Outspoken Uyghur Economist Presumed Detained After Urumqi Clashes
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HONG KONG—An outspoken economist from China's Uyghur ethnic
minority, whose blog was cited for allegedly instigating deadly ethnic clashes in
Xinjiang, has gone silent and his whereabouts are unknown after he reported
police had summoned him from his Beijing home, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.
"Police
have been watching my home for two days now," Ilham Tohti, an economics
professor at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, said July 7 in a
telephone interview, two days after deadly clashes in the northwestern city of
Urumqi killed at least 156 people.
"They are calling me now, and I have to go. I may be out of touch for some
time," he told RFA’s Uyghur service.
"I wasn’t involved in anything, but I am not safe. The police are
calling me," Tohti said, and then hung up. Subsequent phone calls rang
unanswered.
On July 6, he told RFA’s Cantonese service that he had gathered information
on the clashes but wouldn’t release it because the timing was too
sensitive.
Uyghur Online publishes in
Chinese and Uyghur and is seen as a moderate, intellectual Web site addressing
social issues. Authorities have closed it on several previous occasions.
Tohti’s blog, Uyghur Online, was specifically targeted in a July 5 speech
by the governor of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Nur Bekri, as
an instigator of the clashes, along with exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
Tohti’s last blog entry, published through a U.S. server at 10:52 a.m.
Beijing time July 7 and now blocked inside China, reads:
"As the editor of Uyghur Online, I want only to tell Nur Bekri, ‘You
are right, everything you say is right, because you will decide everything. I
have already offended too many powerful people, including yourself and others
whom I don’t want to and don’t dare to offend. But right or wrong,
there will be justice."
"I always tell myself [to be] cool and calm and make rational analyses.
Going to court to resolve disputes is the fairest course of action in a lawful
society. I have my own lawyer. When my trial comes up, don’t appoint a
lawyer for me. I will refuse any court-appointed lawyer."
"Even if we say that Uyghur Online and outsiders stirred thing
up—stirred what up? People can think for themselves. If everything were
working so well, why did so many people suddenly come out and riot? I think
after this event the central government and the local government should give
this some thought."
The clashes on Sunday in Urumqi, the XUAR capital, flared between Han Chinese
and Uyghurs following attacks on Uyghur migrant workers at a factory in the
southern province of Guangdong last month. Official media said 156 people died
in riots Sunday. The ethnicity of the dead was not specified.
Online photos of corpses
sparked calls for revenge, and thousands of armed Han Chinese poured onto
Urumqi’s streets Tuesday, trying to break through police lines into
Uyghur neighborhoods.
Earlier detentions
Tohti has said he was interrogated repeatedly and accused of separatism after
he spoke out in March against Chinese policies in Xinjiang, particularly the
disproportionately high unemployment there among Uyghurs, compared with Han
Chinese.
He has called on authorities to ease curbs on free expression and foster
greater economic opportunity for Uyghurs in their native Xinjiang region, where
poverty and joblessness are commonplace.
"There are visible changes in China," he said in an interview with
RFA’s Uyghur service in May. "But in terms of freedom and democracy,
Xinjiang's situation is the worst of the worst, compared with other regions of
China.
"What I have encountered at this time is typical. My Web site was shut
down without notice. I was interrogated many times and threatened. I am a legal
Beijing resident, and by law I should not be interrogated by Xinjiang police
officials, but it has happened."
"This shows how long the local authorities' reach is. They accused me of
separatism," he said. "But is demanding implementation of the
autonomy law separatism?"
China's 1984 Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law is the main legal framework for
managing the affairs of China's ethnic minorities. It promises a high degree of
autonomy for minority groups, but critics say its implementation in many areas
has been weak.
"There is no major problem with the main points of the central
government's policy," Tohti said.
His goal, he said, is
"equal opportunity and equal development in Xinjiang, equal with other
provincial regions of China—and equal opportunity and equal development
between the Uyghur people and the Han Chinese immigrants in Xinjiang."
Slammed governor
In an interview in March, Tohti also sharply criticized the governor of
Xinjiang, Nur Bekri, as incompetent.
Tohti, who said he feared for his own safety, was speaking as the National
People's Congress, China's annual session of parliament, met in Beijing, with
Bekri warning of a "more fierce struggle" against separatist unrest
in the region.
"My message to the Xinjiang government is, 'You should know that there is
no peace without equal development between Han immigrants and native Uyghurs in
Xinjiang. Similarly, there is no stability in the Uyghur region without freedom
of speech.'"
"My message to the central government is, 'Don't listen only to what the
local government officials in Xinjiang say—listen to the people. Don't
just make decisions based on government research—also look at independent
research. This will be very helpful for protecting the unity of the nation, and
the long-term prosperity of the country.'"
According to his official biography, Tohti was born in Atush, Xinjiang, on Oct.
25, 1969. He graduated from the Northeast Normal University and the Economics
School at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing.
Original reporting by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur service. Uyghur service
director: Dolkun Kamberi. Additional reporting by Gregory Ho for RFA’s
Cantonese service. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Written and produced
in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.
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