Engnews September 2014

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RFA BREAKING NEWS: At Least a Dozen Killed, 100 Wounded in Bugur Riots in Xinjiang

by Param

At Least a Dozen Killed, 100 Wounded in Bugur Riots in Xinjiang SEPT. 25, 2014 -- At least a dozen people, including three policemen, were killed and about 100 injured in attacks targeting government buildings and police stations in a southern prefecture of China’s restive Xinjiang region at the weekend, local officials and eyewitnesses said, as details of the violence emerged Thursday. The Xinjiang government's Tianshan web portal had said on Monday that two people were killed in the Sept. 21 bomb attacks by suspected Uyghurs on at least three locations in Bugur (in Chinese, Luntai) county in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. But local officials and witnesses told RFA’s Uyghur Service that the violence had caused higher casualties. They said the raids on the Bugur city center and the townships of Yengisar and Terekbazar had left at least 12 people dead, including three policemen and seven attackers. All of them were killed during the bomb attack at a police station in Yengisar, the sources said. The number of fatalities in Bugur and Terekbazar was not immediately know, they said. The Bugur county hospital has been crammed with patients with serious injuries, a nurse said, in the latest violence to rock Xinjiang, which has seen more than 200 deaths in attacks the past year. “I assume there are about 100 people with injuries because all the hospital beds are occupied right now,” the nurse said. Among those undergoing treatment were up to 20 policemen, as well as one suspected attacker, she said. The raids were believed to have been staged by disgruntled ethnic minority Uyghurs, who claim to have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness, sources said. A curfew has been imposed in the affected areas, with schools and offices closed as of late Tuesday, according to Aklikim, the secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party branch in Bartoghraq village in Terekbazar. “The explosions are all related to attacks on government buildings and police stations,” he said. Stabbed Amangul Mollaq, the aunt of policeman Nijat Ehet, who was seriously injured in the raid on the police station in Yengisar, said he had gone to investigate an explosion when he was stabbed by one of the attackers. “When he heard the explosion, he went to the site and saw the gate of the police station being ripped off by the blast and a group of people attacking the station from the front and back of the building,” she said. “When my nephew was dispersing the crowd, one of the attackers stabbed him,” Mollaq said. “He was only able to convey a few details as his condition was severe.” Police officers who visited him at the hospital told Mollaq that "three suspects who staged the attack on the police station from the front and three attackers who came from the back of the building were killed on the spot." "I also heard that two policemen with the names Husenjan [Osman] and Ibrahim had been killed in action.” Another police assistant, who was not identified, was among the three policemen who died in the raid, sources said. Morgue mobbed Qadir Osman, a Communist Party cadre in Yengisar and whose brother, a restaurant owner, was among those killed in the attacks, said the township morgue was mobbed by relatives and friends of those who perished. “The place was surrounded by police and there were about 100 people, some of whom were waiting to identify the bodies,” he said. Osman, whose younger brother was shot dead, said that among those at the morgue was a Han Chinese woman who told him that her husband was “crushed” by a motor vehicle during the attack. A teacher in Yengisar, who declined to be identified, said he witnessed police cars, motorcycles and a gas station being torched. He said that he believed that the attackers, particularly in Bugur county center, were Uyghurs disgruntled by mass forced evictions to make way for the influx of Han Chinese. Reported by Shohret Hoshur and Eset Sulaiman for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai. View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/violence-09252014005018.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.

10 years, 3 months

RFA BREAKING NEWS: Tibetan Student Perishes in First Self-Immolation in Five Months

