IV

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. CON. RES. 81

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 3, 2000

Referred to the Committee on International Relations

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress that the Government

of the People’s Republic of China should immediately

release Rabiya Kadeer, her secretary, and her son, and

permit them to move to the United States if they so

desire.

Whereas Rabiya Kadeer, a prominent ethnic Uighur from the

Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of the

People’s Republic of China, her secretary, and her son

were arrested on August 11, 1999, in the city of Urumqi;

Whereas Rabiya Kadeer’s arrest occurred outside the Yindu

Hotel in Urumqi as she was attempting to meet a group

of congressional staff staying at the Yindu Hotel as part

of an official visit to China organized under the auspices

of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Program of the United States Information Agency;

Whereas Rabiya Kadeer’s husband Sidik Rouzi, who has lived

in the United States since 1996 and works for Radio
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Free Asia, has been critical of the policies of the People’s

Republic of China toward Uighurs in Xinjiang;

Whereas Rabiya Kadeer was sentenced on March 10 to 8

years in prison ‘‘with deprivation of political rights for

two years’’ for the crime of ‘‘illegally giving state information across the border’’;

Whereas the Urumqi Evening Paper of March 12 reported

Rabiya Kadeer’s case as follows: ‘‘The court investigated

the following: The defendant Rabiya Kadeer, following

the request of her husband, Sidik Haji, who has settled

in America, indirectly bought a collection of the Kashgar

Paper dated from 1995–1998, 27 months, and some copies of the Xinjiang Legal Paper and on 17 June 1999

sent them by post to Sidik Haji. These were found by the

customs. During July and August 1999 defendant

Rabiya Kadeer gave copies of the Ili Paper and Ili

Evening Paper collected by others to Mohammed Hashem

to keep. Defendant Rabiya Kadeer sent these to Sidik

Haji. Some of these papers contained the speeches of

leaders of different levels; speeches about the strength of

rectification of public safety, news of political legal

organisations striking against national separatists and

terrorist activities etc. The papers sent were marked and

folded at relevant articles. As well as this, on 11 August

that year, defendant Rabiya Kadeer, following her husband’s phone commands, took a previously prepared list

of people who had been handled by judicial organisations,

with her to Kumush Astana Hotel [Yingdu Hotel] where

she was to meet a foreigner’’;

Whereas reports indicate that Ablikim Abdyirim was sent to

a labor camp on November 26 for 2 years without trial

for ‘‘supporting Uighur separatism,’’ and Rabiya
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Kadeer’s secretary was recently sentenced to 3 years in

a labor camp;

Whereas Rabiya Kadeer has 5 children, 3 sisters, and a

brother living in the United States, in addition to her

husband, and Kadeer has expressed a desire to move to

the United States;

Whereas the People’s Republic of China stripped Rabiya

Kadeer of her passport long before her arrest;

Whereas reports indicate that Kadeer’s health may be at risk;

Whereas the People’s Republic of China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on October 5, 1998;

Whereas that Covenant requires signatory countries to guarantee their citizens the right to legal recourse when their

rights have been violated, the right to liberty and freedom

of movement, the right to presumption of innocence until

guilt is proven, the right to appeal a conviction, freedom

of thought, conscience, and religion, freedom of opinion

and expression, and freedom of assembly and association;

Whereas that Covenant forbids torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, and arbitrary arrest and detention;

Whereas the first Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights enables the Human

Rights Committee, set up under that Covenant, to receive

and consider communications from individuals claiming

to be victims of violations of any of the rights set forth

in the Covenant; and

Whereas in signing that Covenant on behalf of the People’s

Republic of China, Ambassador Qin Huasun, Permanent

Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the

United Nations, said the following: ‘‘To realize human
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rights is the aspiration of all humanity. It is also a goal

that the Chinese Government has long been striving for.

We believe that the universality of human rights should

be respected . . . As a member state of the United Nations, China has always actively participated in the activities of the organization in the field of human rights. It

attaches importance to its cooperation with agencies concerned in the U.N. system . . .’’: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives

2 concurring), That Congress calls on the Government of the

3 People’s Republic of China—

4 (1) immediately to release Rabiya Kadeer, her

5 secretary, and her son; and

6 (2) to permit Kadeer, her secretary, and her

7 son to move to the United States, if they so desire.

Passed the Senate May 2, 2000.

Attest: GARY SISCO,

Secretary.