China has executed two Uighurs and sentenced 15 others to prison in its Central Asian region of Xinjiang after a court convicted them of terrorism, US-based Radio Free Asia reported yesterday.
Mukhtar Setiwaldi and Abduweli Imin were executed on Wednesday shortly after a public sentencing rally organized by the Intermediate People’s Court in the far western city of Kashgar, the broadcaster quoted local sources as saying.
Three other Uighurs were given death sentences, suspended for two years, and the remaining 12 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 years to life, it said.
All 17 Uighurs were charged with belonging to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which the US and China list as an international terrorist group.
East Turkestan is the name still given to Xinjiang by Uighurs seeking an independent state.
The 17 Uighurs were arrested in a raid on a suspected terrorist camp in the Pamir Mountains in Xinjiang’s Aktu County in January last year, when the government said its forces shot dead 18 others.
The Uighur American Association said yesterday that the sentencing in Kashgar showed that China was “ratcheting up already intense terror claims to crack down on Uighurs on an unprecedented scale.”
The Chinese Communist Party has chosen to “exploit the ‘war on terror’ and Uighurs’ Muslim faith to suppress peaceful Uighur dissent while gaining international sympathy for their cause,” the group said in a statement.
“In light of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] documented pattern of the persecution of the Uighur people in the name of terrorism, extremism and separatism, its recent terror allegations and alleged terror raids warrant the intense scrutiny of the international community,” said Rebiya Kadeer, the group’s president.
Police in Xinjiang on Thursday said they had arrested 82 suspected terrorists in five groups this year after they “allegedly plotted sabotage against the Beijing Olympics.”
US lawmakers on Friday “strongly condemned” what they called Beijing’s harsh pre-Olympic crackdown.
The bipartisan leadership of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in a statement cited “credible” reports about the convictions and executions on terrorism charges.
These are “abuses of due process and rule of law,” said caucus co-chairmen Democrat Jim McGovern and Republican Frank Wolf.
The same day, police in Urumqi reportedly killed five Uighur men who authorities claimed were part of a 15-member criminal gang allegedly trained for “holy war.”
“The Chinese government should not be permitted to use the ‘war on terror’ or Olympic security as a front to persecute the Uighurs,” Wolf said.
“These trials appear to be no more than a ploy to oppress religious freedom and ethnic minority groups,” he said.
He called on Beijing to uphold the commitments made to the international community when awarded the right to host the Games and improve its human rights record.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS