| Rebiya Kadeer | |
|---|---|
United States Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey (left) meeting Kadeer (center) and Alim Seytoff, General Secretary of the Uyghur Human Rights Project. |
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| Born | 15 July 1948 |
| Residence | Virginia,[1] United States |
| Nationality | China |
| Ethnicity | Uyghur |
| Occupation | Businesswoman, political activist |
| Known for | President of the World Uyghur Congress |
| Religion | Muslim |
| Rebiya Kadeer | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 熱比婭·卡德爾 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 热比娅·卡德尔 | ||||||
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| Uyghur name | |||||||
| Uyghur |
رابىيه قادىر
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| Turkish name | |||||||
| Turkish | Rabiya Kadir | ||||||
Rebiya Kadeer (born 15 July 1948) is a Chinese human rights activist. Although she lives in exile in America, as the leader of the Uighur people she continues to fight against their oppression in mainland China.
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Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang an autonomus region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). She was born into poverty in the city of Altay, but she married in 1965 and moved to the city of Aksu.
Kadeer entered her first marriage as a dedicated housewife, but when her household struggled financially, she began independently making and selling clothes and other small goods as a means of support.
During the Chinese cultural revolution she was suppressed for her efforts, as the Chinese government attempted to break up her family. She claims that the Chinese government told her ex-husband-to divorce her. She recounts "They put pressure on him to divorce me because they accused me of secretly doing business. They said that it was wrong for me to do secret business." [2]
Following her divorce, Kadeer opened a laundromat in 1976. She later remarried in 1981 to Sidik Rouzi, then an associate professor, and moved to Ürümqi. In Ürümqi, Kadeer leased a market in the local business district, and converted it into a department store that specialized in Uyghur ethnic costumes. In 1985, Kadeer converted the building into a 14,000 square meter commercial building.[3]
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kadeer engaged in cross-border trade, accumulating assets which at their peak were worth more than 200 million yuan.[4] She became one of the five richest people in China, and her success earned her the nickname "the millionairess". The trading company she operated, had businesses in China, Russia and Kazakhstan.[5] Kadeer founded the The Akida Industry and Trade Co, which owns a number of properties in Xinjiang province. These include The Akida Trade Center, the adjacent Kadeer Trade Center and the Tuanjie, or Unity, theatre in Ürümqi.[6]
Kadeer was an active philanthropist within the community, most notably through her foundation, 1,000 Mothers Movement, a charity intended to help Uyghur women start their own local businesses, as well as support underprivileged and orphaned Uighur children.[4]
It is worth noting that Kadeer was not always at odds with the government, and was once welcomed as an appointed delegate to the eighth session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference,[4] the National People's Congress and was a representative to the UN Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing in 1995.[7] Kadeer has also served as vice chairwoman of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Federation of Industry and Commerce, and vice chairwoman of the Xinjiang Association of Women Entrepreneurs.
She has been the president of the World Uyghur Congress since November 2006.[8] Kadeer has been active in defending the rights of the largely Muslim Uyghur minority, who have been subject to oppression at the hands of the Chinese government.[9]
On 10 March 10th, 2000 Kadeer was convicted of "endangering state security" by the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court, which involved her sending news articles about the Xinjiang Uighurs to her husband in the United States.
She was released and left China in March of 2005, and is currently living in political exile in the United States.
She is the mother of eleven children.[10]
After witnessing the Ghulja Incident in 1997, Kadeer says she failed in her repeated attempts to persuade Beijing that change was needed. Feeling that she had no choice, she openly criticised the government in a speech before parliament, and was promptly removed from the National People's Consultative Conference; authorities revoked her passport.[10] In 1999 she sent newspaper clippings to her exiled husband, Sidik Rouzi, who was living in the United States and who is active in protesting against Chinese policies towards the Uyghur people. Kadeer was detained in August 1999 while on her way to meet a US Congressional Research Service delegation investigating the situation in Xinjiang at the time,[10] and was alleged to be in possession of a list of 10 people "suspected of having a connection with national separatist activities". She was detained by PRC authorities on charges of "leaking state secrets", and was convicted on 10 March 2000 in the Ürümqi Intermediate People's Court, of "endangering state security",[4][11] after sending her husband newspaper clippings on the treatment of the Uyghur community.[12]
Whilst in prison, Kadeer spent two years in solitary confinement, but was not tortured. She speculates that this was because guards were aware of her international reputation.[10] In 2004, her sentence was reduced by a year based on citations of good behaviour where she was being held.
