Amnesty fears more Xinjiang executions

Amnesty fears more Xinjiang executions

By Simon Lauder for PM



The recent execution of nine people over their role in violent ethnic clashes in north-west China in July has raised concerns for hundreds of others who were detained after the riots.

The executions were expected but Amnesty International says there was more secrecy surrounding them than usual.

Little detail was provided when the executions were announced yesterday by the state-owned China News Service.

It was reported that the men were convicted of violent crimes including arson and murder.

Violence in the provincial capital Urumqi erupted in July when protests by Uighurs and retaliatory attacks by Han Chinese led to about 200 deaths on the official count.

Dr Michael Clarke from Griffith University has studied separatist movements in China and says most of those executed were Uighurs while one was Han Chinese.

"Those charges of being convicted of arson and so forth, they're fairly ambiguous if you look at the Chinese criminal law," he said.

"It suggests a fairly political approach to dealing with what happened in July.

"It's interesting that some Chinese have been caught up in this, given that there was a wave of retaliatory violence by Han Chinese in the days that followed the unrest.

"That suggests the Chinese are at least attempting to appear to be even handed in their crackdown."

'Strike hard' campaign
The July clashes were sparked by the deaths of two Uighur factory workers but was underpinned by tensions over the distribution of wealth and labour in the resource-rich Xinjiang province.

The executions are just one element of a crackdown designed to prevent a repeat of the clashes.

University of Melbourne postgraduate student Tyler Harlan, who has travelled to Xinjiang a number of times, says the province is now the target of what's known as a "strike hard" campaign.

"I think that we will see perhaps not as much tension but a lot of Government involvement and perhaps raids in certain areas on certain groups," Mr Harlan said.

"[The campaign's] words mean a particular type of crackdown on religious extremism, on terrorism, on splitism, which are words that the provincial and central government have used to crack down on particular groups.

"For instance, they sometimes to go into mosques and close mosques at certain stages to limit groups that can organise."

The executions come just days ahead of the first trip to China by US President Barack Obama.

The White House has reacted to the news by urging China to ensure the legal rights of citizens are respected in accordance with international standards.

Closed process
Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific deputy director, Roseann Rife, says the executions and the trials that led to them have taken place in secrecy.

"We got a notice on October 30 that an appeal had been approved and the process then should have gone to the Supreme Court for a final review," she said.

"And it seems that in less than 10 days the review and the executions were both carried out. That is faster than usual."

Ms Rife says Amnesty is particularly concerned about reports that the trials were not open.

"Families were not notified. In fact we received reports that authorities told human rights lawyers in Beijing not to take up cases of anyone involved with the unrest in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region in July," he said.

"So we have serious concerns that these trials were fair and that they were not transparent and didn't meet international standards."

The executions are the first to take place over July's ethnic violence but Ms Rife says they are unlikely to be the last.

"The official numbers have varied but it could be up to several hundred people who still could remain in detention for activities surrounding this unrest," she said.

"And we're concerned that this may only be the beginning of the executions."



http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/11/2739034.htm?section=world