C
Captain Compassion
Guest
Muslim executed for trying to "split" China
Fri 9 Feb 2007 7:10:41 GMT
By Benjamin Kang Lim
BEIJING, Feb 9 (Reuters) - China has executed a Uighur activist in a
far-northwestern city for attempting to "split the motherland" and
possessing explosives, drawing condemnation from a human rights group
which said the evidence was insufficient.
Ismail Semed, who was deported to China from Pakistan in 2003, had
told the court a confession had been coerced, but he was executed
nevertheless on Thursday in Urumqi, capital of the predominantly
Muslim region of Xinjiang, Radio Free Asia on Friday quoted his widow,
Buhejer, as saying.
"When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one
bullet hole in his heart," Buhejer told the U.S. government-funded
radio.
The exile group, the World Uighur Congress, said the prosecution had
presented no credible evidence for a conviction.
"His trial, like most Uighur political prisoners' trials, was not
fair," it said in an emailed statement.
A spokeswoman for the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court said a group
of people had been executed on Thursday but said she had no knowledge
of specific cases. The Xinjiang regional government declined to
comment.
Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs account for 8 million of the 19 million
people in Xinjiang.
The radio said the charge of attempting to split the motherland
stemmed from the allegation that Semed was a founding member of the
East Turkestan Islamic Movement, outlawed by Beijing as a terrorist
group.
But Nicholas Bequelin, Hong Kong-based China researcher of Human
Rights Watch, said: "The death penalty was widely disproportionate to
the alleged crimes ... his trial did not meet minimum requirements of
fairness and due process."
"We don't think there was sufficient evidence to condemn him,"
Bequelin added.
China has waged a harsh campaign in recent years against what it says
are violent separatists and Islamic extremists struggling to set up an
independent "East Turkestan" in Xinjiang, which shares a border with
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and
Mongolia.
Buhejer met her husband briefly on Monday shortly after being informed
of the decision to execute him, RFA said.
"(It was) only for 10 minutes" that they were allowed to meet, she was
quoted as saying.
He told her to "take care of our children and let them get a good
education". The couple has a young son and daughter.
Semed had previously served two prison sentences for taking part in a
violent uprising in 1990. He fled to Pakistan after a Chinese
government crackdown in 1997.
Two other Uighurs who testified against Semed were also executed, RFA
quoted unnamed sources in the region as saying.
In a reference to another case currently in court in Urumqi, a Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday Canadian diplomats had
no right to be present at the hearing of Hussayin Celil, a Uighur
accused by China of terrorism who was awarded Canadian citizenship two
years ago.
Celil, also known as Yu Shanjiang, fled China in the 1990s and
travelled last year to Uzbekistan, where he was detained and then
extradited to China on terrorism charges.
He was cited in court documents related to Semed as a co-conspirator,
Bequelin told Reuters. China has not recognised Celil's Canadian
citizenship, obtained in 2005. (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard)
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net
Fri 9 Feb 2007 7:10:41 GMT
By Benjamin Kang Lim
BEIJING, Feb 9 (Reuters) - China has executed a Uighur activist in a
far-northwestern city for attempting to "split the motherland" and
possessing explosives, drawing condemnation from a human rights group
which said the evidence was insufficient.
Ismail Semed, who was deported to China from Pakistan in 2003, had
told the court a confession had been coerced, but he was executed
nevertheless on Thursday in Urumqi, capital of the predominantly
Muslim region of Xinjiang, Radio Free Asia on Friday quoted his widow,
Buhejer, as saying.
"When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one
bullet hole in his heart," Buhejer told the U.S. government-funded
radio.
The exile group, the World Uighur Congress, said the prosecution had
presented no credible evidence for a conviction.
"His trial, like most Uighur political prisoners' trials, was not
fair," it said in an emailed statement.
A spokeswoman for the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court said a group
of people had been executed on Thursday but said she had no knowledge
of specific cases. The Xinjiang regional government declined to
comment.
Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs account for 8 million of the 19 million
people in Xinjiang.
The radio said the charge of attempting to split the motherland
stemmed from the allegation that Semed was a founding member of the
East Turkestan Islamic Movement, outlawed by Beijing as a terrorist
group.
But Nicholas Bequelin, Hong Kong-based China researcher of Human
Rights Watch, said: "The death penalty was widely disproportionate to
the alleged crimes ... his trial did not meet minimum requirements of
fairness and due process."
"We don't think there was sufficient evidence to condemn him,"
Bequelin added.
China has waged a harsh campaign in recent years against what it says
are violent separatists and Islamic extremists struggling to set up an
independent "East Turkestan" in Xinjiang, which shares a border with
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and
Mongolia.
Buhejer met her husband briefly on Monday shortly after being informed
of the decision to execute him, RFA said.
"(It was) only for 10 minutes" that they were allowed to meet, she was
quoted as saying.
He told her to "take care of our children and let them get a good
education". The couple has a young son and daughter.
Semed had previously served two prison sentences for taking part in a
violent uprising in 1990. He fled to Pakistan after a Chinese
government crackdown in 1997.
Two other Uighurs who testified against Semed were also executed, RFA
quoted unnamed sources in the region as saying.
In a reference to another case currently in court in Urumqi, a Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday Canadian diplomats had
no right to be present at the hearing of Hussayin Celil, a Uighur
accused by China of terrorism who was awarded Canadian citizenship two
years ago.
Celil, also known as Yu Shanjiang, fled China in the 1990s and
travelled last year to Uzbekistan, where he was detained and then
extradited to China on terrorism charges.
He was cited in court documents related to Semed as a co-conspirator,
Bequelin told Reuters. China has not recognised Celil's Canadian
citizenship, obtained in 2005. (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard)
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net
