November 11 to 12 and will meet separately with President Xi on November 12.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first meeting between President Obama and Chinese president, Xi Jinping since Beijing sentenced Uyghur scholar, Ilham Tohti to life imprisonment. Uyghurs were deeply appreciative when President Obama called for Mr. Tohti\u2019s release. We now request President Obama to urge Xi Jinping to immediately and unconditionally release Ilham Tohti,\u201d said UAA president, Alim Seytoff in a statement from Washington, DC.<\/p>\n UAA also requests President Obama to raise the deteriorating human rights environment for the Uyghur people. UAA expresses alarm that human rights conditions in East Turkestan have measurably worsened since Chinese president, Xi Jinping assumed office in March 2013. UAA asks President Obama to convey the concern of the U.S. government regarding the repressive environment in the region and the increase in tensions stemming from restrictive state policies.<\/p>\n Key issues that should be raised with Chinese officials are:<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Ilham Tohti\u2019s sentencing is a clear case of state retribution for his outspokenness, his students\u2019 cases should not be forgotten. The deteriorating rights conditions in East Turkestan provoked by excessive security measures, religious repression and lack of economic opportunities is a legitimate concern that was raised by these brave, and now silenced, individuals. Uyghurs would welcome President Obama\u2019s understanding of their concern by asking Chinese officials for an explanation for the terrible rights environment in East Turkestan,\u201d Mr. Seytoff added.<\/p>\n During President Obama\u2019s only other visit to China, in November 2009, East Turkestan was in the midst of an unprecedented communications blackout<\/a> after unrest in the regional capital<\/a> of Urumchi in July 2009. Amnesty International alleged Chinese security forces conducted extrajudicial killings<\/a> to quell the 2009 Urumchi unrest and Human Rights Watch collected over 40 cases of enforced disappearance<\/a> stemming from July 2009 events.<\/p>\n Since 2013, East Turkestan has witnessed a spike in violent incidents<\/a>, which have resulted in the deaths and injuries of an unknown number of civilians and officials. UAA unequivocally rejects violence and urges the international community to call for independent evidence of Chinese government claims regarding these incidents.<\/p>\n Instead of sanctioning transparency to manage the increase in tensions, Chinese authorities have endorsed harsh security measures that fall far below international standards of due process. Since Xi Jinping\u2019s call for a one-year \u201canti-terror\u201d campaign in East Turkestan on May 23, Chinese authorities have overseen<\/a> a series of arrests, mass trials, death sentences, and executions that have accelerated deteriorating conditions. In September, Chinese state media reported<\/a> how the Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate would encourage \u201cChinese prosecutors, especially those in Xinjiang\u2026 to fast-track cases involving terrorists, religious extremists and manufacturers of firearms and explosives.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the speed and atmosphere of retribution in the region, UAA is concerned China is not following obligations to a free and fair criminal-judicial process. Furthermore, China\u2019s abysmal track record<\/a> in so-called terrorism cases and conflation between peaceful dissent and violence<\/a> is a further call for concern over the legitimacy of the current crackdown.<\/p>\n An illustration of Chinese officials\u2019 zero tolerance to dissent is the harsh suppression of peaceful advocacy undertaken by Professor Ilham Tohti and his students.<\/p>\n Professor Tohti was found guilty on charges of \u201cseparatism\u201d and sentenced to life imprisonment<\/a> on September 23, 2014 after a two-day trial. The September 17-18 trial of Ilham Tohti and China\u2019s handling of Mr. Tohti\u2019s case was criticized by the White House<\/a>, the U.S. State Department<\/a>, the European Union<\/a>, Amnesty International<\/a> and the PEN American Center<\/a> among others. Two of Ilham Tohti\u2019s students, Mutellip Imin and Atikem Rozi, have been held incommunicado<\/a> since January 2014.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Deteriorating Uyghur human rights conditions should be raised at November 12 meeting in Beijing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
November 4, 2014 10:00am EST
Contact: Uyghur American Association +1 (202) 478 1920<\/p>\n\n