In 2004 she won the Rafto Prize for human rights.[13] On 14 March 2005, Kadeer was released early, nominally on medical grounds, into United States' custody in advance of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region. The U.S., which had pressured for her release, agreed to drop a resolution against China in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch moderated their criticism somewhat as a consequence.[14] On 17 March, Kadeer flew to the U.S. and joined her family in Washington, D.C. In an interview with Phoenix Television before her departure to the US, she stated that she would remain a citizen of the People's Republic of China, and as a person born in the new China, she would sacrifice her own life for the integrity of China.[15]
In April 2007, one of her sons, Ablikim, was sentenced to 9 years in prison and 3 years deprivation of political rights, reportedly after confessing to charges of "instigating and engaging in secessionist activities." In November 2006 Alim, another of her sons, was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined $62,500. Qahar Abdurehim, yet another of her sons, was fined $12,500 for tax evasion but not jailed. In June 2006, Alim, Ablikim, and Qahar were officially charged with state security and economic crimes shortly following Kadeer' election as president of the Uighur American Association.[16]
The Chinese government characterizes Kadeer as "an ironclad separatist colluding with terrorists and Islamic extremists."[1] But Kadeer stated her belief that all Uyghur organizations fight peacefully.[17] On 5 June 2007, at a conference on democracy and security held in Prague, Kadeer met privately with President George W. Bush, who praised people like her for being "far more valuable than the weapons of their army or oil under the ground."[18] On 17 September 2007, the United States House of Representatives passed by a voice vote House Resolution 497,[19] demanding that the Chinese Government release the imprisoned children of Rebiya Kadeer and Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil, and change its suppressive policy towards the Uyghur people.[20]
In 2010 Kadeer was banned from entering Taiwan for three years. Kadeer had been invited by a Taiwanese arts organization to attend screenings of The 10 Conditions of Love. Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) government claimed its rejection of Kadeer was "based on security needs." Ostensibly, the KMT was pressured by the Communist Party in Beijing. The party has long tried to delegitimize Kadeer's campaign to expose the severe human rights violations that China commits against its ethnic Uyghurs. Chinese authorities have called Kadeer a "terrorist"--a term they frequently use to describe human rights advocates.[21]
While the protests that preceded the July 2009 riots were ostensibly a response to the death of two Uighur workers in Guangdong, the Chinese government catapulted Kadeer into the limelight when it claimed the WUC, which she heads, had planned the riots.[22] That said, Taiwan denied a visa to Mrs. Kadeer in Sept 2009, alleging she had links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, classed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and USA.[23]
Kadeer has denied that the riots were organised.[24]
On 3 August, Xinhua reported that two of Rebiya Kadeer's children had written letters blaming her for orchestrating the riots. According to Xinhua, they pleaded: "We want a stable and safe life … Please think about the happiness of us and your grandchildren. Don't destroy our happy life here. Don't follow the provocation from some people in other countries."[25] Germany-based spokesman for the WUC rejected the letters as fakes. A Human Rights Watch researcher remarked their style was "suspiciously close" to the way the Chinese authorities had described rioting in Xinjiang and the aftermath. He added that: "...it's highly irregular for [her children] to be placed on the platform of a government mouthpiece ... for wide dispersion."[26] CCTV broadcast a video of interviews with the family members of Kadeer on 4 August.[27]
Xinhua announced in early September 2009 that three properties owned by Kadeer's companies, including the Akida Trade Center, where more than 30 members of Kadeer's family were reportedly living, would be torn down due to "cracks in the walls and sunken footings".[6] Local Uighurs said they saw this as an attempt to banish Kadeer's shadow; the Uighur American Association said the demolition may spark a new round of violence.[28]
Director Jeff Daniels shot a documentary film in 2009 about Kadeer, called The 10 Conditions of Love. It was destined to be screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival. The organisers refused a request from Chinese consulate in Melbourne for the film to be withdrawn and for Kadeer's invitation to the festival to be rescinded. Several Chinese directors pulled out of the event. The festival website was hacked and festival information replaced with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans, and booked out all film sessions on the site; a denial-of-service attack forced it to shut down.[29][30] Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China was "firmly opposed to any foreign country providing her with a stage for her anti-China separatist activities". However, Daniels said it was good that "people were able to see different sides of the story" and criticised the heavy pressure from the Chinese government.[31][32][33]
Australian Federal Labor Member of Parliament, Michael Danby, transmitted a message of support for the screening from 14th Dalai Lama, saying: "...[Kadeer] is another one of the national leaders who is a paradigm of non-violence." Danby said the Dalai Lama, "wanted to make it very clear to people that the claims of this woman being a violent person or instigating violence, is from his point of view, and with all of his authority, wrong."[34]
The documentary was scheduled to be shown at the Kaoshiung Film Festival, Taiwan, in October 2009, but was later rescheduled to September, before the festival due to opposition from the PRC.[35] Wang Yi of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China opposed the film, saying it "beatifies the ethnic separatists" and sends "the wrong signals about terrorism and violence",[36] while the Chinese government warned the Kaoshiung city government not to "stir up trouble".[37] The website for the festival was also hacked.[38][39] It was later announced that the film would be shown at the film festival as originally planned. Premier Wu Den-yih said the government would protect freedom of speech,[40] but Kadeer's entry ban from Taiwan was extended by three years "based on security needs".[41]
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