(HRW/IFEX) – The following is a 13 August 1999 Human Rights Watch press release: ARRESTS IN XINJIANG (August 13, 1999, New York) — Human Rights Watch today called for the immediate release of a prominent businesswoman and five others arbitrarily detained earlier this week in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. Rebiya Kadeer, known […]
(HRW/IFEX) – The following is a 13 August 1999 Human Rights Watch press
release:
ARRESTS IN XINJIANG
(August 13, 1999, New York) — Human Rights Watch today called for the
immediate
release of a prominent businesswoman and five others arbitrarily detained
earlier this week in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region in northwestern
China.
Rebiya Kadeer, known locally as the “millionairess,” is married to a U.S.
resident and former political prisoner named Sidik Rouzi, who has been
highly critical of China’s treatment of Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group.
Rouzi regularly broadcasts for Voice of America and Radio Free Asia; the
arrest of Rebiya Kadeer and others close to her may be linked to his
activities, although the charges against them have not been made public.
Kadeer and two other women were taken into custody at 7:00 a.m. on August 11
in front of the Yingdu Hotel in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, where they had
gone to meet a group of visiting Americans. As she was being arrested,
Kadeer reportedly called out, “Tell my son!” The next morning, at 1:30 a.m.,
two of her sons, Ablikim Abdiryim, twenty-six, and Alim Abdiryim,
twenty-four, were also detained in Urumqi. Two other sons living in the town
of Aksu were placed under house arrest. Kadeer’s secretary, Kahriman
Abdukirim, was also picked up. He had only been released on August 7 after
spending more than eight months in incommunicado detention without charge,
apparently because of political discussions he had taken part in as a
college student.
“This case involves multiple violations of human rights,” said Sidney Jones,
Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “Six people appear to have been
arbitrarily detained as punishment either for contact with foreigners or in
an effort to stop overseas broadcasts critical of China. All should be
released immediately.”
Human Rights Watch also urged the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
to
make immediate inquiries about the whereabouts of the six in police custody
and
about their access to family members and legal assistance.
Rebiya Kadeer gained prominence for her efforts to further development in
Xinjiang and for her 1000 Families Mothers’ Project, designed to help Uighur
women develop their own small businesses. The regional government supported
her efforts until several of her sons fled the country to join their father
in the U.S. In April 1997, Kadeer’s passport was confiscated. In September
1997, Wang Lequan, secretary of the regional Communist Party Committee,
announced that she could not leave the country because “her husband was
engaged in subverting the government and separatist activities outside the
country.”
In May 1999, the police told her bluntly that if her husband carried through
with plans to demonstrate against a Chinese Theme Park in Orlando, Florida,
she would be arrested. The threat was never carried out.
