Please participate in this letter/petition action to UN SG Ban Ki-moon on Uyghurs

[Tarim050709]

Please participate in this letter/petition action to UN SG Ban Ki-moon on Uyghurs
Hello everyone:

I hope you are well. My name is Kathy Polias and I am the United Nations Liaison for the Uyghur American Association (www.uyghuramerican.org), a position which I have held for a little over two months so far (although I have had the privilege of working with Uyghur human rights activists for much longer than that). I am writing to ask you to participate in the following action.

Below and attached is a letter for individuals to e-mail, fax, and/or mail to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asking him to make a public statement regarding: the Chinese authorities' brutal suppression of a peaceful Uyghur protest on July 5th; and the grave human rights violations that the authorities committed during -- and have committed in the aftermath of -- the July 2009 protest and the ethnic unrest. Attached is also a petition version of the letter for multiple people to sign.

E-MAILING THE MESSAGE POSTED BELOW

Please cut/copy and paste the letter/message below into an e-mail; type your name, city/state, and country at the bottom; and e-mail it to Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon at [e-mail]. Here are some suggestions for what to type in the subject heading/line of the e-mail:

For SG Ban Ki-moon -- please help the Uyghur people
For SG Ban Ki-moon -- the Uyghurs desperately need your help
For SG Ban Ki-moon -- please help stop China's persecution of Uyghurs

MAILING/FAXING THE ATTACHED LETTER

The letter is also attached to this posting as a pdf file. Please print it out and sign it, and mail and/or fax it to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon at the following mailing address and fax number. If you include a cover sheet with your fax, please indicate your city/state and country on the cover sheet.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General of the United Nations
United Nations
New York, NY 10017
USA
Fax Number: 212-963-7055 (Note: If you're faxing from outside the United States, dial the U.S. country code first - 011 - and then the aforementioned fax number.)

CIRCULATING AND COLLECTING SIGNATURES ON THE ATTACHED PETITION AND MAILING/FAXING IT

In addition to sending an individual letter, please print out multiple copies of the petition version, which is also attached to this posting as a pdf file, and ask people to endorse/sign it on the lines at the bottom of the petition, as well as write their city/state and country. Please mail and/or fax completed petitions to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the mailing address and fax number indicated above.

It is extremely important that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon receive this message and request from concerned individuals all over the world. We have tremendous power to mobilize the officials and the bodies of the United Nations to help the Uyghur people; don't ever let anyone convince you of otherwise.

Best wishes
Kathy Polias

Kathy Polias
United Nations Liaison/Communications Specialist
Uyghur American Association
Cell phone number: 347-285-6546
E-mail: [e-mail]
Mailing address and facsimile: 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006, Fax No: [phone]
Website: www.uyghuramerican.org


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Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

I am deeply troubled by China’s brutal suppression of a peaceful Uyghur protest on July 5, 2009 in Urumchi, the regional capital
of East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)), particularly by the numerous witness
accounts reported in the media and provided to Uyghur organizations abroad that security forces committed extrajudicial killing
of protestors. I am also deeply concerned about other grave human rights violations that the authorities committed during – and have committed in the aftermath of – the peaceful protest and the ethnic unrest in Urumchi in July 2009, which have included but have not been limited to the following:
• The authorities have detained thousands of people in connection with the July 2009 events and arrested many of these people during mass detentions, including mass roundups of young Uyghur men. The authorities have subjected an untold number of Uyghurs to enforced disappearances. Human Rights Watch documented the enforced disappearances of 43 young Uyghur men and boys who were detained in large-scale sweeps and in targeted raids, but noted that the number of disappeared is likely significantly higher than 43. In fact, Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, “The cases we documented are likely just the tip of the iceberg.”
• The authorities have ensured that defendants prosecuted in connection with the July 2009 events have been denied due process and the right to legal representation of their choice. The authorities’ actions in this regard have included: giving prosecutors and judges special instructions on how to handle the July 5th cases; hand-picking the judicial personnel assigned to the trials according to political criteria; warning human rights lawyers against taking protest-related cases; and making public statements that have put political pressure on courts to mete out death sentences and other severe sentences.
• The Xinjiang courts have arbitrarily sentenced 24 Uyghurs to death and 9 Uyghurs to death with a two-year reprieve, for murder or other crimes allegedly committed during the July 2009 events. In addition, many Uyghurs have been arbitrarily sentenced to life imprisonment and varying jail terms. All of the Uyghurs sentenced thus far were sentenced after non-transparent trials plagued with the aforementioned politicization and lack of due process. The appellate courts have upheld all of the sentences on which they have rendered decisions thus far and have done so after non-transparent reviews. Nine of the Uyghurs sentenced to death were arbitrarily executed less than four weeks after they were sentenced.
• The authorities have conflated peaceful protest on July 5th with rioting, which is consistent with the government’s routine criminalization of Uyghurs’ peaceful exercise of freedom of expression. Official statements and state media reports have suggested that some acts of peaceful protest would be formally subjected to criminal prosecution. An XUAR official acknowledged that the authorities were holding in custody people who had protested peacefully on July 5th.
• The authorities have implemented an information blackout in the region since July 2009, which among other things, has denied East Turkestan residents internet and e-mail access and international phone calling and text messaging capabilities.

I respectfully request that you issue a public statement calling on China to:
• Ensure that those accused of crimes related to the events of July 2009 are afforded due process, tried in an open and fair court, and given access to legal representation of their choice;
• Impose a moratorium on executions and on the imposition of death sentences;
• Immediately and unconditionally release all those who are only alleged to have protested peacefully on July 5th;
• End arbitrary detentions and provide a full account of all of the detentions that have been carried out since July 5th, inform family members of detainees’ whereabouts, and release detainees who have been held without evidence;
• Allow foreign media independent, unrestricted access to conduct reporting throughout East Turkestan and to report on trials of defendants accused of crimes related to the July 2009 events;
• Allow an independent investigation into the July 2009 incidents and invite the UN Secretary-General, the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and various Special Rapporteurs and Independent Experts to visit East Turkestan;
• Restore complete internet/e-mail access and international phone calling/text messaging capabilities in East Turkestan;
• Address the root causes of the July 5th protest and the ethnic unrest, including the severe political and religious repression and economic discrimination to which Uyghurs are subjected and the dilution of Uyghurs’ language and culture.

Thank you for your time and attention to these urgent matters.

Sincerely,


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Source:

http://uyghuramerican.org/forum/showthread.php?19820-Please-participate-in-this-letter-petition-action-to-UN-SG-Ban-Ki-moon-on-Uyghurs