Exiled Uighurs worried on death sentences

Feb 23, 2011

WASHINGTON — The leader of the exiled Uighur community on Wednesday voiced concern over China's plans to execute four people on charges of plotting unrest and accused Beijing of intimidation.

State media said China's highest court has given the green light for the four executions in the northwestern Xinjiang region, the scene of strife between the indigenous Uighur community and China's majority Han.

Uighur advocate Rebiya Kadeer, a former prisoner who lives in exile in the Washington region, voiced worries over the sentences and said she opposed any form of violence.

"By sentencing these four Uighurs to death, China is attempting to intimidate the Uighur people, fearing that they will take to the streets to demand human rights, democracy and freedoms from the authoritarian Chinese government," she said in a statement.

The state-run Xinjiang Daily said that two of those convicted were involved in an August 19 bombing in Aksu, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, that killed seven people and wounded 15 others.

China is highly critical of Kadeer and accuses her of stirring up unrest in Xinjiang, a charge that she and a number of US lawmakers dismiss as smears.

China says it has brought development to Xinjiang, but many Uighurs bristle at what they see as political and religious oppression and criticize the influx of Han Chinese to Xinjiang.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.