27 May
2011
27 May
'11
2:23 p.m.
Uyghur Repatriation Imminent
May 27, 2011 – An ethnic Uyghur, once acknowledged by the U.N. as a refugee, is set to be
deported to China after a Kazakh court refused to grant him political asylum, according to
his brother.
Ershidin Israil, 38, fled to Kazakhstan in the aftermath of deadly riots in the Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region and has been held by Kazakh authorities since June last year amid
Chinese accusations he was involved in "terrorism."
Experts say the court ruling on Wednesday called into question Kazakhstan's adherence
to international obligations in the face of increased pressure from neighboring China
where Israil could be severely punished on his return.
Seeking political asylum in Kazakhstan may have been Israil’s last bid to stay out of
China, whose anti-terrorism policy, according to rights groups, deliberately targets
activists among ethnic minority communities such as Uyghurs and Tibetans.
If repatriated to his home country, he is likely to face harsh punishment in a specific
case of informing RFA about the death in custody of a fellow Uyghur held by authorities
for alleged involvement in July 2009 riots in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi.
His brother Enver Israil, who arrived in Kazakhstan three months ago, said he heard from
his brother's lawyer that he was accused of being a terrorist by the Chinese police
and that they had demanded his return.
"[The Chinese police] tortured a jailed protester to death and nobody is calling the
Chinese terrorists, but my brother is accused of terrorism just because he told the media
about the killing," he said in a phone interview Thursday from Almaty, the country’s
largest city.
"Where is the justice?" he asked.
Seeking refuge
On Sept. 24, 2009, Israil fled on foot to Almaty from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region (XUAR), crossing the border without a passport after four nights of walking.
Chinese authorities in Ghulja, in Qorghas (in Chinese, Huocheng) county, Ili prefecture
were searching for Israil for allegedly releasing details of the Sept. 18 beating death of
Shohret Tursun, according to Israil’s sister-in-law.
Tursun was detained among a group of 40 Uyghurs in July 2009 around the time of ethnic
riots in Urumqi that left some 200 dead.
His badly bruised and disfigured body was released to his relatives nearly two months
later, prompting a standoff between authorities who wanted him buried immediately and
family members who refused and demanded an inquiry into whether he had been beaten to
death.
The family was forced to hold a burial for Tursun the following day.
In a previous RFA interview with Israil, he said he fled his hometown fearing harsh
punishment from Chinese authorities as a two-time offender. Israil had previously served a
six-year jail sentence in 1999 for "separatism."
After meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Almaty, Israil was
granted refugee status in March 2010 and accepted for resettlement in Sweden that April.
But while making final preparations to leave Kazakhstan, a UNHCR official informed Israil
that Kazakh authorities had refused to supply him with the necessary documents to leave
the country.
On April 3, Israil was moved into an apartment guarded around the clock by Kazakh police
officers while the UNHCR investigated the delay in his resettlement.
In June 2010, he was detained by local authorities and has since attended a total of five
hearings on his application for refugee status, all of which rejected his bid and ruled
that he must be returned to China.
‘A terrible track record’
Exiled Uyghur dissident Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress
(WUC), said the Kazakh government is disregarding international law by moving to
repatriate Israil.
She called the Chinese charges against him “an obvious abuse of the Geneva Convention
rules,” adding that he had committed no crime aside from revealing how Uyghurs have been
treated in the aftermath of the 2009 riots.
“I urge the U.N. and EU to take
action," she said. “I would ask the
Kazakh government to not forget our blood relations and to take
into consideration the one million Uyghurs who are living in Kazakhstan."
Memet Tohti, the WUC representative in Geneva, said China is desperate to take Israil back
to prevent him from talking about the abuses he had witnessed and in order to show other
Uyghurs that they cannot defy the government and escape punishment.
"Ershidin was in jail for six years and he is aware of a number of tragic stories
that have taken place in China's black jails," he said, referring to the
country's growing number of unofficial detention centers which serve as holding camps
for petitioners seeking redress against official wrongdoing.
"Secondly, Chinese authorities want to discourage Uyghurs in East Turkestan from
taking part in the Uyghur freedom movement by showing them that they can get to them no
matter in what part of the world they seek refuge."
Uyghur groups use the term “East Turkestan” to refer to a short-lived Uyghur government
that existed before the communist takeover of Xinjiang or to assert their cultural
distinctiveness from China proper.
Nury Turkel, a Uyghur American attorney based in Washington, said Kazakhstan’s refusal to
grant Israil political asylum is the latest example of the country bowing to Chinese
pressure.
“Kazakhstan has a terrible track record of repatriating or forcibly removing Uyghurs to
China who were suspected of being involved in any political activities, and history
certainly will not be kind to Kazakhstan,” he said.
“Kazakhstan—being under the Soviet Union for several years and knowing how it feels to be
oppressed—I think it’s time for Kazakhstan to enjoy their sovereignty and make a decision
based on their international obligations, not on the pressure by neighboring countries.”
An uncertain future
Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, a New York- and Hong Kong-based
group, said that as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional
group for security and economic cooperation in Eurasia, Kazakhstan has a number of
obligations to fellow SCO states, particularly China.
“These include forcible returns to China of any individual or group suspected of
terrorism, separatism, or extremism, including individuals who may have been granted
refugee status by UNHCR,” Hom said.
“China has designated Central Asia as a source of what it terms the 'East
Turkestan' threat and has exerted intensified pressure on its neighbors, and most
recently on Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.”
Hom noted that Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan—both SCO member states—obstructed travel of
Uyghur activists to attend a recent conference in the U.S., apparently to preserve their
relationship with China.
Hom said that Israil could “disappear” if he is deported to China, like many others
forcibly returned to the country.
“If he is subjected to any Chinese legal process, it will be within a system that is
politicized, corrupt, nonaccountable, and marked by the complete absence of due process.
The international community needs to act immediately to protect him and demand respect for
his refugee status.”
Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls,
and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its
vast northwestern frontier.
Xinjiang is a vast strategically crucial desert territory that borders Russia, Mongolia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
The region has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing
region.
Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur service. Translated by Shohret Hoshur. Written
in English by Joshua Lipes.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/repatriation-05262011192244.html
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