Amnesty: China using “war on terror” as excuse to persecute Uygurs

This has been discussed here before, and it’s good to see that Amnesty International is giving it greater play.

China is using the global war on terror to justify repression of its Uighur community who face torture and execution when forcibly returned from neighbouring countries, Amnesty International said.

“China has repackaged its repression of Uighurs as a fight against ‘terrorism,'” Amnesty said in a new report.

“Since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the USA, the Chinese government has been using ‘anti-terrorism’ as a pretext to increase its crackdown on all forms of political or religious dissent in the region.”

The rights watchdog said many Uighurs have fled to neighbouring countries, but growing numbers “were being forcibly returned to China where they face torture and execution”.

Read the whole horrifying article to see just how acute the Uygurs’ plight is; it’s not pretty.

The Discussion: 3 Comments

The article mentions an Uygur named Shaheer Ali and gives the impression that this man is still alive. He was in fact executed last year on being forcibly returned from Nepal.

His original story of his abuse at the hands of the Chinese penned before his return can be seen at

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=5301&t=1&c=1

It is not for the feint hearted.

July 7, 2004 @ 5:24 am | Comment

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July 8, 2004 @ 2:21 am | Comment

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The regular link-fest returns with news and views from blogs across Asia: Hong Kong, Taiwan and China ALN reminds you why your job will never be worse than a coal miner’s in China. In Hong Kong Health Secretary Yeoh’s (yes, Michelle’s cousin) resignati…

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