Exclusive interview: Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer
Updated on 06 July 2009
Today Lindsey Hilsum interviewed Rebiya Kadeer, the President of the World Uighur Congress, the most significant Uighur leader, either in China or abroad, and a hate figure for the Chinese government.
Ms Kadeer used to be a businesswoman in Xinjiang, China's most westerly province, until she was imprisoned for separatist activities.
On her release she fled to the USA where she is now based.
The Chinese government has accused her of orchestrating the violence which erupted in Urumqi yesterday.
Read the full transcript of the exclusive interview with the Uighur leader:
LH: The Chinese government says you are the one behind all these protests – what's your response?
RK: They are wrong. I represent the voice of the Uighurs to the world and my people recognise me as their leader and we have great love between us, that's why the government accuses me of this. In fact I have nothing to do with this event.
Secondly the Chinese government treats Uighurs in such a heavy handed way, especially what happened in Guangdong recently.
LH: But yesterday horrific events happened. We've seen terrible scenes of Uighurs killing Han Chinese on the street. What do you say happened?
RK: You are seeing the scenes of the Uighurs killing Chinese but you don't see the Chinese killing Uighurs, because the power is in their hands. I will tell you now. For instance on the 26th June at midnight to 1 am when Uighurs were sleeping, 800 Uighurs were forced to go to work in Guangdong province. About 10 000 Chinese beat them and killed around 60 of them. [NOTE: this refers to the incident in which a Han Chinese man accused Uighurs at a factory in Guangdong, in southern China, of raping two Han women. Although the rumour turned out to be false, several Uighurs were lynched and killed. The violence in Urunqui yesterdary erupted after Uighurs demonstrated – initially peacefully – demanding an enquiry)
RK: I suspect Chinese plain clothes police mixed into the crowd (yesterday) and beat up their own people, creating such images. They beat up their own people to show the world those peaceful demonstrators as violent. I can prove to you that these protesters came peacefully because they were holding Chinese flags.We could see this in the video we have. The Uighurs were marching very peacefully, in an orderly way on the street but they deployed 10 000 armed forces using machine guns to brutally crack down on these peaceful demonstrators.
LH: You claim that the demonstration was peaceful, however we have a lot of evidence which you can't deny, that the Uighurs killed Han Chinese. What is your response?
RK: My reaction is that killing is absolutely unacceptable. If people did kill others I condemn it, but the people demonstrated peacefully and the Government used armed force, with machine guns, and were heavy handed and turned the people's protest into violence. When 800 Uighurs were butchered by 10 000 Chinese in Guangdong the police did nothing, and didn’t save the Uighurs. And I believe this action created a lot of anger among Uighurs. Chinese people beat up Uighurs and Uighurs beat up Chinese in return – it's China's official policy.
LH: What should Uighurs do now?
RK: Uighurs should make their demands in a peaceful way. They should understand that it was the Chinese government which created the problems between Uighurs and Chinese, but there shouldn't be this problem between people. The Chinese government should also listen to Uighur people's demands and not oppress the Uighurs. How could Uighurs accept such brutality, killing and arresting innocent Uighurs?
