Category: Asia and Pacific

Rebiya Kadeer

Rebiya Kadeer is a former businesswoman whose activistism on behalf for the rights of China’s Uighur ethnic group, to which she belongs, led to her jailing and exile.

In 2005, she was released to the United States from her prison cell in China. Now settled in Washington, she has become the public face of an ethnic group that is little known in much of the world. Although her fame hardly approaches that of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, Ms. Kadeer has come to personify the Uighur cause, and that status may only grow with China’s denunciations.

Ms. Kadeer first gained fame as an astute businesswoman and then a favored example of China’s claims of multiethnic harmony. She built an empire of trading companies and a department store and was even appointed to China’s national legislative body. But Communist Party leaders became suspicious of her loyalties in the late 1990s. She was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to eight years for betraying state secrets.

Under pressure from the United States and international organizations, she was released to exile in March 2005. She was soon elected president of two exile groups, the Uighur American Association, which represents the 1,000 or so Uighurs in the United States, and the World Uighur Congress, an umbrella for 47 groups worldwide, with headquarters in Munich.

Both groups receive much of their funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, a bipartisan organization created and financed by the United States Congress that promotes democracy worldwide. They engage in research and advocacy on human rights issues that affect the Uighur people.

Although the Chinese government has accused Ms. Kadeer and her groups of abetting terrorism, the organizations say they reject ties to violence or Islamic extremism. They call for democracy and “self-determination” for the Uighurs, side-stepping the explosive issue of independence.

When riots broke out in Uighur cities in July 2009, the Chinese government accused her of fomenting the violence, a charge she angrily denied.

Since then, Ms. Kadeer and the Chinese government have ratcheted up their war of words, each blaming the other for the violence that no one denies claimed the lives of at least 197, while injuring more than 1700.

In July 2009, on a visit to Japan, Ms. Kadeer claimed that “nearly 10,000” Uighurs had disappeared “overnight” in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital. “Where did they go?” she asked during a news conference. “Were they all killed or sent somewhere? The Chinese government should disclose what happened to them.” She did not provide evidence to back up her assertion.

But her comments infuriated China, which summoned Japan’s ambassador in Beijing to express “strong dissatisfaction” with the decision to grant her a visa.

The true story of what happened in Urumqi may never be known. But Ms. Kadeer’s and the Chinese government’s dueling accounts have sowed confusion and created an even wider chasm between the Chinese government and those pressing for greater Uighur autonomy.

In April 2009, Ms. Kadeer published an autobiography, “Dragon Fighter: One Woman’s Epic Battle for Peace with China.” In the New York Times Book Review section, Howard French summarized her life story this way:

“Through sheer force of personality Ms. Kadeer overcomes a bad marriage to an abusive husband, then seeks out and marries a former political prisoner and poet, telling him flatly that “after our wedding, our first task will be to liberate the land.”

“Years, several children and many arduous commercial voyages across China later, having built a fortune (and a big reputation) in department stores and real estate, while she and her second husband dreamed of liberating the land, Ms. Kadeer begins to attract the wooing calls of the party. Her big moment comes in a speech before the Congress in Beijing, in which she boldly switches the approved text to ask: “Is it our fault that the Chinese have occupied our land? That we live under such horrible conditions?”

“If not the first time she had spoken truth to power, it was certainly the beginning of the end. Soon afterward Ms. Kadeer was arrested on her way to a meeting with a member of the United States Congress. She was tried, imprisoned for nearly six years and exiled to the United States.”

via Rebiya Kadeer News – The New York Times.

June 30, 2011
Bloomberg photojournalist deported from Baku because of her Armenian origin

PanARMENIAN.Net – In the evening of June 28, Bloomberg news agency photojournalist Diana Markosian was deported to Istanbul from Baku, contact.az reported, citing Turan.

According to RFE/RL Azeri service, on June 28, Diana Markosian was detained at Baku airport.

Emin Huseynov, director of Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, who’s been in contact with Markosyan, stated that Markosyan came to Baku in the early hours of 28 June, but was not permitted to go out of the airport. “Markosian is dual citizen of U.S. and Russia. She came to Baku with her Russian passport. Her documents are all in order.”

Elkhan Polukhov, head of the press office for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that Markosian did not have accreditation. “She sent her documents, presented herself. Bloomberg directors as well as Diana herself were told that her visit here would not be possible, the accreditation cannot go through – because problems may arise in providing her safety here. It was suggested that she be replaced by another journalist.”

Photos taken by Markosian have been published in newspapers such as the New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

On 18 April 2011 Swedish journalists Charlie Laprevote, My Rohwedder Street and Charlotta Wijkstrom were detained and deported from Baku, having come there to film a documentary about freedom of expression in Azerbaijan.

via Bloomberg photojournalist deported from Baku because of her Armenian origin – PanARMENIAN.Net.