by Param

Tibetan Student Perishes in First Self-Immolation in Five Months SEPT. 21, 2014 -- A 22-year-old Tibetan student has burned himself to death in front of a police station in Gansu province in protest against Chinese rule — the first self-immolation in more than five months among disgruntled Tibetans in China, according to sources. Lhamo Tashi set himself on fire last week, shouting slogans in front of the Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture's police station in Tsoe (Hezuo) county before succumbing to his burns on the spot, the sources said. Information of Tashi's Sept. 17 fatal burning emerged only at the weekend, apparently due to communication clampdowns usually imposed by Chinese authorities following self-immolation protests. Tashi's burning protest occurred more than five months since the last reported self-immolation among Tibetans in China on April 15. It brought the total number of self-immolations to 132 since the fiery protests began in 2009 challenging Chinese rule in Tibetan areas and calling for the return from exile of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. “Tashi self-immolated in front of the office of the police department of Kanlho Prefecture," a local Tibetan told RFA's Tibetan Service, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He did it for Tibetan freedom and died in the self immolation," the source said. Chinese authorities seized Tashi's remains but returned them to his parents a day later, the source said. "After learning about their son's self-immolation, they rushed to the site and demanded his body but the authorities refused to hand it over to the family. Only the next day, the family members were handed over some remains.” 2008 protest A second Tibetan source, who confirmed the self-immolation, said Tashi had been studying in Tsoe. "He was among those who protested against Chinese rule in 2008," the source said, referring to a mass uprising which erupted in Tibet's capital Lhasa in March that year before spreading to other Tibetan-populated areas. Tashi was detained then and subsequently released for participating in the protest, the source said. The Central Tibetan Administration, the India-based Tibetan government in exile, says about 220 Tibetans died in the 2008 unrest and nearly 7,000 were detained in the subsequent region-wide crackdown. The Chinese government had put the death toll at 22. The last reported self-immolation before Tashi's burning occurred in Sichuan province's restive Kardze prefecture on April 15. Thinley Namgyal, 32, had self-immolated in Tawu (in Chinese, Daofu) county in Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture "in protest against Chinese policy and rule [in Tibetan populated areas]," a Tibetan resident had said. Chinese authorities have tightened controls in a bid to check self-immolation protests, arresting and jailing Tibetans linked to the burnings. Some have been jailed for up to 15 years. Reported by RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai. View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/burning-09212014121057.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.

10 years, 3 months

RFA BREAKING NEWS: Uyghur Scholar Tohti 'Humiliated' in Prison, Shackled Again

by Parameswaran Ponnudurai

Uyghur Scholar Tohti 'Humiliated' in Prison, Shackled Again SEPT. 4, 2014 -- Detained Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti has claimed that several inmates in his prison in northwestern China's Xinjiang region ganged up on him and humiliated him, forcing a confrontation that led to him being shackled again, his lawyer said Thursday. Lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan said he learned about the clash between Tohti and the other prisoners when he met the scholar at the detention center in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi on Thursday ahead of his pretrial hearing this weekend. "In the morning, I saw that he was wearing manacles and leg irons," Liu told RFA's Mandarin Service after his lengthy meeting with Tohti, a long-time advocate of Uyghur rights and outspoken critic of Chinese policies in the Xinjiang region. "I spoke to the prosecutor's office about it, and they said it was because there had been a confrontation with other inmates on Aug. 9." "Tohti told me that several people had ganged up on him and humiliated him," Liu said. "There was a clash between him and [a few others], and the detention center accused him of getting into a fight, and he was subjected to internal disciplinary procedures." It was not immediately clear what triggered the fight last month between Tohti, who is facing separatism charges, and a few of his seven other cellmates, who were ordinary criminals. The prosecutor at the detention center said the other inmates were also sanctioned, but Tohti told Liu they weren't punished at all. Dragged from home Tohti was placed in leg irons for 20 days when he was first detained in January after being dragged away from his home in the Chinese capital Beijing by dozens of police, his former lawyer Wang Yu said in June after meeting him. Tohti told her then that he was denied food and given one and a half glasses of water for 10 days in March in an apparent punishment for failing to cooperate with the authorities. Human rights groups have said that Tohti's detention is part of Beijing's broad strategy to drown the voices of the mostly Muslim Uyghurs, who call Xinjiang their homeland. They said his incarceration underscores the Chinese leadership's increasing hard-line stance on dissent surrounding Xinjiang, where Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness. Tohti, who was sacked from his job as economics professor at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing following his detention, has applied to attend his pretrial hearing on separatism charges, according to Liu. Tohti has dismissed the charges as baseless. “He is sticking to his original position, which is that he is simply an intellectual expressing a point of view. He had no intention of incitement to separatism, and he carried out no separatist activities either,” Liu said. Evidence in doubt Committing the state security crime of "separatism" can result in the death penalty in China, while the lesser crime of "inciting separatism" carries penalties ranging from less than five years to 15 years maximum. Tohti has also said that some of the evidence against him should be disallowed and has demanded to watch several video recordings that would be used in testimonies in the trial, Liu said. Among the evidence are 52 DVDs, five of which contain footage of Tohti's university lectures. His lawyers also want to cross-examine witnesses for the prosecution. "That's what we are going to be requesting, applying for. But some witnesses may not appear. It's not entirely clear yet. The defense team is working on this, and we will be bringing it up at the pretrial hearing," Liu said. "Also, some witnesses have quoted him as saying certain things. But he says he didn't say those things, and is insisting on seeing the videotapes of the interview." Tohti is also demanding that he be tried in Beijing, where he had worked and lived. "He said the Xinjiang police shouldn't be involved in his case, because he moved to Beijing in 1985, and his hukou [household registration] is in Beijing," Liu said. "He started lecturing at the Central University for Nationalities in 1991." "If he is suspected of a crime, he says it should be the Beijing police who investigate the case against him, and that he should be tried in a Beijing court." "This is also the view of the defense team. We think it's very strange that this case is being handled in Xinjiang. We will also be bringing up this issue of jurisdiction at the pretrial hearing." Family contact denied Liu said Tohti expressed sadness that the prison authorities had refused to give him photos of his children brought by his lawyers. "He had tears in his eyes when we talked about his children. I asked the detention center staff about the photos, and also mentioned it to the prosecution official there," Liu said. Chinese authorities have not allowed Tohti's wife Guzelnur and their two young sons to meet with him in jail. Asked about Tohti's health, Liu said he has some pain and discomfort along his lower back and abdomen and on his right side that hasn't gotten any better. "He is feeling very sluggish, and is in some pain. His left eye looks smaller than his right, while his voice sounds hoarse and hurts sometimes. He has a nighttime cough." Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated by Luisetta Mudie and Feng Xiaoming. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai and Luisetta Mudie. View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/shackled-09042014162301.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.

