Further information on UA: 290/09 Index: ASA 17/030/2010 China Date: 27 July 2010

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 290/09 (ASA 17/060/2009). Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/060/2009/en

URGENT ACTION

JOURNALIST sentenced to 15 yEARS IN PRISON

ADditional Information

Hairat Niyaz is a well-known journalist within China's Uighur community. He graduated from Beijing National University in 1982, has since worked for several publications and deliberately uses the Chinese language to report on the culture and situation of Uighurs in the XUAR to better reach Chinese-speaking domestic and overseas audiences. He has been a senior journalist with the Xinjiang Economic Daily, Chief Editorial Director of Xinjiang Legal Daily, and Deputy Director of the legal magazine Fazhi Zongheng. His interview on the 5 July 2009 unrest in Urumqi is available online at http://www.yzzk.com/cfm/Content_Archive.cfm?Channel=ag&Path=2311577102/30ag3a.cfm

On 5 July 2009 hundreds of Chinese of Uighur ethnicity gathered to demonstrate at the People’s Square in Urumqi. The demonstrators were protesting the authorities’ perceived inaction following the death of at least two Uighur workers after a factory brawl in Shaoguan, in China’s southern province of Guangdong, on 26 June that year. The demonstration, announced on Uighur websites several days beforehand, including Salkin, Diyarim and Uyghur Biz, was scheduled to begin at 5 pm. In addition to websites, information about the demonstration was circulated on QQ, an instant messaging service in China, and via SMS.

During that afternoon, the protesters swelled to thousands of people. Violent rioting erupted later in the evening, particularly in the southern parts of the city, in what appears to have been largely Uighur attacks against Chinese of Han ancestry. In subsequent days, Han Chinese also carried out retaliatory attacks on Uighurs. According to official figures, 197 people died in the course of the violence on 5 July, the vast majority of them (156) Han Chinese, 10 Uighurs, and 11 people of the Hui minority. Unofficial sources, and in particular Uighur groups, claim many more Uighurs were killed on 5 July and in the following days.

According to official figures, at least 198 people have been sentenced in connection with the unrest, following trials fall short of international fair trial standards. At least nine people have been executed and at least 26 more sentenced to death, including death sentences with a two-year reprieve.

Shortcomings in the legal proceedings include restrictions on the defendants’ ability to freely choose their legal representation coupled with officially sanctioned, possibly politically pressured and biased legal aid, allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in detention leading to coerced “confessions”, and corruption and political interference in courts.

The Chinese authorities cut internet access in the XUAR during the night of 5-6 July 2009. According to Li Zhi, the then Chinese Communist Party secretary in Urumqi, this was “to quench the riot quickly and prevent violence from spreading to other places”. SMS and international telephone services were also cut. The services have been gradually restored, with email facilities partially restored in February 2010 and internet access “fully” restored on 14 May 2010. However, internet access in the XUAR, like elsewhere in China, is still far from free since the government censors the internet, blocks certain sites and monitors individuals’ activities online.

In April, Gulmira Imin (f), a regular contributor to the website Salkin, was sentenced to life imprisonment for “splittism, leaking state secrets and organizing an illegal demonstration”. Dilixiati Paerhati, the editor of Diyarim, has not been seen since August 2009 when he was taken away from his home by unidentified men. Ilham Tohti was also detained for about two weeks in July 2009. In April, he was prevented by the authorities from travelling to Turkey to attend an academic conference.

On 27 September 2009 the XUAR Regional People's Congress Standing Committee issued new regulations that explicitly forbade the use of the internet to "endanger state security" or "instigate ethnic separatism".

China’s Criminal Law already includes provisions on “endangering state security”, which include “subversion of state power”, “splittism” and “leaking state secrets”. Over recent years the authorities have increasingly used these vaguely-worded provisions to silence and imprison peaceful activists and to curtail freedom of expression.

FU on UA: 290/09 Index: ASA 17/030/2010 Issue Date: 27 July 2010