June 29, 2011
An open letter from Afghan refugees in Turkey to UNHCR

Dear UNHCR Authorities,

Afghans refugees are the third largest irregular refugee group in Turkey. Most have fled the war in Afghanistan. In 2010, refugees from Afghanistan numbered near 3,500 and made a sizable proportion of Turkey’s registered migrants. Most of them were spread out over satellite cities, with the following being the specific locations: Van, Ağrı, Kayseri, Gaziantep, Eskişehir, Çorum, Adana, Kahraman Maraş, Newşehir, Niğde, Sivas, Tokat, Istanbul, Ankara, Kutahya, Burdur, Konya, Karaman, Aksaray, Niğde and Hatay.

Over the years, the number of Afghans entering Turkey has greatly increased. As of January 2010, Afghans consisted one-sixth of the 26,000 remaining refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey. By the end 2011, with the increase of war and violence in Afghanistan, their numbers are expected to surge up to 10,000, making them the largest refugee group, surpassing all other groups.

Afghan refugees are victims of the Afghan government’s propaganda, which makes the UNHCR think that Afghanistan has become safe and its refugees need little assistance. This mindset from your organization toward Afghan refugees confirms what people say about the UNHCR – that it is an institution that doesn’t truly respect human rights. Because of this approach by the UNHCR, a large number of Afghan refugees have lost their lives as they have chosen to independently and illegalty smuggle themselves to EU member countries.

When it comes to Afghan refugees in Turkey, we believe that UNHCR chooses not to uphold the rights of these refugees, and refuses to comply with its own mandate. Refugee applications take far too long to process, and living conditions for refugees are untenable.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, we live with lies and broken promises of change, and when change comes, it is for the worse and not for the better. Nothing improves despite all the negotiations.

Like you, we were fed the love of my country. Like you, we remember our past and present, and remember the rusty keys of my parents’ home, keys to doors that exist no more, but keys that have their doors in our hearts and our imaginations. These rusty keys are still with us. We remember that we were brought up with this eternal belief that right is right, and nothing can justify ignoring it.

But for our children, the situation is very bad. They feel excluded and discriminated against. They are ashamed because they live in refugee housing and therefore they do not bring their friends from school to their apartments. The children have no room and space for themselves. They have little possibilities to learn from school. They ask their parents for help with their school lessons, but their parents don’t know the new language. The futures of our children are being destroyed in the collective refugee buildings. They become adults earlier than other children, because they live among other refugees, most of whom are adults, under harsh conditions. Through the control of the janitors and their presence, they feel in their young life like they are in prison.

It is hard to imagine that in this century, families spend their nights hungry, and children spend their nights playing in the dim light of a candle because their families can’t afford to pay for electricity. It is even worse to imagine that in the peak of the world modernization, some groups of people are locked in a small place and denied the freedom of movement. It is hard to imagine that a mother gives birth to two babies here, and the firstborn child is going to be five, having waited all her life for a change in her status file that is yet to come. It is hard to imagine that the Afghan refugees live here without the right to work, and only getting some money for paying for food and rent.

We believe in human values and human rights and generosity. We believe in freedom, justice, peace, democracy and equality. We believe that people who fight for justice and against oppression are heroes, like you. We believe that you are a role model, and you will affect generations to come.

But we are also the witness of UNHCR staff sometimes working to the detriment of Afghan refugees. During the last night of 2010, many fıles of Afghan refugees learned that they had been accepted, and they ware happy with UNHCR for this kind of pleasant surprise. Unfortunatly, after two days, our smiles vanished as we learned that our files had been changed to Private Accept (Özel kabul in Turkish). This incident shows the quality of work the UNHCR staff in Ankara performs for Afghan refugees.

We are the witness of a letter sent it the same document to an Afghan refugee twice after three months. This also shows the quality of work your staff in Ankara performs for Afghan reffugees.

We do not accept such inattention and violations of the rights of Afghan refugees, and we, jointly with Afghan refugees all over of Turkey, therefore make the following demands:

• Until our primary demand is implemented, we ask that UNHCR take immediate steps to ensure that the status determination procedures are efficient, fair, and transparent, and that UNHCR and its affiliated organizations are accountable to asylum-seekers

• UNHCR must explain why the cases of Afghan refugees in Turkey take significantly longer to process compared to those of other refugees

• UNHCR must explain why the case of many Afghan refugees, which have been accepted already by UNHCR, are suspended within 1 to 2 years

• UNHCR must explain why the cases of many Afghan refugees are in the Specific Acceptance status or in Turkish (Özel Kabul). We demand to know why the UNHCR refuses to explain this to us. And, finally, what is the difference between the Normal Acceptance and Specific Acceptance? How many years must those in the Specific Acceptance status wait for the change? We are demanding that the UNHCR change Specific Acceptance to Normal Acceptance.

