Two Young Uyghurs Detained for Distributing Leaflets Calling for Student Demonstration

February 1, 2009

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) capital of Urumqi have detained two young Uyghur men for distributing leaflets on a university campus calling on students to organize a public demonstration. Available information suggests the leaflets may have called on students to protest tobacco and alcohol sales. Two security staff at Xinjiang University (XU) detained 20-year-old Miradil (Mir'adil) Yasin and 19-year-old Mutellip Téyip on December 20, 2008, after seeing them distribute leaflets within the campus gates, according to a December 25 report of the event on the XU Web site and a Xinhua report posted January 1, 2009, on the Xinhua Bingtuan Web site.

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) capital of Urumqi have detained two young Uyghur men for distributing leaflets on a university campus calling on students to organize a public demonstration. Available information suggests the leaflets may have called on students to protest tobacco and alcohol sales. Two security staff at Xinjiang University (XU) detained 20-year-old Miradil (Mir'adil) Yasin and 19-year-old Mutellip Téyip on December 20, 2008, after seeing them distribute leaflets within the campus gates, according to a December 25 report of the event on the XU Web site and a Xinhua report posted January 1, 2009, on the Xinhua Bingtuan Web site. Two people outside the campus gates fled the scene as the detention occurred, according to the reports. The Xinhua article reported that the two Uyghur security staff and their ethnic Hui colleague who interrogated the men were initially unable to understand the contents of the Uyghur-language leaflets, but according to the XU report, university authorities later determined the leaflets had "reactionary" and "malicious" content aimed at "inciting students to demonstrate in the streets and create chaos." The XU authorities reported this information to Urumqi public security offices, which took the two young men into detention. Their current whereabouts and further developments in their cases are not known. According to the Xinhua report, Miradil Yasin and Mutellip Téyip identified themselves as XU students, but the XU report did not describe them as students. The Xinhua article reported that based on information provided by XU, public security offices detained on the same day a "criminal gang" made up of more than 20 people. (For additional reporting on the initial detentions on the XU campus, see also a December 26 article from Radio Free Asia's Uyghur service, based in part on interviews with local authorities including XU security staff involved in the case, and a December 30 press release from the Uyghur American Association.)

The reports provided no additional information on the specific contents of the leaflets, but information from two other Urumqi universities where leaflets were found on the same day suggests that leaflets at all three campuses may have similarly called on students to peacefully demonstrate against tobacco and alcohol sellers. The Xinjiang Agricultural University said in a December 30 report that the leaflets found on that campus urged ethnic minority students to gather at the campus gymnasium on December 21 and demonstrate in support of removing tobacco and alcohol from supermarkets, stores, and banquet halls. A December 26 report from Xinjiang Medical University, where officials held a meeting to address the discovery of leaflets there, described the contents of the leaflets as aiming "in name to improve the lifestyle habits of ethnic minority students," but claimed that in fact the contents amounted to "reactionary speech" that aimed to spur students into an "illegal assembly" that would disrupt "stability and unity." The report said that through the meeting, students were able to recognize that "to advocate lashing out at tobacco and alcohol businesses in fact [amounts to] an act of beating, smashing and looting, and this is forbidden by our country's laws."

In the aftermath of discovering the leaflets, the three universities reported taking measures to strengthen propaganda campaigns and oversight of students. The XU article noted that the school is in the process of carrying out anti-separatism education activities, and reported that the school's Communist Party committee called on staff to improve their sense of responsibility and urgency in their work to fight separatism and "infiltration." According to a second December 25 report from XU, the XU Communist Party secretary called on the university to strengthen "management" of places including dorms, cafeterias, and shower halls, and intensify "supervision and control" of technologies including Internet and cell phone messaging. A department at the Xinjiang Medical University convened a meeting on December 22 to address the leaflets, noting that the distribution of the leaflets indicated that the "fight against separatism" remained "complex and severe," and calling for an "unceasing strengthening of students' political immunity" against perceived threats to stability, according to another December 26 report from that university. The article also said that the meeting demonstrated that students would not be "hoodwinked" by the "pretense" of "illegal religion." The article reiterated XUAR government calls to emphasize the concept of "stability above all else." Xinjiang Agricultural University described taking measures on December 20 and 21 for "prevention and control" within the school and called on school departments to attach high importance to anti-separatism and anti-infiltration education, according to the report from that school. The Xinjiang Agricultural University also described plans to reward the student who informed officials of finding the leaflets. XU authorities gave monetary rewards to the security staff involved in stopping distribution of the leaflets on that campus and held a meeting to honor them, according to the two XU reports.

The confiscation of leaflets and detentions of Miradil Yasin, Mutellip Téyip, and others occurred within a heightened security climate in place in the XUAR in the past year since preparations for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, limited Chinese government reports of terrorist activity, and protests among Uyghurs and Tibetans in early 2008. The universities' characterization of the planned anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol demonstrations as illegal gatherings associated with separatism may have reflected a response both to the possibility of large-scale assembly as well as to religious expressions deemed by authorities to be "extremist." Separatism, terrorism, and "extremism" form the "three forces" designated by the government as threatening the region's security. The government's "strike hard" campaigns against the "three forces" have spurred tight controls over religious practice in the region and caused other rights abuses. Disrupting the planned demonstration also continues a trend in restricting grassroots religion-based efforts to address social issues such as substance abuse.

For more information on conditions in the XUAR, see section IV--Xinjiang in the CECC 2008 Annual Report.