Police in China's northwestern Xinjiang region shot and killed an ethnic minority Uyghur student motorcyclist and wounded two of his pillion riders after they allegedly beat a traffic light on the weekend, sparking mammoth protests over the violent action, according to residents.
His former teacher says he was only a bystander in the Urumqi violence.
More than 400 suspected Uighurs from China, including young children, have been apprehended in Thailand in recent weeks and are waiting to find out their fate. Chinese authorities are pressing the Thai government to send them back to China, but those detained deny they are Chinese Uighurs and want to go to Turkey.
They suspect local officials of working in collusion with Chinese firms.
Beijing targets even the most peaceful of Uyghur advocates, she says.
The daughter of a prominent Uighur academic told US lawmakers on Tuesday that his arrest sent a message China will not tolerate even peaceful expression of grievances by the minority group.
On January 15, 2014, Chinese authorities arrested Ilham Tohti, a Uighur economics professor at the prestigious Minzu University in Beijing. Authorities formally charged him with separatism on February 25, and have so far denied him access to his attorney.
The governor of China's restive far western region of Xinjiang wrote on Monday that Islamist militants were trying to ban laughter at weddings and crying at funerals, as he appealed to people to stamp out the "tumor" of extremism.
For immediate release
April 14, 2014, 2:00 pm EST
Contact: Uyghur Human Rights Project +1 (202) 478 1920
For immediate release
March 14, 2014, 5:40pm EST
For immediate release
March 13, 2014, 4:45pm EST
Contact: Uyghur Human Rights Project +1 (202) 478 1920
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Ilham Tohti charged with separatism, which can carry the death penalty
The situation of the Uyghur minority in north-west China became even more precarious in 2013, says Henryk Szadziewski.
Thousands of ordinary Chinese who try to speak out about rights abuses are detained in the capital.
The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) issues a Chinese-language version of its report Rumors, Suspicion and Hysteria: Urumchi’s Han Residents Target Uyghurs in September 2009 Pinprick Attack Scare.
A new report from the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), To Strike The Strongest Blow: Questions Remain Over Crackdown On 2009 Unrest In Urumchi, details widespread human rights violations committed by the People’s Republic of China in the wake of unrest in Urumchi on July 5, 2009.
A new report from the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) details the repression of religious freedom among Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).