Xinjiang

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) procuratorate approved the arrest of 18,227 criminal suspects investigated by public security, state security, and other agencies during 2005, according to a report delivered at the 4th Session of the 10th XUAR People's Congress and cited in a January 20 Xinjiang Daily article (in Chinese) and a January 23 Reuters article in The China Post. The procuratorate indicted 21,853 people during the same year, and courts acquitted 39 people in public prosecution cases for crimes in the region. The report neither specified the number of arrests or people indicted for state security offenses, nor provided a breakdown by ethnic group of those arrested and indicted in the XUAR.

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has one of the highest rates of population increase among Chinese provinces, according to information from a January 23 work meeting on the population and environment reported January 24 on Tianshan Net. While the birth rate and natural rate of increase have held steady in the past five years, the population continues to grow by about 300,000 people annually, the article reported. The article noted that the floating and migrant populations, among other groups, will maintain a relatively fast rate of increase.

Officials broke up two Protestant house church Christmas celebrations in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and detained 12 house church leaders, according to a December 27, 2005 report of the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors the religious freedom of house church Protestants. On December 24, officials broke up a Christmas celebration taking place in Korla city in the XUAR at which about 100 house church members were present. On December 25, officials raided a Christmas celebration taking place in a rented commercial facility in Manasi county in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture in the XUAR. Approximately 200 house church members were present. Officials presented a search warrant, declared the celebration an "illegal religious gathering," and detained 12 leaders and confiscated without receipt private property including two motor vehicles.

The Xinjiang Chemical Engineering Technical School (XCETS) garnered praise from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Propaganda Department for placing 60 minority graduates in jobs in the southern coastal city of Shenzhen, in an April 20 "hot topics" article in Tianshan. According to the article, this group of 60 will be the largest group of minority students that the autonomous region has ever sent at one time to other Chinese provinces for employment. The XCETS graduates heading to Shenzhen are trained in chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals, and "other technical fields." The group represents over 10 percent of the school's graduating class. Lu Guohui, the XCETS party secretary and headmaster, said that the school may send three or four more groups of students by the end of 2005.

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region have detained a Uighur religious instructor and 37 of her students, according to the German-based World Uighur Congress and as reported by Agence-France Presse on August 15. Aminan Momixi, 56, was teaching the Koran to students between the ages of 7 and 20 in her home on August 1, when police detained the group. Police accused Momixi of "illegally possessing religious materials and subversive historical information" and reportedly denied her access to a lawyer. Although central government officials assured the foreign press in March 2005 that minors are allowed to worship freely in China, the Xinjiang government prohibits children under 18 years of age from entering mosques or receiving religious instruction even in their own homes. Students may not observe religious holidays, fast during Ramadan, or wear religious clothing in public schools.

On March 17, Chinese authorities released Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent Uighur businesswoman and civic leader, on medical parole. She gained her freedom some 17 months before her sentence was to end and shortly before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to visit Beijing. U.S. diplomats accompanied Kadeer on a flight to the United States, where she will join her family and receive medical treatment.

Rebiya Kadeer’s case has long been a significant irritant in U.S.-China bilateral diplomatic relations. The Chinese government had promised several times in the past to release Ms. Kadeer, but informed sources say that internal conflict between Xinjiang government and Communist Party authorities and central government officials prevented her release.

A special police unit in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region will monitor the relatives and business interests of exiled activist Rebiya Kadeer, according to an August 30 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. Kadeer served over five years in prison in Xinjiang for disclosing "state secrets" contained in newspaper clippings she sent abroad. A police officer confirmed to RFA that a special unit known as the Number 307 Office, or Rebiya Kadeer Investigation Office, is operating in Urumqi. Alim Abdiriyim, Kadeer's son, told RFA that his family members must notify the 307 Office if they wish to leave the city. Police also detained two of Kadeer's nephews for a day during the week of August 26, and attempted to confiscate their passports.

Chinese authorities have begun what Human Rights Watch reports may be a politically motivated attack on the family and friends of Rebiya Kadeer, the recently released Uighur political prisoner now living in Washington, DC. Chinese authorities warned Kadeer before her release in March that her businesses and children would suffer the consequences if she revealed "sensitive" information overseas about the Muslim Uighurs. Chinese government control over the Uighurs has become increasingly repressive over the last decade, and Kadeer has pledged to bring the plight of "my children, the entire Uighur people" to the attention of the international community.