Police operation against the business and son of exiled Rebiya Kadeer
New York (AsiaNews/Agencies) Chinese police tried to arrest the son of Muslim ethnic Uighur dissident, Rebiya Kadeer, who emigrated to the USA, and they have broken into her business and beaten and detained her staff. The "reprisal" was denounced by the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW). "It looks as if the Chinese government is intent on ruining any legacy she may have left behind by destroying her business and silencing her children," said Asia director for HRW, Brad Adams.
On Wednesday 11 May, two employees of the firm Kadeer trade centre were arrested. "Two days later, more than 100 policemen entered the firm and took away all the documents they found. Police also tried to grab Kadeer's son Ablikim Abdiriyim, but he evaded arrest and his whereabouts are unknown. A friend of his was beaten and detained because he did not know where Ablikim was; he was released only after he signed a statement that he would not visit the Kadeer family or their business again," he added. Ablikim was arrested with his mother in 1999 and detained for two years in a "reeducation" camp.
Kadeer was arrested in 1999 for "illegally providing state intelligence abroad" after she sent newspaper clippings to her husband in the United States. She spent years in jail in solitary confinement and deprived of necessary medical care." She was released in March "for health reasons" and allowed to become an expatriate, thanks to repeated international pleas and coinciding with the trip to China of US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. She is involved in defending Uighur Muslims from persecution at the hands of Peking, which fears their aspirations for autonomy: this ethnic group, with its own language and traditions, makes up the majority of the population of 19 million of the oil-rich northern Xinjiang province, which was independent from China up until 1949 (former eastern Turkestan). China has persecuted this ethnic group for many years, resorting to incarceration and systematic eradication of their identity (they even destroyed books in Uighur language in local libraries, and people of other ethnicities are preferred for public appointments in all economic spheres).
Before release, Kadeer was threatened that "her affairs and her children would be struck" if she did not keep silent. On the contrary, the woman has talked to journalists and politicians and she has continued her fight for human rights in China. (PB)
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02/12/2003
