China arrests children of exiled Uighur rights leader
2 June 2006
Agence France Presse

BEIJING, June 2, 2006 (AFP) -

Police in China's restive Muslim-populated Xinjiang region have arrested three children of an exiled rights leader on charges of tax evasion, a government-run website reported Friday.

Three children of Rebiya Kadeer, in exile in the United States, were arrested for evading 8.07 million yuan (one million dollars) in taxes and owing another 21.6 million yuan in back taxes, Xinjiang's Tianshan website said.

Kadeer's sons, Ablikim, (identified in the Chinese transliteration as Ahbulikemu), and Alim (Alimu), and her daughter, Rushangul (Ruxianguli) were also accused of owing banks 28.9 million yuan, the report said.

The three were arrested on Wednesday in connection with their ties to the Ahkeda trading company that had registered Ablikim as the company's legal representative, it said.

The announcement of the arrests comes after the US State Department on Thursday expressed concerns for the safety of the trio, who are all aged in their 30s, saying at least one them may have been beaten in custody.

We have "raised our concerns with high-level Chinese government officials and have strongly urged them to investigate these reports and to release Ms. Kadeer's children, if they are under any form of detention," the department said in a statement.

The report on the Tianshan website hinted that Alim may have been injured, saying that due to his "rude and unreasonable attitude... it was not possible to undertake his arrest in a normal fashion."

It did not give any other details of how he was treated.

Kadeer was released into exile to the United States in March last year after spending six years in a Xinjiang prison for leaking "state secrets" to a US congressional delegation visiting the region in the 1990s.

Her plight remained a frequent diplomatic issue between the United States and China, with Washington routinely citing her treatment as an example of ongoing human rights violations by Chinese authorities.

The 60-year-old mother of 11, who was a millionaire businesswoman before her jailing and forced exile, has long been a symbol of the struggle against Chinese rule amongst the eight-million-strong Xinjiang Uighur Muslim community.

Uighur Muslims, who maintain a distinct ethnic identity from the Chinese, have been struggling to reestablish their own homeland on territory that became an autonomous region of China in 1955.

The Xinjiang government report, while announcing the arrests of Kadeer's three children, accused her of being a "splittist" bent on harming China's national security.

"Before Rebiya left the country she pledged to the government that she would in no way engage in activities harmful to the security of the People' Republic of China," the report said.

"But as soon as she left she totally disregarded her pledges and engaged in all sorts of anti-Chinese splittist activities and regularly met with overseas nationality (minority) splittists forces."

It also appeared to link her remaining children in Xingjiang to her activities.

"While Rebiya has routinely engaged in splittist activities outside of China she has also instructed her children in China to transform all their assets and to use every known channel to transfer them overseas," it said.

The report on the government website comes after the Xinjiang police denied on Wednesday that the trio had been arrested.

Rights group Amnesty International said this week the alleged intimidation of Kadeer's family smacked of "blackmail" by the Chinese authorities.

"This is a blackmail, holding children as hostages to silence Rebiya Kadeer in her attempt to bring democracy and restore human rights in Xinjiang," said T. Kumar, Amnesty's Washington-based Asia Pacific advocacy director.