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Torture
From: "Kate Lazarus" <klazarus@igc.org>
Below is an AI press release about a
Uighur man, Abdulhelil who was reportedly tortured
to death. This case is one of the US section's action files
worked on by a local AIUSA group in New Jersey and one of AI's Torture
Campaign's appeal cases.
Kate
Kate Lazarus
AIUSA
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
23 October 2000 , AI Index ASA 17/043/2000 - News Service Nr.
203 ,
China: Uighur man reportedly tortured to death Amnesty International has
just received information that Abdulhelil
Abdumijit, a Campaign Against Torture appeal case in China, was reportedly
tortured to death on 17 October 2000. The organization is calling on
the
Chinese government to reveal his fate.
"This case highlights the urgent need for international action on torture.
Abdulhelil Abdumijit, a 31-year old street trader from Gulja city in
Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), was accused of leading a demonstration
three years ago. From the outset it was reported that he was being
brutally tortured in detention yet even now the authorities are silent,"
Amnesty International said. The East Turkestan
Information Centre, a Uighur exile organization based in Germany,
reported yesterday that Abdulhelil Abdumijit was
tortured to death by officials in Chapchal prison. The statement
claims that his body was taken to a cemetery in Chapchal under
heavy police guard and buried in a shallow grave, and that his
relatives were denied access to his grave.
Previous unconfirmed reports from Uighur exile
sources had claimed that Abdulhelil Abdumijit had been tried at the end of
1999 or early 2000, and sentenced to death together with two other
defendants. One report also claimed that at a public sentencing rally held
to announce the sentences, Abdulhelil had been severely beaten in front of
the assembled crowd. Abdulhelil Abdumijit's
detention was marked by secrecy since his arrest in 1997. Although local
officials in Gulja had confirmed his arrest shortly after the 5 February
1997 demonstrations, the authorities subsequently remained silent about
what happened to him. His family was reportedly denied access to him or
information about his situation. Amnesty
International calls on the Chinese government to disclose publicly the
fate of Abdulhelil Abdumijit. The organization is also calling on
the Chinese authorities to make a full and impartial investigation into the
reports of torture of Abdulhelil Abdumijit and many others held in
prisons throughout the XUAR.
"The case of Abdulhelil Abdumijit is typical. Like most other
victims of torture, he was tortured in incommunicado detention
and there is little
chance that his torturers will ever be investigated or brought to justice.
Amnesty International's campaign aims to change this dire situation so
that cases like his become unacceptable and atypical," the
organization said. For background information on
Abdulhelil Abdumijit please see Torture Campaign Appeal Leaflet AI Index:
ACT 40/08/00 and "People's Republic of China: Gross Violations of
Human Rights in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region".
\ENDS
public document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW web :
http://www.amnesty.org
