Dharamsala, July 16 – The Washington based leader of exiled Uighurs, Rebiya Kadeer, called the international response to the violence in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang following clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese “a bit hesitant” compared to what she referred to as “tremendous international support and concern” last year during unrest in Tibet.
Kadeer was speaking at a meeting of the US government religious freedom commission.
“You can compare it to the Tiananmen Square incident,” she told the commission. She urged US president Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to raise this Xinjiang issue at the highest level with Chinese officials.
“My hope is that Americans can see that we are just like the Tibetans, suffering the same persecution and yearning for the same religious freedom,” Kadeer said.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said it was “gravely concerned” about China’s “repression” of the cultural and religious traditions of the Uighurs.
Calling for an independent investigation into the violence in Xinjiang the commission on religious freedom called for targeted sanctions against China over the ethnic unrest in Xinjiang.
The religious freedom commission called for President Barack Obama to consider sanctions on exports coming from Xinjiang or travel restrictions on Chinese government officials in charge of the northwestern province.
“Beijing has pushed its ethnic and religious minorities, its human rights lawyers, its labor activists and its free speech advocates to the wall. The international community must speak up,” said Leonard Leo, the chairman of the commission.
The White House has said it is “deeply concerned” by the violence in Xinjiang and called for restraint.
Meanwhile, the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has denied media reports that it had received a request from the US-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) seeking cooperation. Analysts say that Chinese state run media have published reports about a letter sent by US based World Uighur Congress to His Holiness the Dalai Lama to project the Tibetans and Uighur as separatist forces joining hands.
