Ethnic Uighur journalist detained in China

[Oyghar]

Ethnic Uighur journalist detained in China




Friday, October 30, 2009
By ALEXA OLESEN, AP

BEIJING -- Chinese police have jailed an outspoken Uighur journalist for allegedly endangering national security, a colleague said Friday, adding to the scores of detentions reported in the restive Xinjiang region since deadly ethnic rioting erupted there four months ago.

Well-known academic Ilham Tohti said Hailaite Niyazi, the former manager of his Web site, was taken from his home in the regional capital of Urumqi on Oct. 1. He said Niyazi's family was informed Oct. 4 that he was suspected of endangering national security.


Tohti said Niyazi's wife believes the allegation is linked to interviews Niyazi gave to foreign media following the riots that broke out July 5.


Uighurs are a Turkic Muslim ethnic group linguistically and culturally distinct from China's majority Han.


The July riots, in which Uighurs (WEE'-gurs) attacked Han, who then launched revenge attacks days later, killed nearly 200 people in China's worst ethnic unrest in decades. Hundreds of people have been rounded up since and the government has smothered much of Xinjiang with security.


Xinjiang's High Court on Friday upheld death penalties for six people convicted earlier this month of committing murder and other crimes during the riots, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The decisions still require a Supreme Court review.


China blames the rioting on overseas-based groups agitating for greater Uighur rights in Xinjiang, but has presented no direct evidence.


During an interview with The Associated Press on July 9, Niyazi was cautiously critical of the regional government's inability to tolerate dissent.


"In China, sometimes even if you are just defending human rights, if you say something a little bit extreme, you'll be in trouble," he said.


Tohti said he didn't publicize the detention earlier because he thought it would damage his friend's case.


Niyazi, 50, was a manager and editor for Tohti's Uighurbiz Web site until June of this year and has also worked for the state-run newspapers Xinjiang Legal News and the Xinjiang Economic Daily.


Tohti, a Beijing-based economics professor, was himself detained after the riots for more than a month of questioning by secret police but not charged.


A woman with the Xinjiang Public Security Department said she was unable to confirm Niyazi's detention and refused to give her name.


Web sites such as Tohti's were accused by the government of whipping up Uighur fury and organizing the July unrest.


Internet service in Xinjiang was shut down shortly after the riots and the region remains largely offline, to the frustration of many residents and businesses.


Along with Tohti's Uighurbiz, authorities also targeted Diyarim.com, whose manager Dilixiati Paerhati was taken from his apartment on Aug. 7 by unidentified men and has not been heard from since, according to an Amnesty International statement last week that cited his older brother.


"He only edits a Web site, he hasn't done anything wrong," Dilixiati Paerhati's brother, Dilimulati, a student in England, was quoted as saying by the group. "There has been trouble in Xinjiang but my brother wasn't part of it," he said.
 

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