BEIJING (AlArabiya.net, AFP)
China urged Canada Thursday not to take three Uighur Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay saying they are "terrorists" and should be left to international law as a leading human rights organization accused China of omitting mention of serious rights abuses against the Uighur minority.
The three Uighur Muslims, whose lawyers have filed applications for refugee status in Canada, are among a group of 17 Uighurs captured in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo for the past seven years.
" We have expressed our position many times about those Chinese terrorists detained in Guantanamo and we are opposed to any country accepting those people " Jiang Yu, Chinese FM spokeswoman "We have expressed our position many times about those Chinese terrorists detained in Guantanamo. We are opposed to any country accepting those people," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing.
"We hope the parties concerned can resolve conveniently this issue according to the international laws and regulations."
Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim, form the largest ethnic group in northwest China's Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia. Some hope for independence from China.
Jiang was asked to comment on an appeal from Amnesty International, a Canadian Uighur group and several churches for Canada's government to take in the three Uighurs. |
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China demands return of prisoners In an open letter, the human rights group urged Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper to "indicate to U.S. officials that Canada is prepared to
accept for resettlement any of the men who wish to come to Canada."
The 17 Uighurs have been held in limbo at Guantanamo, despite being
cleared for release by the U.S. government, because officials cannot find a
country willing to take them.
Beijing has demanded the return of the 17 prisoners that it said were part
of a U.N.-listed terror group seeking an independent homeland in Xinjiang.
But Washington held them back for fear the Chinese government would
persecute or torture them. |
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Amnesty Intl accuses China Uighurs make up about eight million of the 19 million people in Xinjiang On the same day Amnesty International accused China of omitting mention of serious rights abuses the Uighur Muslim-dominated Xinjiang region in a key report presented to the United Nations.
Beijing "omits reference to the on-going crisis in Tibet, the severe crackdown on Uighurs in China's western Xinjiang... region, and the on-going persecution of various religious practitioners," Amnesty International said in a statement.
China submitted the report to the United Nations ahead of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Monday, a study of a nation's human rights record that all 192 member states of the UN have to go through every four years.
But the Asian giant defended its rights record Thursday, saying it respected and protected human rights. |
" Ignoring severe violations of human rights in the country undermines the goals and spirit of the UN UPR process " Roseann Rife, Director of Asia-Pacific Amnesty "For many years China has made a lot of efforts to improve Chinese human rights and made remarkable progress, and in the future we will continue," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific director at Amnesty, acknowledged that China had made progress in some areas, including advances related to its legal system.
But she said the report failed to list some of the country's most pressing rights issues.
"Ignoring severe violations of human rights in the country undermines the goals and spirit of the UN UPR process," she said.
Rights groups accuse China of political and religious repression of Tibetans and Muslim Uighurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, a claim denied by the government. |
