Tag: Rebiya Kadeer

  • And Now, Anacostia: Food News: Kabobs for Anacostia?

    And Now, Anacostia: Food News: Kabobs for Anacostia?

    Food News: Kabobs for Anacostia?

    This seems a bit random, but also goes to show that nowadays it isn’t only the “expected” organizations and businesses that are beginning to move to Anacostia. Last week I got news that Rebiya Kadeer (read this great bio from the New York Times), the Uyghur activist and millionaire businesswoman who was exiled from China in 2005, purchased the long-boarded-up commercial building next door to the Honfleur Gallery.

    AnacostiaKabob

    At first, my understanding was that it would be the new DC headquarters for the World Uyghur Congress or the Uyghur American Association – but as of today I heard a different story.

    According to sources who spoke with Ms. Kadeer at the site this morning, she plans to open a Uyghur restaurant – featuring the western Chinese ethnic group’s famous kabobs – in the space later this year.

    I’m sure more info will begin to seep out soon – but regardless of what moves in it’s wonderful to see this abandoned and decrepit building go back to productive use! Crossing our fingers that kabobs are in Anacostia’s future!

    (I spent a semester in Beijing, and happened to live near a Uyghur-dominated commercial street so know and love the food. Great kabobs, edamame, flatbread, and potato dishes)

    via And Now, Anacostia: Food News: Kabobs for Anacostia?.

  • Rebiya Kadeer

    Rebiya Kadeer

    KadeerRebiya 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.

  • Chinese protestors have injured hundreds Uyghurs by syringes

    Chinese protestors have injured hundreds Uyghurs by syringes

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    The Uyghur American Association (UAA) calls on Chinese authorities to
    guarantee the safety of all people in East Turkestan, also known as
    Xinjiang, in the wake of fresh unrest in the regional capital of
    Urumchi.

    According to a report[i] issued by Reuters quoting an eyewitness, up
    to 3,000 Han Chinese gathered in People?s Square in Urumchi on
    September 3, 2009 to demand the resignation of Xinjiang Communist
    Party Secretary, Wang Lequan. The protest was prompted by rumors of a
    spate of stabbings in Urumchi, in which victims have been allegedly
    injured by syringes. The assembled protestors were upset that
    Communist officials had done little to protect citizens against such
    attacks. According to the eyewitness interviewed by Reuters,
    protestors shouted slogans such as: ?Resign Wang Lequan, the
    government is useless!? and ?Wang Lequan apologize to the Xinjiang
    people?. Mr. Wang was seen to address the protestors and to reassure
    them that action was being taken. Mr. Wang stated that 30 arrests had
    occurred in relation to the alleged stabbings, a figure which
    contradicts numbers[ii] from the official Chinese media. Protestors
    were also reported to have thrown objects, such as bottles, at Mr.
    Wang as he spoke.

    The Reuters report also related eyewitness accounts which described
    the beating of Uyghurs, as well as the destruction of Uyghur-owned
    businesses in Urumchi by Han Chinese during the day of the protest. A
    Uyghur, who was suspected of carrying out one of the alleged
    stabbings, was beaten so severely that he was taken to the hospital
    according to a resident. Officials at the regional health office
    stated that in the past two weeks 476 people, of which 433 are Han
    Chinese, have gone to hospitals in Urumchi with complaints stemming
    from the alleged stabbings. However, a lack of confirmable information
    surrounds the reports of stabbings and Human Rights Watch expert,
    Nicholas Becquelin, is quoted in the Reuters report as stating that
    [t]hese kinds of rumors do happen in China after unrest?[t]here?s
    always bizarre rumors that spread after violence.?

    In a statement, Uyghur democracy leader, Rebiya Kadeer, said: ?I call
    on Chinese officials to guarantee the security of all people living in
    East Turkestan, including Uyghurs and Han Chinese. I also call on the
    Chinese Communist Party to act quickly so as to prevent the escalation
    of Han Chinese attacks against Uyghur civilians.? She added: ?It is
    disappointing that Wang Lequan did not listen to the legitimate
    grievances of Uyghur protestors when asked to on July 5th. Such a move
    would have significantly eased tensions in East Turkestan. Wang
    Lequan’s public apology to Han Chinese protestors and the mere fact
    that Han Chinese protestors were permitted to voice their concerns
    shows that the Chinese authorities are applying a double standard. A
    precondition for peaceful coexistence between Uyghurs and Han Chinese
    is the resignation of Wang Lequan, leading to the appointment of
    moderate officials, who understand the legitimate grievances of the
    Uyghur people and the needs of the Han Chinese.?