• If you want to work for Afghan refugees, you must employ Afghan translators who are familiar with the Afghan language and culture. Because there is a big difference between Farsi – which the translators speak – and Dari – which the Afghan refugees speak – we don’t understand the translators well, and they in turn cannot understand us and fail to accurately convey what we mean. Translators must be proficient in Dari and must understand Afghan culture to ensure that refugees’ accounts are recorded correctly and in full.

• Interviews must be made comfortable; asylum-seekers should not feel criminalized by interviewers.

• Full and clear reasons for rejection must be disclosed in a detailed format, directly to the refugee, immediately after a decision has been made.

• We demand that all rejected case files immediately be reopened and reviewed under the standards for UNHCR’s operation demanded here.

• UNHCR must ensure that collaborating agencies and NGOs mandated to assist asylum seekers and refugees, for example ASAM, are free from corrupt practices and treat refugees fairly and in accordance with their rights.

The current situation of Afghan refugees in Turkey, which has been ongoing for years, is not now nor has it ever been acceptable. Our Coordination Group will continue to campaign until human rights violations cease and our refugees are protected by the UNHCR according to its mandate.

The UNHCR is well aware that many Afghan refugees who have been registered with the UNHCR choose to go to the EU illegally. They wait for a long period of time hoping a change in their status, but that does not happen. You are also well aware that many Afghan refugee families from several cities left Turkey to enter the EU illegally because UNHCR invented a new law by creating the “specific acceptance situation,” or in Turkish, Özel kabul.

We are asking you: “What have you done to process our status?” This is why we continue to work to make a positive change and work for a better tomorrow at a time when every day that comes is worse than the day before for us.

We, the Afghan refugees, have been patient for a very long time, waiting for a change in our files. We have been silent since the UNHCR office inaugurated in Turkey and relied solely on you and your staff, but unfortunately, in the last few years, nothing has changed for us, instigating us to start the protest.

We don’t know if you will read these words or not, but we do hope that such words that come from our heart will reach yours, and you can find the hope and strength our people still have in them. Right is right, and justice is justice. All people are equal, and no race or color is superior above the others.

We urge you all to do something to save our kids and their future, and treat us as human beings who have the right to have a decent life.

We expect the UNHCR to immediately take measures to address these demands. The process of granting prima facie status to Afghan refugees must be fast-tracked. Anything less is unacceptable and will be met with continued public protests and action, including legal action, against the UNHCR.

We fear the day when our refugees, despondent about their prospects here, decide to go to the EU en masse. Thus, it is a need that your office takes urgent measures to solve these problems. We think it is time that your office rightly addresses this issue before it is too late. Otherwise, we will ask the international community to help Afghan refugees to change the political line of the UNHCR.

We will ask workers of the UN, the UNHCR and other workers of different institutions in different countries to show their support to Afghan refugees.

We hope to see some positive changes about the problems and concerns we have raised here. Thank you in advance for considering this open letter in a positive way; otherwise, we will be compelled to send it all of human rights organizations and the UNHCR headquarters.

In conclusion, we thank you for taking the time to hear our views and beliefs. We are eagerly awaiting your response, and hope dearly that no legal action will need to be taken.

Sincerely,

Coordination Group of Afghan Refugees in Turkey

Turkey

June 27, 2011
Tokyo Electric May Give Technical Support to Turkey Nuclear Bid

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will consider providing technical support if asked by a Japanese group including Toshiba Corp. (6502) that’s seeking orders to build four nuclear power reactors for Turkey’s government.

“We haven’t make any decision on participating,” said Yoshinori Mori, a Tepco spokesman. “We’ll consider whether we can offer technical support if we get such a request.”

Tokyo Electric will probably be replaced by another utility, the Sankei newspaper reported earlier today, citing a Turkish government official it didn’t name. Talks between Turkey and the group have been suspended since the March 11 earthquake, Sankei said.

Tokyo Electric is reviewing its overseas businesses as it plans a restructuring, Mori said. The Turkish project isn’t included in the review as the utility hasn’t made a decision to participate, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim McDonald at jmcdonald8@bloomberg.net

via Tokyo Electric May Give Technical Support to Turkey Nuclear Bid – Bloomberg.

June 27, 2011
Customs Union Issues

Mikhail Kozlov Deputy Director of Operative Department on Customs Services AsstrA Associated Traffic AG

Development of the customs union is approaching the next landmark — actual formation of the unified customs territory of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.