10 years, 4 months

RFA BREAKING NEWS: Tibet's Exile Government Rejects Beijing's Claim of Dalai Lama Return Talks

by Param

Tibet's Exile Government Rejects Beijing's Claim of Dalai Lama Return Talks AUG. 31, 2014 -- The head of Tibet's government-in-exile has rejected a claim by Chinese authorities that the Dalai Lama is in talks with Beijing through his envoys about the possibility of his return to Tibet. But Lobsang Sangay, the political leader of the India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), left open the possibility of any official dialogue between the two sides aimed at bringing about a resolution to the Tibet question. "As we have always been transparent, right now there isn’t any official contact or dialogue taking place [with the Chinese leadership]," Sangay told RFA's Tibetan Service. "If dialogues are to take place, as we stressed earlier, it would be between the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and representatives of the new Chinese leadership," he said. "It has been like this before and will remain like this in the future." China’s government in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) claimed last week that the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, was in discussions with Beijing through his “personal envoys” but the talks were only about the possibility of his return to Tibet. Wu Yingjie, the deputy secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's Committee for Tibet, had told a group of Indian journalists on a special visit to the TAR capital Lhasa that the talks with the Dalai Lama were “ongoing and always smooth, but we are discussing only his future, not Tibet’s.” “All Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama and the people around him, can return if they accept Tibet and Taiwan as part of China, and give up ‘splittist’ efforts,” The Hindu newspaper of India quoted Wu as saying. He claimed that many Tibetan leaders in exile had chosen to return to Tibet in recent years. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in the midst of a failed national uprising in Tibet against Chinese occupation in 1959, and the Chinese government has repeatedly accused exiled Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, of stoking dissent against its rule ever since. Talks held on Tibet’s status between envoys of the Dalai Lama and Beijing stalled in January 2010. There has been no progress in the discussions since then despite calls from U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders for a resumption of the Sino-Tibetan dialogue. "If we receive a signal from the Chinese side and a conducive environment is created for possible dialogue, then our side can easily appoint the envoys [for the talks]," Sangay said. "We attach more importance to the substance than form of the dialogue," he said. "So, the most important objective is to resolve the Tibet issue.” Optimistic The Dalai Lama had always said he remained optimistic he would be able to return to Tibet, citing political reforms that have taken place over the last few decades. But he is reviled by some Chinese leaders as a dangerous separatist who seeks to split the formerly self-governing region from Beijing's rule. The Dalai Lama says he seeks only a meaningful autonomy for Tibet as a part of China, with protections for the region’s language, religion, and culture under his "Middle Way" approach. When asked by RFA whether the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet would solve the Tibet issue, Sangay said, "There are several possibilities." "Whatever is the most realistic and practical approach, we pursue that.” “Ninety-nine percent of the Tibetan people aspire and dream for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet. My hope for that becoming a reality is still strong," he said. "We have made consistent efforts at the international stage for the realization of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s return and for the restoration of Tibetan freedom, and recognize the unflinching spirit of Tibetans inside Tibet," Sangay said. Sangay, a Harvard-educated lawyer, was elected Tibet’s exile political leader in 2011 after the Dalai Lama relinquished his political role as the leader of the government-in-exile, ending a tradition spanning centuries of the Dalai Lamas holding both spiritual and political authority. Reported by Palden Gyal for RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai. View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/lama-08312014221933.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.

10 years, 4 months

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Engnews September 2014