Praise for Canada’s stance on human rights in China
For immediate release
November 17, 2006, 2:30 pm EST
Contact: Uyghur American Association +1 (202) 349 1496
Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Uyghur American Association (UAA), today expressed gratitude to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper for his insistence on including human rights in discussions with senior Chinese officials – including Chinese president Hu Jintao – at the APEC summit in Vietnam.
It is understood from press reports that Mr. Harper’s determination to include human rights on the agenda led the Chinese side to cancel discussions at the last moment. Mr. Harper is thought to be particularly concerned about the status and welfare of a naturalized Canadian citizen, Huseyin Celil, a Uyghur who was reportedly sentenced to 15 years in a Chinese prison on unknown charges in August 2006. The Chinese authorities refuse to recognize Mr. Celil’s status as a Canadian citizen, and in stark contravention of international consular protocols have reportedly ignored or rebuffed all attempts by Canadian diplomatic staff in China to intervene on Mr. Celil’s behalf.
“Prime Minister Harper’s hugely commendable act is an example of how international engagement with the Chinese government is supposed to encourage improvements in human rights in China,” said Ms. Kadeer. “But China’s petulant response is an example of how Beijing uses and abuses international engagement as just another convenient tool for hiding or denying its abysmal human rights record.”
Huseyin Celil is a charismatic imam based in Toronto, and has been a Canadian citizen since November 2005. He originally fled from the Chinese authorities in the late 1990s having served a prison term on charges relating to founding a political party in East Turkistan, the region now designated by the Chinese government as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Upon being granted his Canadian citizenship, Mr. Celil went to Uzbekistan to try and meet with his children traveling from East Turkistan. However, he was detained by Uzbek authorities in March 2006 when he tried to renew his visa, reportedly at the request of the Kazakh authorities who wanted to question him in connection with crimes committed in Kazakhstan. He was unequivocally cleared of any involvement in those crimes – he was in Turkey under the protection of UNHCR at the time – but the Chinese authorities then secured his repatriation from Uzbekistan in June 2006.
The Chinese authorities claimed that Mr. Celil was involved in terrorist activities, although it is not publicly known what he is suspected of actually doing to warrant this accusation. Since 9/11, the Chinese authorities have tended to brand all Uyghur political opposition as either terrorist, separatist, or inspired by religious extremism. It is assumed that Mr. Celil has been charged with terrorist crimes in response to his peaceful political activities before he left East Turkistan. Reports that he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment pending a statutory appeal have not been publicly confirmed or even commented upon by the Chinese authorities.
“For the sake of Huseyin Celil and everyone else seeking protection of their fundamental human rights in China, we hope that Beijing can pass this most simple test of its stated commitment to human rights and the rule of law, and start co-operating with Canadian consular staff,” added Ms. Kadeer.
See also:
August 7, 2006: Family of Uyghur-Canadian Huseyin Celil anxiously awaits word of his fate
June 23, 2006: Uzbekistan deports a Canadian Uyghur to a deeply uncertain fate in China
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The Uyghur American Association (UAA) works to promote the preservation and flourishing of a rich, humanistic and diverse Uyghur culture, and to support the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, democratic means to determine their own political future.
The UAA has undertaken the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) for the purpose of promoting improved human rights conditions for Uyghurs and other indigenous groups in East Turkistan, on the premise that the assurance of basic human rights will facilitate the realization of the community’s democratic aspirations.
Uyghur Human Rights Project
Uyghur American Association
1700 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: +1 (202) 349 1496
Fax: +1 (202) 349 1491
info[at]uhrp.org
www.uhrp.org
www.uyghuramerican.org