Xinjiang

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.

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.

The Communist Party Central Committee appointed Zhang Qingli, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), and commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), to be the acting Party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Party Committee, according to a November 27 Reuters report. Zhang replaces Yang Chuantang, who suffered a stroke in November after taking over as the TAR Party secretary in December 2004.

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government and the region’s Communist Party Committee convened a meeting on elementary and middle school bilingual education on December 4, according to a Xinjiang City News report posted December 5 on the Tianshan Net Web site. Ismail Tiliwaldi, Chairman of the XUAR government, stressed the importance of bilingual education in fostering the economic and social development of minority groups. He outlined two approaches for improving bilingual competency among ethnic minorities: strengthening skills from childhood through bilingual pre-school education, and raising the quality of the teaching staff in the XUAR. Tiliwaldi called for better bilingual skills among pre-school students by combining ethnic minority students with Han students in schools that place primacy on instruction in Mandarin Chinese.

A court in Kashgar city, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), has sentenced Korash Huseyin, the senior editor of the Kashgar Literature Journal, to three years imprisonment for publishing a short story in late 2004 that Chinese authorities allege "incites ethnic splittism," according to a November 11 Radio Free Asia report. Nurmemet Yasin, the author, is already serving a prison sentence; the Kashgar Intermediate People's Court sentenced him in February to 10 years imprisonment for "inciting splittism." Both Huseyin and Yasin are members of the Uighur ethnic group.