(www.radicalparty.org) DOCUMENTS ON: EAST TURKESTAN / DOC.TYPE: U.N./DOCUMENTS

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14/08/2004 | UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights 56th Session. Item 3.

delivered by Marina Sikora Mr.Chairman, The Chinese authorities are depriving the Uyghur people from their basic human rights, but also violating the universally accepted rule of international law which prohibits the transfer of citizens to and from occupied territories. China has been using the so-called "war on terror" as an excuse to justify its ongoing oppression and repression of the rights of the Uyghur people in the region historically known as East Turkestan. Since Nine-eleven, despite the claim by the head of the regional government last April, tens of thousands of people are reported to have been detained on grounds of "anti-terrorism" in East Turkestan. The Chinese government continues to detain prisoners of conscience – who have never used or advocated violence - showing that China's policies of repression in the region stretch far beyond combating acts of violence or "terrorism". Many Uyghurs choose to flee to neighboring countries, such as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Nepal and Pakistan. But even there they are not safe; in fact, the Chinese government pressurizes those countries to forcibly return the asylum-seekers. Back in China, they face serious repercussions that amounts to human rights violations, including torture, unfair trials, and even execution. In one recent case, Mr.Sher-ali (Shaheer Ali, also known as Ghojamamat Abbas) was executed in China after being forcibly returned from Nepal even after he had been recognized as a refugee by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Nepal. He was tried and convicted on November 12, 2002, and sentenced to death in March 2003 for "manufacturing and stockpiling illegal weapons and explosives," plotting separatism, and "organizing and leading a terrorist organization." Mr. Sherali spoke to RFA's Uyghur service in May 2001, describing eight months of torture in 1994 in the Old Market Prison, in Guma (in Chinese, Pishan) County, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. In several interviews conducted by telephone from Nepal, Mr. Shirali described how he was beaten with shackles, shocked in an electric chair, repeatedly kicked unconscious, and then drenched in cold water to revive him for more torture. His interrogators told him to confess to separatist activities or risk dying in the interrogation room. Mr. Chairman, Deeply preoccupied about what the Uyghur people is daily facing, the TRP calls upon this Sub-Commission to use all its influence in urging the Chinese authorities to stop the execution of Uyghurs, the torture of prisoners and to release all prisoners of conscience including Mrs. Rabiye Kadeer and Mr. Tohti Tunyaz. Furthermore, the TRP urges the Chinese Government to launch, under the auspices of the UN, a political dialog with representatives of the Uyghur people in order to work out a mutually acceptable political solution to the problem.

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