Some of the 109 Uighurs returned last month to China from Thailand attacked Thai and Chinese police while being taken aboard a flight back to Xinjiang, as they believed they would be executed on their return, the Xinjiang government said yesterday.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Muslim Uighurs keen to escape unrest in China’s far western Xinjiang region have traveled clandestinely via Southeast Asia to Turkey, home to a large Uighur diaspora.
The return last month of a group from Thailand sparked anger in Turkey, and fed concern among rights groups and the US that they could be mistreated.
The Xinjiang government news portal, Tianshan Net, said rumors spread like wildfire among the group waiting to be deported, including one that they would be put to death.
“Certain people used this to stir up some of those being deported to attack Thai and Chinese police as they were boarding,” the government said.
One man, named in the Chinese report as Kudusi Tuohutiyusufu, suffered head injuries when being “subdued” at the airport, but his mental state had “relaxed” on his return, the report said.
“The attitude of the police toward us is very good. They took me to see the doctor and now my wound is much better,” the report quoted him as saying.
Foreign media have not been given access to the Uighurs since their return and it has not been possible to independently verify their condition, or accounts by the government or state media.
Most of the group are being detained at a holding site in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi, the government said.
“Life is quite good after returning,” said one Uighur woman, whose name was given in Chinese as Guliniyazi Shawuti. “It is completely different from what I heard would happen when I was abroad.”
The report said authorities had also provided fruit and traditional Uighur food, including a pilaf dish.
Beijing blamed Islamic militants for violent attacks in Xinjiang in the past three years in which hundreds have died. It said Uighurs are being tricked by traffickers to leave China and fight in Syria and Iraq.
Chinese state media last month said at least 13 of those returned had been suspected of “terror” offenses, and broadcast images of people being bundled out of an aircraft with black hoods over their heads.
The US condemned their deportation. Human rights and exiled Uighur groups said they would face persecution or torture in China, statements Beijing has denied.
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