III 

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, specifimstockstill on PROD1PC66 with BILLS

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•SRES 574 IS 

cally, 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; 

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•SRES 574 IS 

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 

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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; 

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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 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the 

2 Government of the People’s Republic of China— 

3 (1) should recognize, and seek to ensure, the 

4 linguistic, cultural, and religious rights of the 

5 Uyghur people of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous 

6 Region; 

7 (2) should immediately release the children of 

8 Rebiya Kadeer from both incarceration and house 

9 arrest and cease harassment and intimidation of the 

10 Kadeer family members; 

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1 (3) should immediately release Canadian citizen 

2 Huseyin Celil and allow him to rejoin his family in 

3 Canada; and 

4 (4) should immediately cease all Government5 sponsored violence and crackdowns against the peo6 ple throughout the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous 

7 Region, including those involved in peaceful protests 

8 and political expression. 

Æ 

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