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[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 574 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 574

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Government of the People's 
Republic of China should immediately release from custody the children 
of Rebiya Kadeer and Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil and should refrain 
 from further engaging in acts of cultural, linguistic, and religious 
            suppression directed against the Uyghur people.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 22, 2008

Mr. Brown submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Government of the People's 
Republic of China should immediately release from custody the children 
of Rebiya Kadeer and Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil and should refrain 
 from further engaging in acts of cultural, linguistic, and religious 
            suppression directed against the Uyghur people.

Whereas the protection of the human rights of minority groups is consistent with 
        the actions of a responsible stakeholder in the international community 
        and with the role of a host of a major international event such as the 
        Olympic Games;
Whereas recent actions taken against the Uyghur minority by authorities in the 
        People's Republic of China and, specifically, by local officials in the 
        Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, have included major violations of 
        human rights and acts of cultural suppression;
Whereas the authorities of the People's Republic of China have manipulated the 
        strategic objectives of the international war on terror to increase 
        their cultural and religious oppression of the Muslim population 
        residing in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
Whereas an official campaign to encourage Han Chinese migration into the 
        Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has resulted in the Uyghur population 
        becoming a minority in their traditional homeland and has placed immense 
        pressure on those who are seeking to preserve the linguistic, cultural, 
        and religious traditions of the Uyghur people;
Whereas a new policy now actively recruits young Uyghur women and forcibly 
        transfers them to work at factories in urban areas in far-off eastern 
        provinces, resulting in tens of thousands of Uyghur women being 
        separated from their families and placed into substandard working 
        conditions thousands of miles from their homes;
Whereas the legal system of the People's Republic of China is used as a tool of 
        repression, including for the imposition of arbitrary detentions and 
        torture commonly employed against any and all Uyghurs who voice 
        discontent with the Government;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China continues to apply 
        charges of ``political crimes'' and the death penalty to Uyghurs and 
        other political dissidents, contrary to international humanitarian 
        standards;
Whereas the People's Republic of China is implementing a monolingual Chinese 
        language education system that undermines the linguistic basis of Uyghur 
        culture by transitioning minority students from education in their 
        mother tongue to education in Chinese, shifting dramatically away from 
        past policies that provided choice for the Uyghur people;
Whereas the Senate has a particular interest in the fate of Uyghur human rights 
        leader Rebiya Kadeer, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and her family, as 
        Ms. Kadeer was first arrested in August 1999 while she was en route to 
        meet with a delegation from the Congressional Research Service and was 
        held in prison on spurious charges until her release and exile to the 
        United States in the spring of 2005;
Whereas upon her release, Rebiya Kadeer was warned by her Chinese jailers not to 
        advocate for human rights in Xinjiang and throughout China while in the 
        United States or elsewhere, and was reminded that she had several family 
        members residing in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
Whereas while residing in the United States, Rebiya Kadeer founded the 
        International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation and was 
        elected President of the Uyghur American Association and President of 
        the World Uyghur Congress in Munich, Germany;
Whereas 2 of Rebiya Kadeer's sons were detained and beaten and one of her 
        daughters was placed under house arrest in June 2006;
Whereas President George W. Bush recognized the importance of Rebiya Kadeer's 
        human rights work in a June 5, 2007, speech in Prague, Czech Republic, 
        when he stated: ``Another dissident I will meet here is Rebiyah Kadeer 
        of China, whose sons have been jailed in what we believe is an act of 
        retaliation for her human rights activities. The talent of men and women 
        like Rebiyah is the greatest resource of their nations, far more 
        valuable than the weapons of their army or their oil under the 
        ground.'';
Whereas Kahar Abdureyim, Rebiya Kadeer's eldest son, was fined $12,500 for tax 
        evasion and another son, Alim Abdureyim, was sentenced to 7 years in 
        prison and fined $62,500 for tax evasion in a blatant attempt by local 
        authorities to take control of the Kadeer family's remaining business 
        assets in the People's Republic of China;
Whereas another of Rebiya Kadeer's sons, Ablikim Abdureyim, was beaten by local 
        police to the point of requiring medical attention in June 2006 and has 
        been subjected to continued physical abuse and torture while being held 
        incommunicado in custody since that time;
Whereas Ablikim Abdureyim was also convicted by a kangaroo court on April 17, 
        2007, for ``instigating and engaging in secessionist'' activities and 
        was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment, this trial being held in 
        secrecy and Mr. Abdureyim reportedly being denied the right to legal 
        representation;
Whereas 2 days later, on April 19, 2007, another court in Urumqi, the capital of 
        Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, sentenced Canadian citizen Huseyin 
        Celil to life in prison for ``splittism'' and also for ``being party to 
        a terrorist organization'' after having successfully sought his 
        extradition from Uzbekistan where he was visiting relatives;
Whereas authorities in the People's Republic of China have continued to refuse 
        to recognize Huseyin Celil's Canadian citizenship, although he was 
        naturalized in 2005, denied Canadian diplomats access to the courtroom 
        when Mr. Celil was sentenced, and have refused to grant consular access 
        to Mr. Celil in prison;
Whereas a spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China 
        publicly warned Canada ``not to interfere in China's domestic affairs'' 
        after Huseyin Celil's sentencing;
Whereas Huseyin Celil's case was a major topic of conversation in a recent 
        Beijing meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Canada and the People's 
        Republic of China; and
Whereas there have been recent armed crackdowns throughout the Xinjiang Uyghur 
        Autonomous Region against the Uyghur population: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the Government of 
the People's Republic of China--
            (1) should recognize, and seek to ensure, the linguistic, 
        cultural, and religious rights of the Uyghur people of the 
        Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
            (2) should immediately release the children of Rebiya 
        Kadeer from both incarceration and house arrest and cease 
        harassment and intimidation of the Kadeer family members;
            (3) should immediately release Canadian citizen Huseyin 
        Celil and allow him to rejoin his family in Canada; and
            (4) should immediately cease all Government-sponsored 
        violence and crackdowns against the people throughout the 
        Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, including those involved in 
        peaceful protests and political expression.
                                 <all>
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