Starting from July 1, 2011, customs control on the inner borders of the three countries will be abolished; veterinary, phytosanitary and transport control will be moved to the CU’s external borders. As of Jan. 1, 2011, there are unified forms and instructions on declaring goods.

At the same time there are still unsolved problems connected with the functioning of the unified customs territory:

1) The uniform application of international customs conventions. The agreement on TIR convention applications on the CU territory has not yet been signed because of the position of Kazakhstan that lies in the possibility of TIR procedures being applied for international goods transportation on the CU territory. At present by TIR procedure Kazakh carriers perform a great volume of cargo transportation from the Chinese-Kazakh border to Russia and Belarus. Unfortunately, in the CU customs code there is no analogue and quite simple guarantee system that can be used instead of the TIR procedure.

Kazakhstan still has not joined the Istanbul convention on temporary import/export of goods, which is why the agreement on the application of this convention on the CU territory was not even developed. Meanwhile Belarus and Russia have not yet solved the problem of guaranteeing transportation of goods through the territory of Belarus to Russia by the Belarussian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

2) In the CU customs code the principle of residence is left for regular people participating in customs declaration in the CU: customs applicant of the customs procedure, customs representative and authorized economic operator, which makes the process of logistics optimization of commodity flows at the unified customs territory. For example, a freight forwarder of FLLC AsstrA Weisrussland — an approved economic operator in Belarus — cannot conduct the procedure of customs transit to Russia or Kazakhstan without payment of customs duties, taxes under his status of the AEO. Russian trade operator Perekryostok cannot put goods under the customs procedure of transfer for free turnover in Belarus in the immediate vicinity from the CU external border at TLC Brest-Beltamozhservice. With this purpose he has to register a residential company in Belarus.

3) In the field of tariff regulations there are no unified trade rules of procedure and impressments of country-members of the CU with third countries. In Kazakhstan there are still transitional rates of customs duties by 400 commodity items, different from the rates of the CU customs duties. In customs services of the CU, the indicatives for application of additional measures of documental control by determination of customs prices of goods differ.

4) In the field of non-tariff regulations there is the burning issue of developing unified technical rules of procedure for technical regulation. Belarus and Kazakhstan are against the transfer of veterinary control functions to the customs bodies at the border, which comes into force in Russia from July 1, 2011.

We would like to mark the problem of absence of actual simplifications in the work of customs representatives in the process of declaring goods, of a higher level of trust on the part of the customs officials to their work, despite quite a big size (1 million euros) of provision of customs duty payment.

The unified instruction for the CU on CMR note filling-in was developed as a simple sum of national instructions, it requires indication of the information not only for purposes of tariff and non-tariff regulation, statistics of foreign commerce and currency exchange regulations, but also the information necessary for different bodies of public administration, and that is why it is quite difficult and labor-intensive. All these factors led to the increase of prices for the services of customs representatives.

via Customs Union Issues | The Moscow Times.

June 24, 2011
Greenpeace urges Turkey to scrap nuclear talks with Japan’s TEPCO

Environmentalist group Greenpeace urged Turkey to cancel nuclear talks with Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the Japanese power utility that is in charge of disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear plant.

Raindrops are seen on the surface of a logo of Tokyo lectric Power Co. (TEPCO) at its headquarters in Tokyo on May 29, 2011.

Turkey, which has signed an agreement with Russia for construction of its first nuclear power plant in the Mediterranean province of Mersin, was in talks with TEPCO and Toshiba on building a second one in Sinop, on the Black Sea coast. In May, Japan asked to suspend negotiations. But in June, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız signaled readiness to resume talks with the Japanese companies, saying Turkey wants to clarify the future of talks by mid-July.

In a statement released on Thursday, Greenpeace slammed TEPCO’s conduct in the aftermath of a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima plant after a quake-triggered tsunami in March, saying it lacked transparency and accusing TEPCO officials of providing incomplete and incorrect information about radiation levels.

“It was the Japanese side that wanted the talks on Sinop nuclear plant to be suspended. Now, only three months after the [Fukushima] accident, the Turkish government wants to continue the talks with TEPCO… This is an irresponsible attitude that endangers lives of peoples of Turkey and the neighboring countries,” Pınar Aksoğan of Greenpeace said.

Aksoğan further urged the Turkish government not to have talks on construction of nuclear power plants with Japan or any other country because “the era of nuclear energy is over.”

“It is the Turkish government alone that fails to see this fact,” she said.

Turkey suffers frequent seismic activity, and fears of a major earthquake are ever present in some parts of the country, but the government wants to press ahead with plans for nuclear energy and has given assurances that all safeguards will be taken.

via Greenpeace urges Turkey to scrap nuclear talks with Japan’s TEPCO.

June 24, 2011