2011: The Uyghur Human Rights Year in Review

January 06, 2012 | Huffpost | By Henryk Szadziewski

Calls for independent and international investigations into Chinese claims of Uyghur terrorism receive very short shrift from Beijing. It therefore follows that whenever a serious incident occurs in East Turkestan (Xinjiang), which Chinese officials blame on a coordinated Uyghur terror threat, skeptics are never far away. That China uses the Uyghurs’ Islamic faith to engineer accusations of terrorism in order to justify unremitting crackdowns only compounds the doubt.

The killing of seven alleged Uyghur terrorists and a police officer in a shootout on December 28 in Khotan prefecture ended an appalling year in the region. While Chinese state media reported that those killed were involved in a kidnapping and formed part of a larger group of 15 men who were heading to Central Asia to receive “jihadist training”, Western media detailed a divergent narrative. According to local sources contacted by Radio Free Asia, the group, which included women and children, was fired on as they were fleeing China to seek refuge overseas from China’s repressive religious policies.

Read the full op-ed here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/2011-the-uyghur-human-rig_b_1189329