Uyghur minority group: December 2009 Archives

A New York Times Editorial
December 22, 2009

Just more than a year ago, Cambodia was praised by the United Nations for its work on behalf of refugees. It was one of only two nations in Southeast Asia to sign the 1951 international convention on refugees, and it opened a brand new office that seemed to suggest a new determination to protect refugees' human rights.

That was then. Today, Cambodia has baldly violated its international commitments and put at risk the lives of 20 members of the Uighur minority -- including two infants -- who were forcibly deported back to China on Friday.

Poor, weak Cambodia is not the only villain in this piece. China shoulders even more blame for misusing its growing wealth and clout to force Cambodia to do its bidding. Already Cambodia's largest foreign investor, China rewarded Cambodia on Monday with 14 deals, valued at an estimated $850 million, including help in building roads and repairing Buddhist temples.

The Uighurs, members of a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority who say the Chinese government discriminates against them, entered Cambodia about a month ago with the aid of Christian missionaries and asked for asylum. China has been cracking down on the Uighurs since the ethnic unrest in July, the worst in decades.

Beijing said that at least 197 people -- mostly majority Han Chinese -- were killed in that violence. Han Chinese retaliated and hundreds of Uighurs have since been detained. Several of the fugitive Uighurs told the United Nations in written statements that they had been involved in the unrest and feared lengthy jail terms or even the death penalty if they were returned to China.

Chinese authorities claimed the Uighurs were criminals but offered no proof. Such charges are often a specious excuse of repressive societies, but in any case the Uighurs had protected status while their asylum cases were being investigated by the United Nations' refugee agency. China and Cambodia had a responsibility under international law to allow that process to be completed.

It is alarming that the United States, Europe and United Nations, despite making an effort, could not figure out a way to persuade Cambodia to do the right thing. They should make sure Cambodia pays a price for its behavior, but the focus must be on China, starting with an urgent demand for access to the 20 Uighurs to ensure that they are not mistreated. No Chinese refugee can feel safe if China is allowed to bully other countries into forcing them back to an uncertain and unjust future.

>> Original source

By Radio Free Asia
November 30, 2009

A  pastor at an unofficial Protestant church banned from holding indoor meetings by authorities in Shanghai said she would seek compensation for mistreatment by police, as hundreds of the church's followers held an open-air service in one of the city's parks.

Just one week after Shanghai police detained six pastors and organizers of the city's popular but unregistered Wanbang church for several hours, several hundred worshipers gathered Sunday in the city's Minhang Sports Park for an open-air meeting.

"Today we held an open-air service in Minhang Sports Park," the group's leader, Pastor Ren, said.

"It wasn't only prayers. We also held a meeting with preaching. Around 700-800 people were there."

"The police were standing around the edges. There were about 200-300 of them today, the ones wearing uniform. They were uniformed security guards."

Alleged mistreatment

Meanwhile, Wanbang deputy pastor Liu Quanqin said she was mistreated during her detention by officers from Shanghai's Zhuanqiao police station, and had written to demand compensation and an official apology.

"I was praying alone at the hotel at 6:10 p.m., and reading from scripture, and I heard sounds nearby --they were checking all the rooms," she said.

"They knocked on my door and then they used tried to use a key to open the door. It was double-locked, so they just forced it open."

She said police hadn't shown any identification during the detention, then locked her in a room and not allowed her to use the toilet.

"They left me in there for 15 hours," Liu said.

"I asked to go to the bathroom but they wouldn't let me. I asked for some water but they wouldn't give it to me. I was hungry and I asked them for food but they wouldn't let me eat."

Liu said she wrote a complaint letter after she saw a list of rules on the wall of the police station stipulating that police must give food and water to detainees.

She said she was taken to a courtroom but there was no hearing.

Instead, she was pushed, pinched, sworn at, and had her skirt lifted up for "inspection."

She said she had photographic evidence of blood-blisters where she had been pinched.

"The government wants me to stop my activities with the Wanbang church," Liu said. "They say it's an illegal organization."

"I have written an official complaint letter," she said. "I will win redress for this."

Wanbang deputy pastor Cui said it was unclear whether the church would be allowed to move back into its old premises after being expelled by the authorities earlier this month.

"We will have to talk to them about that," he said. "I don't know [if we can go back]. We haven't tried it."

"On the whole, the authorities have been fairly approving of us. They know we are all good people, and pretty trustworthy. The only problem is that we aren't legal [officially approved as a church]. That is where the flashpoint for conflict lies."

Henan intervention

Meanwhile, in the southern province of Henan, the leader of China's Association of House Churches, Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, said police had broken up a prayer meeting he tried to hold on Sunday, attended by around 30 people.

"House" churches, which operate without official registration documents and without the involvement of the local religious affairs bureaus, come in for surveillance and repeated raids, especially in more rural areas of the country, according to overseas rights groups.

Officially an atheist country, China nonetheless has an army of officials whose job is to watch over faith-based activities, which have spread rapidly in the wake of massive social change and economic uncertainty since economic reforms began 30 years ago.

Party officials are put in charge of Catholics, Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, and Protestants.

Judaism isn't recognized, and worship in unapproved temples, churches, or mosques is against the law.

In its most recent report on human rights in China, the U.S. State Department said freedom of religion is permitted to varying degrees around China.

Original reporting in Mandarin by Qiao Long. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original report