English-language Discussion Boards

[abdullah]

18,000 Uygurs arrested for 'security threats' last year

REUTERS in Beijing

More than 18,000 people were arrested for threatening national security in the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang last year, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Uygur activists, who Beijing says are terrorists trying to split the mainland, have been struggling for decades for self-determination in Xinjiang.

The official Xinjiang Daily put the number of people arrested in the region for endangering state security - considered as everything from terrorism to talking to foreign reporters - at 18,227.

"Uygurs are scared. They can be arrested even for a slip of the tongue," said Dilxat Raxit, of the World Uygur Congress, a German-based organisation seeking more freedom for the region they call East Turkestan.

"We have no rights. But we are also human beings," he said, adding
that even more people - all Uygurs - were probably detained by police and not formally charged.

Human rights abuses in Xinjiang were worsening and the world did not pay enough attention, Mr Raxit said.

"If anything, the human rights situation in Xinjiang is getting worse. The world is not putting enough pressure on China because they are scared of affecting economic ties," he said.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group that campaigns against political repression and torture, said in its annual worldwide report that China remained beset by widespread rights abuses.

Xinjiang faced tightening repression, it said. Beijing lashed out at the report, saying the claims came out of "thin air" and were entirely politically motivated.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said he had not bothered to
read the report.

Mr Raxit said: "If China thinks the report is wrong, it should let international human rights groups into Xinjiang to investigate without limits.">

In October, China marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment
of Xinjiang as an autonomous region.

Beijing says its system of autonomous regions for ethnic minorities allows them a degree of self-governance, but activists say it is a means for the authorities to maintain tight control.

The Public Security Ministry last year labelled East Turkestan forces the main terrorist threat to China. It said more than 260 terrorist acts had been committed in Xinjiang in the past two decades, killing 160 and wounding 440.

Among the most prominent Uygur activists is Rebiya Kadeer, a businesswoman freed from detention in March and exiled to the US after serving years in prison on charges of providing state secrets abroad.