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Pedro Gonçalves

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Scores killed in China protests - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8135203.stm

China Xinjiang Uighurs Rebiya Kadeer World Uighur Congress

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 06 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Violence in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has left at least 140 people dead and more than 800 people injured, state media say.Several hundred people were also arrested after a protest turned violent in the city of Urumqi on Sunday.
  • The protest was reportedly prompted by a deadly fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese in southern China last month. The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says that if the numbers of dead are to be believed - and state media say they may rise - this look like the bloodiest violence in China since Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.
  • Uighur exiles said police had fired indiscriminately on a peaceful protest in Urumqi.
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  • The Xinjiang government blamed separatist Uighurs based abroad for orchestrating attacks on ethnic Han Chinese. Eyewitnesses said the violence started on Sunday with a few hundred people, and grew to more than 1,000.
  • The Uighurs were reportedly angry over an ethnic clash last month in the city of Shaoguan in southern Guangdong province. A man there was said to have posted a message on a local website claiming six boys from Xinjiang had "raped two innocent girls". Police said the false claim sparked a vicious brawl between Han and Uighur ethnic groups at a factory. Two Uighurs were killed and 118 people were injured.
  • the Xinjiang government has blamed the latest unrest on businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighurs' leader who is living in exile in the United States. "An initial investigation showed the violence was masterminded by the separatist World Uighur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer," the government said in a statement, according to Xinhua. It said the violence had been "instigated and directed from abroad".
Pedro Gonçalves

Q&A: Rebiya Kadeer on China's Uighur Riots | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com - 0 views

www.newsweek.com/...205830

China Xinjiang Uighurs Rebiya Kadeer

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 09 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Rebiya Kadeer, an elfin grandmother with gray-tinged pigtails who was released from a Chinese prison in March 2005 and immediately whisked into exile. A former millionaire once praised by Beijing as a model businesswoman, Kadeer now lives near Washington, D.C. She is recognized as the leader of the Uighur exile community and heads the Uyghur American Association and the World Uyghur Congress; both groups receive grants from the bipartisan National Endowment for Democracy funded by the U.S. Congress
  • my family has been a target of Chinese government persecution. Whenever something happens, authorities go after my family. My two sons are in prison. Even my grandchildren have been kicked out of school.
  • You mentioned your two sons in prison. What were they charged with and what are their prison terms?In 2006 one was sentenced to seven years and the other to nine years, on charges of tax evasion and separatism, respectively.
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  • And you were arrested in 1999 on charges of revealing state secrets. Is it true that these "secrets" included official newspapers published openly in Xinjiang?Yes, it's true. I had state-run newspapers with articles stating the numbers of deaths, arrests, and executions of Uighurs and with printed speeches by leaders saying they needed to "strike hard" against Uighurs. I sent these ordinary newspapers to my husband [who was then overseas]. These were openly available publications.
  • It would be great if the U.S. government could open a consulate in Urumqi. Then it could monitor events on the ground and the Chinese government couldn't just crack down.
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