Print

Mail

wiki links

US `concerned' after China puts exiled Uighur's children under house arrest

The US expressed concern on Wednesday that three children of an exiled leader of China's Muslim Uighur minority had been placed under house arrest after being freed from police custody.

The adult children of the exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer were taken into police custody in China's predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region on Monday and released early Tuesday, family members in Washington said.

"We are concerned by reports that although the children of Rebiya Kadeer have been released from detention, they have been placed under house arrest and have not been permitted to make or receive phone calls," a State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We are working to contact the families in Xinjiang directly," the official said, adding that the US on Tuesday "raised our concerns" with the Chinese government officials on the reported police detention of the trio.

Washington "urged them to release Ms Kadeer's children" and "we will continue to urge that they be allowed to move and act freely," the official said.

Kadeer's two sons, Ablikim and Alim Abdiriyim, and one of her daughters, Rushangul, were held by police reportedly ahead of the arrival of a US congressional team to Xinjiang.

Chinese police on Wednesday denied knowing of the detentions.

"We have never heard of this. We know absolutely nothing," said the chief of the propaganda department of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, who refused to give his name.

The trio "were released from lockup and have returned to their families but are under house arrest, with about 10 armed police officers outside each of their houses," said Akida Rouzi, Kadeer's daughter.

Kadeer was a former millionaire businesswoman and a high-profile Uighur political prisoner.

She was deported to the US after her release in March last year from six years of detention in Beijing.

Rushangul has been allowed to use the telephone but her brothers are held incommunicado, Rouzi said.
This story has been viewed 1435 times.