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US urges China fair trials after executions
Washington (AFP) Nov 9, 2009 The United States urged China Monday to ensure fair trials after nine people were executed over ethnic unrest, throwing the spotlight on human rights ahead of President Barack Obama's Beijing visit. The US government reacted swiftly after Chinese authorities announced the first executions relating to violence in China's far western city of Urumqi in July that left at least 197 people dead. "The US government continues to urge China to handle all detentions and judicial processes relating to the Urumqi violence in a transparent manner," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told AFP. "We also urge China to ensure that the legal rights of all Chinese citizens are respected in accordance with international standards of due process." Kelly said US embassy officials in Beijing had already discussed those issues with the Chinese government. The violence in Urumqi, capital of the vast Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia, saw fierce clashes between members of the local Muslim Uighur community, who claim they are oppressed, and China's majority Han ethnic group. The ethnic unrest, China's worst in decades, left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to an official toll. The announcement of the executions came just days before Obama's first trip to China as US president, where he is expected to push for a broader long-term relationship but also raise sensitive human rights issues with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. Obama will talk about religious freedom, the plight of Tibet, and other human rights issues with Hu, according to Jeffrey Bader, the US president's senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council. "The president will raise human rights concerns directly with President Hu in his meetings," Bader said. "The kind of issues that are on our minds are issues of freedom of expression, access to information, freedom of religion, rule of law." Obama was under pressure to discuss human rights after being criticized for not meeting Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Washington last month. Human rights advocates said that, by not welcoming the Dalai Lama personally to the White House, Obama was downplaying Tibet and human rights issues to avoid antagonizing China. "I have every reason to expect that the issue of Tibet will come up on the trip," Bader said, adding that Obama was ready to meet the Dalai Lama "at the appropriate time." The White House earlier said Obama would meet the Dalai Lama later this year, but only after he paid his first presidential visit to China. Obama is due to have dinner with Hu on Monday, November 16, before formal talks the next day and a state banquet with the Chinese leader, officials said. He will have previously visited Shanghai, on a trip that also includes stops in Japan, Singapore and South Korea in his debut Asian tour as president. Meanwhile, exiled Uighur groups expressed outrage over the Urumqi executions. "The fact that Chinese authorities had the audacity to carry out these executions on the eve of President Barack Obama's visit to China displays their utter disregard for international human rights standards," exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer said. "Chinese authorities must be held to account for their actions, or tensions in East Turkestan will worsen even further," she said in a statement, using a Uighur name for Xinjiang. Kadeer, who heads the World Uighur Congress, spent six years in a Chinese prison until 2005 when she was freed under US pressure and moved to the United States. China accuses Kadeer of fomenting the July violence. Kadeer denies the charges and accuses China of trying to destroy Xinjiang's Uighur culture through restrictions on political and religious freedom. Chinese authorities did not give the identities of the nine people who were executed. But eight Uighurs and one Han were sentenced to death in October, according to previous statements by the Xinjiang government. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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China executes nine over Xinjiang unrestBeijing (AFP) Nov 10, 2009 China said Monday it had put to death nine people involved in deadly ethnic unrest in its far-western Xinjiang region, the first executions since the violence erupted in July. Authorities convicted 21 defendants in October. Nine were sentenced to death, three were given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve -- a sentence usually commuted to life in jail -- and the rest were handed ... read more |
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