Rebiya Kadeer: Arrested on Political Charges
Posted on: 01/08/07

"We are beyond happy. We have waited for this moment for five and a half years and want to thank everyone who worked toward this joyful day."
Rebiya Kadeer’s daughter, Akida Rouzi on her mother’s release from prison in China.

Profile

Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uighur businesswoman from the northwest region of Xinjiang in China. Her success in business was celebrated by the Chinese authorities, and she was made an official representative to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. She was a champion of the rights of the Uighur ethnic group and founded the Thousand Mothers Movement to promote the rights and economic security of ethnic minority women. However, Rebiya Kadeer was detained, tried and imprisoned in 2000 for “leaking state secrets” as she had sent newspaper articles from publicly available regional newspapers to her husband in the USA. Amnesty International considered her a prisoner of conscience and campaigned for her release, which was achieved on March 17, 2005.

Since Rebiya Kadeer’s release, she has continued to speak out for the human rights of the Uighur minority in China. Chinese authorities have threatened, harassed and detained her family members, relatives and business associates. Two of her sons were sentenced in November 2006 on charges of tax evasion, and a third was badly beaten by police, resulting in hospitalization. Amnesty International believes that the charges are politically motivated, as when she was released from prison, Rebiya Kadeer was warned that if she continued her human rights work her family and business would be targeted.

Please write a letter calling for an end to the intimidation and harassment of Uighur activists, including the family, relatives and associates of Rebiya Kadeer.

Write to:

Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China
WEN Jiabao Guojia Zongli
The State Council
9 Xihuangcheng Genbeijie
Beijingshi 100032
People's Republic of China

Tips for Letter-Writing: A short, one-line letter can be extremely effective. Include more details in your letter if you prefer, or simply write the one-line message above.

Amnesty International’s Concerns

Amnesty International has been extremely concerned about the longstanding repression of the Uighurs, a Turkic, mainly Muslim people, who make up the majority of the population in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of northwest China. Since the 1980s, the Uighurs have been the target of systematic and extensive human rights violations. This includes arbitrary detention and imprisonment, incommunicado detention, and serious restrictions on religious freedom. Uighur political prisoners have been executed after unfair trials. The Chinese government has been using the “war on terror” to justify policies aimed at repressing all forms of political or religious dissent in this region. Other Uighur prisoners of conscience remain in prison.

Amnesty’s Involvement

During Rebiya Kadeer’s imprisonment, Amnesty International members campaigned constantly for her release, as she was considered a prisoner of conscience. Since her release, Amnesty International has continued to press for an end to the harassment and intimidation of her children, relatives and associated by Chinese authorities.