Kazakhstan: Uighurs Sent Back to China at Risk of Being Tortured
Vienna 19 May 2006. The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) is concerned about the disappearance of two Uighurs, Yusuf Kadir Tohti and Abdukadir Sidik, in Kazakhstan. Allegedly, they were secretly deported to China in violation of the non-refoulement principle.
Both men were detained by Kazakh authorities and held in a pretrial detention center on accusation of possessing false passports and diskettes containing information of ‘an extremist character’. Chinese authorities have reportedly requested their extradition. According to our information, they were released under pressure of human rights organizations, but went missing afterwards. At present no information is available as to their whereabouts and they might have been secretly returned to China.
There have been other cases of Uighurs disappearing in Kazakhstan. The Center for Assistance to Ethnic Minorities (CAEM) in Almaty claims that Abunabi Ablyat (born 1979), Taukheti Tursun (born 1975), Mukhaya Shavkatovna (born 1984), Guzel Ramazanovna (born 1978), and Sheringul Kurvanzhanovna (born 1974), have disappeared in recent years. It also claims that Khabibula Masut and Abdimezhit Ablimit disappeared last year. It is not known exactly when they disappeared and no further information is available about the fate of these persons, but they are presumed to have been forcibly returned to China.
The IHF is concerned about the fact that Kazakh authorities are forcibly deporting Uighurs to China, where they are at risk of serious human rights violations, including torture, unfair trial and possibly the death penalty. Last year, the IHF reported that Rahmutulla Islayl and Arken Yakuf, two Uighurs who were extradited from Kazakhstan to China in 2002, were executed on murder charges in March 2004. Kazakh authorities do not provide information on the number of Uighurs that have been deported, but according to the CAEM, at least three other Uighurs are known to have been handed over to Chinese authorities in recent years: Abdukakhar Idris, Akhat Mamat and Turgan Abbas.
Kazakhstan is a party to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the UN Convention Against Torture, which forbids a state party to return a person to a country where he or she would face risk of torture. China is known for its frequent executions and Xinjiang is said to have the highest number. Several international human rights organizations have reported cases of Uighurs being sentenced to death and executed for alleged acts of terrorism or separatism in trials falling seriously short of fair trial standards.
The IHF opposes the return of anyone to a country where they might face torture or execution and, therefore, calls upon Kazakhstan to fully apply with the principles of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the UN Convention Against Torture. The IHF also calls on Kazakh authorities to thoroughly investigate the disappearance of the above-mentioned Uighurs and in particular of Yusuf Kadir Tohti and Abdukadir Sidik.
Background
The Uighurs are a Turkic, Sunni Muslim people with close cultural and linguistic ties to other ethnic groups in Central Asia. According to official statistics, there are approximately 200,000 Uighurs in Kazakhstan, making it the largest Uighur community outside China. Unofficial estimates put the number at 500,000.
Most Uighurs, however, live in the Chinese Xinjiang Autonomous Region, where Chinese authorities have been cracking down on any form of political or religious dissent, using the pretext of the so-called three evil forces of separatism, terrorism and extremism. This has led to serious human rights violations against the Uighur community with many seeking refuge in the neighboring Central Asian countries.
After the events of 11 September 2001, Chinese authorities have started to portray Uighurs as “separatists” and “terrorists”. At the same time, Islamic groups in Xinjiang were alleged to have links with the Taleban and Al Qaeda. In 2002, the US imposed sanctions on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which was accused of having carried out terrorist attacks in western China.
It is also believed that China is using the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to target Uighur dissidents abroad. Since its set-up in 1996, China has sought to use the organization as a framework for joint action against what it terms cross-border terrorism or religious and nationalist extremism in Xinjiang.
Under Chinese pressure, Central Asian governments have increasingly clamped down on Uighur groups that advocate independence for Xinjiang. On 20 November 2003, Kyrgyzstan banned the Islamic Party of Turkestan, the East Turkestan Liberation Organization and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. All these organizations were suspected of ties with ‘international terrorist organizations’. Kazakhstan outlawed the East Turkestan Islamic Party in 2004 and the Islamic Party of Turkestan in 2005. It is widely believed that these bans had less to do with the threat posed by these organizations than the governments’ attempts to appease Beijing.
Uighur communities in Central Asia have also been worried by China’s request for help in capturing Uighur exiles, which it calls terrorists. At the SCO summit in Astana in July 2005, the member states committed themselves “not to provide asylum to individuals, accused or suspected of conducting terrorist, separatist and extremist activity, and extradite such individuals at respective requests on the part of another SCO member state in strict accordance with the current legislation of the member states”. This is a very vague statement that can have serious implications for Uighur immigrants across Central Asia as well as for anyone who opposes the current regimes of the SCO member states.
The Uighurs in China
The region now known as Xinjiang was incorporated by the Chinese in 1759.The Uighur population revolted against Chinese rule in 1933 and 1944. An independent East Turkestan Republic was created in 1944, but was recaptured by the Chinese in 1950. Because of ongoing social and political unrest, large numbers of Uighurs left Xinjiang for Central Asia between 1953 and 1962. The border between China and the Soviet Central Asian republics was closed in 1962 and only reopened in the late 1980s.
During the 1950s, a large network of quasi-military Han settlements, known as the Production and Construction Corps, were established in northern Xinjiang. The number of Han Chinese increased dramatically from 6% in 1949 to over 40% in 1978. At the same time, the province of Xinjiang was transformed in an autonomous region in 1955.
During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), tension rose in the province as mosques and Islamic institutions were destroyed.
Under the more liberal policy of Deng Xiaoping, freedom of religion was afforded greater political protection. However, since the early 1990s, the growing strength of the Islamic cultural and religious movement combined with the breakup of the Soviet Union led once again to tighter restrictions on religious worship and practice in the region. A number of Islamic schools were closed and the Muslim clergy was purged.
· The subsequent independence of the five Central Asian states encouraged Xinjiang’s separatist groups in their aspirations to reestablish an independent homeland and there has been sporadic violence since 1991.
· In the spring of 1996, Beijing implemented the ‘Strike Hard” campaign to root out criminal, political and religious organizations.
For more information:
Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director, +43-1-408 88 22 or +43-676-635 66 12
Henriette Schroeder, IHF Press Officer, +43-1-408 88 22 41 or +43-676- 725 48 29