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Special call #1
To the
Uyghurs on this listserv:
From: "Kathy Polias"
<freeuyghurs@hotmail.com>
A few weeks ago I posted e-mails asking for
Uyghurs who were at one time refugees in Central Asia to write up testimonies
about their experiences of harassment in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan, etc.) I am setting a deadline of FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 for the
submission of these testimonies to me. I need them as soon as possible
because several refugee organizations have contacted me really needing
information about the treatment of Uyghurs in Central Asia, and I also need them
for the university presentations that the Uyghur Human Rights Coalition is doing
this fall. I can't emphasize enough how important this issue is.
The fact that Uyghur refugees don't have a safe haven in Central Asia is really
terrible. If you don't feel that your
English writing is that great, don't worry. Just do the best you can and I
will smooth out the grammar and correct the spelling. Also, if you have a
friend who was a Uyghur refugee in Central Asia and who can't speak
English, please offer to help your friend write a testimony. / Kathy
Kathy Polias
Executive Director
Uyghur Human Rights Coalition
P.O. Box 75785
Washington, DC 20013
(202)546-3336
FreeUyghurs@hotmail.com
http://www.uyghurs.org
Special call #2
From: "Kathy
Polias" <kpolias@uyghurs.org>
The Uyghur Human Rights Coalition is
assembling a committee of volunteers to work on planning and organizing events
for the 4th Anniversary of the Ghulja crackdown on February 5. We want to
make this a huge deal, complete with lots of media coverage, demonstrations in
front of the Chinese embassy and consulates, memorial ceremonies for those
Uyghur human rights activists who were killed by the Chinese government during
or in connection with the Uyghurs, letter-writing campaigns, teach-ins, etc.
Please e-mail me if you are interested in being part of the Ghulja Anniversary
Planning Committee. We need LOTS of help.
Kathy/ Kathy Polias , Executive
Director Uyghur Human Rights Coalition , P.O. Box 75785
, Washington, DC 20013 (202)548-6084
kpolias@uyghurs.org
http://www.uyghurs.org
Call #3
From: "Kathy Polias" <kpolias@uyghurs.org>
We are looking for organizations
to sign onto the letter below to Kazakh government officials about Uyghur
refugees. We've received unofficial reports from people in Kazakhstan that
the Kazakh government is on the verge of forcibly returning many Uyghur refugees
to China, which would be a serious violaiton of international refugee law.
Kazakhstan has returned Uyghur refugees before, so we want to prevent it from
happening again. If your organization is interested in signing onto the
letter below, please e-mail me at kpolias@uyghurs.org
Kathy
Kathy Polias
Executive Director
Uyghur Human Rights Coalition
P.O. Box 75785
Washington, DC 20013
(202)548-6084
http://www.uyghurs.org
**************************************************
Dear [Kazakh government official's name]:
We are deeply concerned by unofficial reports that we have received that the
Kazakh government is on the verge of forcibly returning many Uyghur political
refugees to China, where they would face terrible persecution by the Chinese
government. We are writing to ask you to investigate whether the Kazakh
government is planning to forcibly return Uyghur refugees. If the reports
are true and the Kazakh government is planning to do this, please urge the
government officials involved to refrain from going through with these plans, as
a forcible return of Uyghur refugees would amount to a blatant violation of
Kazakhstan's obligations under international refugee law.
On January 15, 1999, Kazakhstan became a party to the 1951 UN Convention
Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol to the Status of
Refugees. Article 33 of the 1951 Convention prohibits the return of a
refugee "in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his
life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion,
nationality, or political opinion." The 1967 Protocol made Articles 1
to 34 of the 1951 Convention applicable to all refugees, regardless of the time
that the events leading to the refugee's flight from the home country arose or
the geographical location of the home country. It is clear that any Uyghur
political dissident who is returned to China will face horrible persecution by
the Chinese government. According to many reports by Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. State Department, China
systematically imprisons, executes, and tortures Uyghurs for protesting against
the government. Therefore!
, Kazakhstan will be in blatant violation of the 1951 Convention if it
forcibly returns Uyghur political refugees to China. Kazakhstan is
also a party to the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Article 3 of this
Convention prohibits the return of a person to a country "where there are
substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected
to torture." In an April 1999 report on the Uyghurs, entitled
"People's Republic of China: Gross Violations of Human Rights in the
Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region," Amnesty International documented a
consistent pattern of Uyghur political dissidents being subject to particularly
cruel forms of torture to extract confessions. Therefore, Kazakhstan will
also be in violation of the Convention Against Torture if it forcibly returns
Uyghur political refugees to China. There have already been two documented
instances when Kazakhstan forcibly returned Uyghur political refugees to China
and thereby, violated both of the aforementioned conventions. In February
1999, Kazakhstan forcibly returned three young Uyghur men--Hemit Memet, Kasim
Mahpir, and Ilyas Zordun--who were seeking political asylum in Kazakhstan.
