For immediate release
December 17, 2007, 6:45 PM EST
Contact: Uyghur American Association +1 (202) 349 1496

In a Voice of America (VOA) Chinese-language news report dated December 13, 2007 (http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2007-12-13-voa59.cfm), Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong was quoted as having responded via e-mail to questions from a VOA reporter regarding the grave medical condition of Rebiya Kadeer’s son Ablikim Abdureyim. Ablikim, whose imprisonment is widely viewed in the international community as retribution for Ms. Kadeer’s continued human rights activism, is currently serving nine years in prison on charges of secessionism.

In the VOA report, spokesman Wang reportedly stated that “inmates in Chinese prisons have the right to receive medical treatment according to the law when they become ill.” The report also quotes Wang as saying that “all prisoners must willingly abide by prison regulations, or they will be subjected to the appropriate punishment, as is the case in the United States.” Wang was responding to questions from a VOA reporter regarding Ablikim’s serious physical ailments, which were detailed in a December 12 press release from the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP).

It is unclear if Wang’s statement refers to any alleged violation of prison regulations on the part of Ablikim, who reportedly appeared extremely frail and seriously ill to visiting family members on December 6. This was the first time family members had been allowed to visit Ablikim since his initial detention more than 18 months earlier. When questioned around the time of the visit, Chinese police attributed Ablikim’s serious health problems to a heart condition, and suggested that this condition could become worse if he continued to refuse to “cooperate with authorities” and “admit his criminal guilt.”

Wang is further quoted as repudiating UHRP’s claims that Ablikim had been tortured in prison. He stated that “Chinese law prohibits the use of torture and physical abuse against prisoners”. He refers to Ms. Kadeer as an “East Turkestan splittist who, in order to achieve the political goal of splitting Xinjiang from China, frequently disseminates various types of lies to smear the Chinese government and gain the sympathy of other countries.”

During a visit to China in late 2005, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak found that torture was widespread throughout the Chinese penal system, despite Beijing’s outlawing of torture in 1996. In addition, East Turkestan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), where Ablikim is being imprisoned, remains the only region in the People’s Republic of China where individuals have in recent years been executed for non-violent crimes of political opposition to the Chinese state.

According to an April 17, 2007 report from the official Xinhua news agency, Ablikim’s “secessionist activities” chiefly consisted of asking Yahoo’s “Uyghur-language webmaster” to post articles on its website. However, to UHRP’s knowledge, there is no Uyghur-language Yahoo website.

UHRP calls upon the PRC authorities to transfer Ablikim to a medical facility outside of the Chinese prison system to ensure he receives proper care, in accordance with international standards and regulations.