Congressional briefing addresses the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s role in the violation of refugee rights

For immediate release
September 20, 2007, 3:00 PM EST
Contact: Uyghur Human Rights Project +1 (202) 349 1496

On Wednesday, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) held a briefing to discuss the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Central and East Asia. Entitled, The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Threatening Human Rights or Providing Regional Cooperation and Stability?, the briefing highlighted SCO member and observer states’ violation of internationally protected refugee rights, placing special emphasis on their denial of the right of refugees to seek political asylum under the guise of fighting “terrorism”.

The discussion was moderated by CHRC Staff Director, Hans Hogrefe and included a panel of Alim Seytoff, Secretary General of the Uyghur American Association; Damian Murphy, Senior Program Manager of Central and Eastern Europe and Communications and Advocacy Officer for Freedom House; Jennifer Leonard, Washington Advocacy Director for the International Crisis Group; and T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA Advocacy Director for Asia & Pacific.

Mr. Seytoff noted that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government has used the SCO to engage in, and enlist support for, a domestic and international campaign of intimidation and harassment against the Uyghur people and that the PRC uses the SCO to repress the basic human rights and democratic aspirations of the Uyghurs.

Mr. Murphy called attention to the fact that, according to Freedom House’s annual survey, 56 percent of the people who live in countries that are “not free” are located in SCO member states. Ms. Leonard illuminated the role of the SCO in Uzbekistan, especially in the repatriation of refugees in the wake of the Andijon massacre. Mr. Kumar pointed out that approximately eighty percent of the world’s executions occur in the PRC and that Uyghurs in government custody are often singled out for especially harsh treatment by PRC authorities.

The Uyghur American Association would like to thank the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, and Caucus Co-Chairs Congressman Tom Lantos and Congressman Frank R. Wolf, for drawing attention to this very important issue as well as for their continued support of the Uyghur people.

In 1996, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan created the Shanghai Five in the name of resolving border issues remaining after the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the addition of Uzbekistan in 2001, the Shanghai Five became known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Under the leadership of the PRC, the organization has focused on fighting the “three evils of separatism, terrorism, and extremism.”

The full text of Mr. Seytoff’s remarks:

UAA Statement on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

In the era of the “war on terror,” People’s Republic of China officials have maneuvered to use the concept of “terrorism” as a justification for their repressive treatment of Uyghurs in East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) and to threaten Uyghurs who have fled China. During this time, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has become another instrument by which the PRC seeks to repress the basic human rights and democratic aspirations of the Uyghur people, as the PRC government engages in, and enlists support for, a domestic and international campaign of intimidation and harassment.

Since the founding of the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan in the early 1990s, PRC leaders have feared that these nations, which are culturally and linguistically related to Uyghurs, would sympathize with the Uyghur situation. As a result, the PRC government views the more than one million Uyghurs living in SCO countries as a threat. After the establishment of the SCO, the PRC, using military and economic assistance, has been largely successful in persuading Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to repress the Uyghur populations in their respective countries, to deport Uyghur political activists and refugees fleeing Chinese persecution back to China, and to maintain official silence about the human-rights violations in East Turkestan.

PRC authorities have not hesitated to use the concept of “terrorism” to undertake a renewed, systematic, and sustained crackdown on all forms of Uyghur dissent, no matter how peaceful. In seeking support for this crackdown, the PRC has used its influence in the SCO to direct the organization’s attention to fighting “terrorism”. “Anti-terrorism” agreements have become a centerpiece of each SCO Summit and the PRC has also signed bilateral “anti-terrorism” agreements with SCO countries. Yet, for all its claims of “terrorism,” Beijing has presented little evidence of a genuine terrorist threat.

China has conducted a series of large-scale military exercises with SCO member and observer states. The most recent example occurred in August 2007, when more than 6,500 troops from SCO countries participated in “anti-terrorism” exercises in Urumchi, the capital of East Turkestan, and Chelyabinsk, Russia. This was the first time that the SCO has conducted these types of exercises inside East Turkestan. The scale of the exercises suggested that they were aimed at controlling and intimidating local populations, especially Uyghurs, and not just combating “terrorism.”

By holding the final stage of the “anti-terrorism” exercises in Urumchi, the Chinese government signaled its resolve to continue to use the SCO as a tool of repression against Uyghurs. The presence of the SCO heads of state in Urumchi is meant to demonstrate that Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan stand behind the PRC in its treatment of East Turkestan’s Uyghur population.

Beijing has extended its campaign of intimidation into neighboring countries by using bilateral agreements with SCO member and observer states to force the return of Uyghurs suspected of involvement in any kind of political activity disliked by the Chinese government. At present, SCO member and observer states not only tolerate the PRC’s repression of Uyghurs in East Turkestan but also help China track down Uyghur political activists and extradite them back to China to face unproved political and criminal charges. Uyghurs extradited to the PRC face serious human rights violations, including torture, unfair trials, and execution. In all of these cases, SCO governments are in clear violation of the principal of non-refoulement, which protects refugees from being returned to places where their lives or freedoms could be threatened.

Recent examples of Uyghurs who have been extradited to the PRC from SCO member and observer states include Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil, now serving a life term in prison, who was detained in Uzbekistan in March 2006; activists Yusuf Kadir and Abdukadir Sidik, now detained or possibly executed, who were extradited from Kazakhstan; Ismail Semed, who was deported from Pakistan in 2003 and executed in China in February, 2007; and Osman Alihan, extradited in July 2007, also from Pakistan.

The case of Uyghur-Canadian Huseyin Celil is a powerful example of the PRC’s use of the SCO to force the return of an ethnic Uyghur in violation of international law.

Mr. Celil was sentenced to life on charges of engaging in “terrorist activities” and “plotting to split the country.” He was detained by Uzbek authorities in March 2006 when he tried to renew his visa in Uzbekistan, where he was visiting the parents of his wife. PRC authorities subsequently secured his repatriation from Uzbekistan in June 2006. Though Mr. Celil became a Canadian citizen in 2005, the PRC has refused to recognize his Canadian citizenship, in direct contradiction with Article 9 of its own Nationality Law, which states a person loses Chinese citizenship when he or she is naturalized as a citizen in a foreign country.

According to Mr. Celil’s sister, in early 2007, while Mr. Celil was in Chinese custody, he was tortured and forced to sign a pre-written confession, which he signed only after he was told by prison guards that if he refused to sign he would be “buried alive and disappear without any clues.” Mr. Celil was also denied the Canadian consular access he was entitled to under international law. It is widely believed that Mr. Celil’s sentence is in response to the peaceful political activities he engaged in before he left East Turkestan.

If the PRC wishes to be accepted as a legitimate member of the international community, it must implement basic human rights, the rule of law, and democratic reforms and cease using the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as part of a domestic and international campaign to terrorize the Uyghur people of East Turkestan.

Alim A. Seytoff
General Secretary,
Uyghur American Association