The three men were "wanted" by the Chinese authorities on suspicion of
their involvement in "separatist" activities. Amnesty
International received reports in August 1999 that these three men had already
been executed by the Chinese government. However, the organization has
recently received reports from a possibly more reliable source that the three
men are still alive, but that they are in prison and all face the possibility of
execution. Furthermore, in September 1998, Kazakhstan forcibly returned a
group of four Uyghur men and four Uyghur children to China. The group
included two mullahs (religious teachers) who had fled China!
because they feared they would be arrested for refusing to praise
Communist policies in their mosques. After being returned to China, the
entire group was detained. The four children were released after 18 days.
However, according to the U.S. State Department, as of January 2000, the four
men were still in detention and may have been subjected to torture to extract
information about their escape. We urge Kazakhstan to
abide by the aforementioned conventions by refraining from forcibly returning
Uyghur political refugees to China. The international community would hold
Kazakhstan responsible for whatever happened to these refugees upon return, so
it is not in Kazakhstan's interest to return them. We also ask that
Kazakhstan carefully consider these refugees' applications for political asylum
in Kazakhstan.
Related subjects [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
AND.....
From: TudiH@aol.com
One Uighur in Norway who was accepted as an UNHCR refugee in November of
last year provide the following information about two Uyghurs who are
detained in Kazakhstan.
1. Tursuntay Eziz
Sex: Male,Date of Birth: Jan. 30 1971,Place of birth: Gulja/Yining City,
Xinjiang province, China ,Minority: Uighur ,Citizenship: Chinese Education:
Juniour High School. He took part in the "February 5" uprising in
Gulja. Since the government reacted very violently to this demonstration,
Tursuntay Eziz was able to go
to Kazakhstan under the cover of doing business. He got in touch with various
Uighur liberation organisations there, and did work for them until August 1999,
work which involved trips back into China. On December 11, 1999 his close friend
Tay Abhan was arrested by Chinese police. Two days later his corpse was sent out
of jail and he was quickly buried without any opportunity for his family to take
part. Due to this, Mr. Tursuntay Eziz has not been able to return to China from
then on. But due to his activitities, he was himself arrested in Kazakhstan on
October 14, and is being held in the Almaty city prison. And he is among the
number of arrested Uighurs who is on the verge of being returned to China. On
top of this his passport has a "black" stamp on it,
that is a stamp saying that he MUST be returned to China. I therefore ask that
UNHCR does everything possible to hinder his return to China.
2. Rozi Sawut
Sex: Male , Date of Birth: July 15 1963 ,Place of birth: Yarkend country,
Kashgar district, Xinjiang province, China , Minority: Uighur , Citizenship:
Chinese
I got to know him in Pakistan, so I don't have any details of his background in
China. I only know about the reason for his arrest and the things that have
happened to him after that. Just like myself, Mr. Rozi Sawut lived in Pakistan
for more than two years without a passport. Due to the all kinds of unrest
and difficulties he was not able to live peacefully and support himself in
Pakistan anymore. He was able to obtain a false Chinese passport and went to
Kazakhstan in February 1999. But when he landed in Almaty, it was discovered
that his passport was
fake and he was immediately arrested. When I arrived in Almaty in April
the same year, and heard about his situation, I asked for help among
the Uighur businessmen in the city, but even with 5000 US dollar in cash
we were not able to buy him out of prison.
He was then advised to apply for help in three embassies in Almaty, but no one
offered to help him. Our roads departed but I later heard from fellow
Uighurs that UN representatives wanted to visit him in prison (so he must
have been arrested in the meantime), but they were turned back with the news
that he had already been sent back to China. With this news we also stopped
searching
for him. But in September of 1999 an application written with Rozi Sawut's own
handwriting, reached me in Almaty, having been sent through another
Uighur businessman. The letter was dated the day before, and I was the fourth
person to read it. The letter was very brief and read like this: "I, Roza
Sawut, from Yarkend, am now staying in the prison for foreigners in
Almaty. I will be sent back to China within 2-3 days, and I ask any of my Uighur
brothers to help me, even though that means that I will be in debt
financially." From this letter it was clear that he was still in
Almaty. Since time
was very short, the person who gave me the letter was given 3000 US dollar, and
on the very day that Mr Rozi Sawut was being transported to the border,
we were able to buy him free by paying this money to the police on the road
between Qilik and Yerkend, close to the Korghoz border crossing to China. The
same day we brought him to the UN office in Almaty. They had already news about
him and accepted him at once, and gave him a guarantee letter. In spite of that
letter he had to be very cautious. On October 10 this year, in spite of
the UN letter in his hand, he was arrested at the place where he was
living, and he is still in prison, and he is on the verge of being
returned to China. He told a visitor in the prisoner that Chinese police
themselves, both Han and Uigur, have come to the prison to interrogate the
prisoners themselves, which implies that China
in reality controls this Central Asian country and sees it as part of its own
territory. The plan has been to return some prisoners by November 1, and to take
action to further empty the prison shortly. For this reason Mr. Rozi Sawut is on
the verge of death. So I implore UN to take action to save him and other Uighurs
from the cruel plans of the Chinese communist government.
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