China's human rights abuses in Tibet have been known and discussed worldwide for many years. China's quick erosion of the rule of law and civil liberties in Hong Kong has been much discussed lately. But one geographical area is often overlooked in discussions of China's abysmal human rights record, that is the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
It is located in the far northwest of China and it is far more difficult to get accurate information concerning events in that relatively remote area.
Last week Amnesty International (AI) highlighted the situation in Xinjiang at a news conference where AI accused the Chinese of passing extremely harsh sentences on 11 men.
AI said that it believed that the sentences were passed after ?rossly unfair judicial procedures, based on confessions extracted under tortures?AI went on to state that none of the sentenced defendants had committed nor were convicted of any act of violence. The sentences imposed ranged from death to 20 years imprisonment. The charges were ?plitting the country.?P>
This latest series of gross human rights violations in Xinjiang follows a pattern of human rights abuses on the part of China in that region that AI documented in a lengthy report issued in April of this year.
According to AI over the past few years, thousands of people have been arbitrarily detained and such arrest continues at an increasing rate. Thousands of political prisoners remain imprisoned, some having been sentenced after clearly unfair trials.
Many of those detained are reported to have been tortured, some with particularly cruel methods. Scores have been sentenced to death and executed in the past two years. Others have been killed by the Chinese security forces in circumstances which constitute extra-judicial executions, i.e. death squads.
Xinjiang has for the past several years seen growing ethnic unrest. The people of the region are largely Uighurs, a central Asian ethnic group which is predominately Moslem and which is seeking to maintain their cultural autonomy from the Han Chinese. Many Uighurs are also working for political autonomy from the PRC. There have been a number of violent clashes between the Chinese security forces and the various Uighur political opposition groups.
China's response to these calls for cultural, religious and political autonomy never changes. Be the call from the Tibetans, the Uighurs or any other groups the Chinese response is the same: death squads, murder, torture, imprisonment and lying to the world about it.
I certainly join Amnesty International in their call to the Chinese government to take immediate measures to curb the gross violations of human rights occurring in the region, in particular the executions and torture. It is time for the international community to respond to the situation in Xinjiang otherwise the ?ar northwest?will become the ?orgotten northwest?
Brian Kennedy is a member of the boards of Amnesty International Taiwan and the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.
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