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Dozens 'disappeared' in China's Xinjiang: group
New York (AFP) Oct 20, 2009 Dozens of members of China's Uighur minority including children remain unaccounted for more than three months after security forces rounded them up amid ethnic clashes, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. The New York-based rights group said it has documented the disappearances of 43 men and boys in China's Uighur-dominated northwestern Xinjiang region, but that the real number was likely much higher. Violence between Uighurs and China's majority Han erupted July 5, leaving nearly 200 people dead according to the official toll. China has since sentenced 12 people to death over the ethnic bloodshed, which was the country's worst in decades. Quoting residents, Human Rights Watch said security forces sealed off entire neighborhoods of the regional capital Urumqi and hauled away male residents who either had wounds or were not at home during street protests. "They told everybody to get out of the houses. Women and elderly were told to stand aside, and all men, 12 to 45 years old, were lined up against the wall," a resident identified as Aysanam said. "Some men were pushed on their knees, with hands tied around wooden sticks behind their backs; others were forced on the ground with hands on their heads," she said. In another incident, Human Rights Watch said soldiers snatched a 14-year-old boy named Sharafutdin, along with other young people, as he walked to his father's shop in August. The boy's father has gone to the local police station at least five times only to be told Sharafutdin is not on their list of detainees, the boy's sister Madina was quoted as saying. "'Disappearing' people is not the behavior of countries aspiring to global leadership," Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report. He called on the United States, European Union and other international players to press China for "clear answers about what happened to those who have disappeared in Xinjiang." "They should not let trade relations or other political considerations lead them to treat China differently than other countries which carry out this horrific practice," he said. Human Rights Watch did not spare Uighurs from criticism, saying that while their July 5 demonstration was initially peaceful it descended into an attack on Han Chinese. Many Uighurs, who are predominantly Muslim, accuse China of stifling their religious and political freedom. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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