From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: CHINA: Repression of Muslims
Date: 15 Nov 92 19:40:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700806:000:3949
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Nov 15 11:40:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: CHINA: Repression of Muslims

/* Written 10:40 pm  Nov 14, 1992 by aiusala@igc.apc.org in igc:ai.general */
Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 8DJ
United Kingdom             

EMBARGO: 13 NOVEMBER 1992 0001 gmt

CHINA: STATE VIOLENCE AND DENIAL OF BASIC FREEDOMS UNDERPIN SECRET POLITICAL
REPRESSION OF MUSLIMS IN CENTRAL ASIAN REGION OF XINJIANG 

    Amnesty International today (13 November 1992) criticised a pattern of
human rights violations, including killings and imprisonment, which it said
had emerged since 1989 in the Chinese central Asian Autonomous Region of
Xinjiang.

      "Government authorities have detained and imprisoned dissidents for
peacefully demanding political independence or protesting against curbs on
religious activities," said the international human rights movement. "They
also oppose attempts by Xinjiang people to report independently on human
rights violations." Political prisoners are held in incommunicado detention,
without trial, in harsh conditions, Amnesty International said.

       Based on official Chinese documents and interviews with members of the
largely Muslim ethnic groups which form the majority of Xinjiang's population,
Amnesty International's report details a pattern of human rights violations
which has developed as the authorities have sought to restrict the religious
activities of Muslims in Xinjiang and suppress public demonstrations and other
peaceful expressions of political views.

      Among cases detailed in the report are those of a teacher and school
administrator who was reportedly detained in 1990 because he was suspected of
writing to the United Nations to denounce human rights violations in Xinjiang.
He is said to have been completely cut off from the outside world ever since.
Taxi drivers who in 1991 organized a peaceful demonstration in Urumqi, the
capital of Xinjiang, are serving terms of administrative detention of up to
three years. Dissidents were imprisoned in 1990 and early 1992, apparently
because they criticized curbs on religious activities imposed by the Xinjiang
authorities.

      Amnesty International's report also says that as many as 50 civilians
may have been killed when the authorities used force to confront a protest by
members of the Uighur "national minority" in the rural district of Baren in
April 1990. Official accounts described the incident as a "counter-
revolutionary rebellion" and stated that a total of 22 people, including seven
members of the security forces, had died in the various disturbances. Amnesty
International is concerned by unofficial reports that many more may have been
killed, including some who may have been victims of extra- judicial executions
- deliberate killings by government forces acting outside the law.

      Hundreds of people, possibly thousands, were detained after this
incident and many are reported to have been severely ill-treated in detention.
An unknown number of alleged organizers of the protest have been tried and
sentenced to imprisonment or death. To Amnesty International's knowledge, the
names of those sentenced or executed have never been made public by the
authorities.

      Amnesty International is urging the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang to
release all prisoners held solely for the non-violent expression of their
political views or religious beliefs; to investigate reports that security
forces committed extra-judicial executions in Baren county in April 1990; and
to make public the names, trial circumstances and current whereabouts of all
those who have been tried and sentenced to imprisonment or death as a result
of their alleged participation in the Baren incident. Amnesty International
also calls on the Xinjiang authorities to implement international safeguards
for fair trial for political prisoners, and to take steps to end the use of
the death penalty.