    The unrest in Urumchi comes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in
    which a number of restrictions have been placed on Uyghur worshippers.
    UAA believes that the restrictions imposed by Chinese authorities have
    only exacerbated tensions in East Turkestan. The restrictions[iii]
    include restaurants forced to open during the daylight fasting period,
    pressure exerted on government workers of Uyghur ethnicity to sign
    ?letters of responsibility? promising to avoid fasting, and a state-
    led campaign to offer free food to government employees during the
    hours of the fast.

    The imposition of restrictions on religious activity during Ramadan is
    a recurring source of tension among Uyghurs. The Uyghur Human Rights
    Project reported[iv] that 2008 saw ?an unprecedented tightening of
    religious control throughout East Turkestan. Students and government
    employees were not permitted to fast during Ramadan or attend mosques
    in general. Restaurants were also forced to open during fasting hours.?

    UAA urges Chinese authorities to remove the restrictions placed upon
    Uyghurs during Ramadan as a first step in addressing Chinese
    government policy failures towards Uyghurs and in improving the
    political climate in East Turkestan. UAA also urges the Chinese
    government to talk with Uyghur democracy leader, Rebiya Kadeer, and
    with the World Uyghur Congress to seek ways to ease current tensions
    in East Turkestan and to discuss the realization of human rights and
    democracy in the region.

    ttp://tibettruth.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/1890/

  • Demonstrators in Washington Protest Chinese ‘Terror’ Against Uighurs

    Demonstrators in Washington Protest Chinese ‘Terror’ Against Uighurs



    08 July 2009

    bPassions flared in Washington Tuesday as ethnic Uighurs and their supporters marched through the streets.  

    They were protesting what they call the Chinese government’s rough treatment of ethnic Uighurs in western China.

    Shouting “Shame on China,” supporters of China’s Uighur minority marched through the streets of Washington.

    More than 100 people turned up to protest what they say is China’s brutal suppression of their friends and relatives in the western province of Xinjiang.

    Rebiya Kadeer is a Uighur, an advocate for her people, and President of the World Uyghur Congress.

    “We want to be the voices of Uighurs who are dying in Urumqi in Xinjiang. We want to be their voices and get their message across to you,” says Rebiya Kadeer.

    Chinese officials have blamed Kadeer for the violence in western China, where Muslim Uighurs have clashed with Han Chinese, the country’s dominant ethnic group.

    Chinese authorities say 156 people died Sunday when Uighurs took to the streets to protest a brawl between Han Chinese and Uighurs in Guangdong last month.

    On Tuesday, Muslim women sobbed in the streets and argued with riot police.  

    Han Chinese men wielded clubs, shovels and knives; and the government declared a curfew.

    Meanwhile, Kadeer says the official casualty figures are too low.

    “Do you think out of all those demonstrations the only people who died were 156? I don’t think so. I believe that the upward number is 1000 and the lower number 500,” says Rebiya Kadeer. 

    Kadeer spent close to six years in a Chinese prison before being released in 2005 and coming to the United States.

    “Uighur people consider me to be their mother and the leader of their democratic movement, and I will continue to lead them,” says Rebiya Kadeer.

    Kadeer’s daughter, Kekenus Sidik, was also at the demonstration.

    “My mother was in prison for six years, my father for ten years all for political reasons. I haven’t seen the rest of my family for over a decade. So I am a Uighur and this is the perspective I can give you,” says Kekenus Sidik.

    VOA NEWS

    Photos below are from Sincan

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  • Uighur Protesters March in Washington

    Uighur Protesters March in Washington

    Associated Press
    Tuesday, July 7, 2009; 5:00 PM

     

    Video: Click on the Picture
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    An exiled Uighur leader accused by China of inciting ethnic violence says the Chinese government is responsible for the rising tensions.

    Rebiya Kadeer spoke to Uighur protesters at a rally in downtown Washington on Tuesday. About 100 people are holding blue flags with a white crescent and chanting “Shame on China” as they march to the Chinese Embassy.

    Chinese authorities have accused Kadeer of inciting violence between Muslim Uighurs and ethnic Han Chinese, in which at least 156 people have been killed. The riots broke out Sunday in China’s Xinjiang region.

    Kadeer disputes the number of fatalities, saying she believes at least 500 people have been killed in the riots.

    Kadeer says she’s seeking a stronger statement from the U.S. government about the violence.

    Washington Post