WASHINGTON,
December 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – China is
using the US-championed "war on terror" to justify its
crushing campaign of religious oppression, cultural assimilation and
rights abuses of its Uighur Muslim minority, the exiled leader of the
Chinese Uighur Muslims told US Congress members.
"The
truth is that the Chinese government has shown it will use the war
against terror as a justification to persecute Uighurs," Rebiya
Kadeer told US Congress Wednesday, December 14, according to Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"Today,
besides our culture, history and language, our very survival as an
indigenous and unique people is now under the direct threat of
Beijing's ruthless policies."
The
Muslim activist stressed that the Chinese government is still making
grave human rights abuses in its predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region.
"Attempting
to stop dissent, free expression and free assembly by labeling them as
terrorism is not acceptable," said Kadeer, a highest-profile
Muslim Uighur political prisoner who was deported to the United States
after her release in March.
The
Uighurs are a Turkish-speaking minority of eight million whose
traditional homeland lies in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in
north-west China.
Xinjiang
has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of
crackdowns by Chinese authorities, who have been accused by rights
groups of religious repression against Uighurs in the name of
counter-terrorism efforts.
Incommunicado
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"Our
very survival as an indigenous and unique people is now under the
direct threat of Beijing's ruthless policies," said the
Muslim activist
|
Kadeer
said that tens of thousands of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang region had
been held incommunicado, tortured and sentenced after unfair trials.
Many
Uighur Muslim women have also been forced to make abortion by Chinese
authorities.
"Women
are frequently forced to terminate their pregnancies if they are found
to be pregnant outside of the Chinese family planning policies,"
she said.
"There
are frequent reports of heavy fines and other reprisals for women who
break the birth control rules," the 58-year-old Kadeer said,
citing her own experience once when she had to go into hiding in the
ninth month of her pregnancy after being threatened by birth control
officers.
T.
Kumar, the Washington-based Asian advocacy director of Amnesty
International, also told the Congressional hearing that "Xinjiang
was the only place in China where political executions of Uighurs are
taking place in large numbers.
"China
is using the war on terror as an excuse to crack down on the Uighurs.
Unfortunately they are a minority and are Muslims and that fits well
into Beijing agenda of branding them as terrorists," he said.
He
urged the Congress to ask President George W. Bush, in the run up to
the 2008 Beijing Olympics, to demand a "deadline" from
Chinese President Hu Jintao to stop the execution of Uighur political
prisoners.
He
also urged the American President to invite Kadeer to the White House
ahead of Hu's expected visit to Washington early next year.
"That
will send a very strong message to Hu and also symbolize the plight of
the Uighurs," he added.
Beijing
views Xinjiang as an invaluable asset because of its crucial strategic
location near Central Asia and its large oil and gas reserves.
In
a 114-page report released in April, Human Rights Watch said Chinese
policy in Xinjiang "denies Uighurs religious freedom, and by
extension freedom of association, assembly, and expression".
Uighur
rights activists have accused the US administration, which often brags
about human rights, of turning a blind eye to China’s crackdown on
the Muslim Uighur minority.
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