Uyghur Exile to Sue Taiwanese Government?

Legal Action?

According to reports in the Asian media former East Turkestani business woman - and Uyghur rights activist - Rebiya Kadeer is preparing to launch legal action against Taipei. The suit is said to come in response to accusations that were made by Taiwanese Interior Minister Jiang YiHuahin in September of this year.

Accusations?

Earlier this year Kadeer applied for a visa to travel from Germany to the disputed island territory of Chinese Taiwan.

However their application was refused by Interior Minister Jiang, who accused Kadeer of having links to the leadership of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Said to be a conservative Islamist group seeking to free East Turkestan - Known locally as Xinjiang - from PRC rule.

According to Jiang, Kadeer's alleged relationship with the group's leadership rendered them a danger to public order, and a risk to the island's national interests. And thus eligible for visa denial under current immigration laws.

Though many claim that the real reason for the visa denial was pressure from Beijing, which has waged a long campaign against Kadeer because of their pro independence activities.

Denial?

Calling Jiang's comments "reckless" and "irresponsible", Kadeer strongly refuted the accusations. Stating that neither they nor the World Uyghur Congress - the Uyghur rights group chaired by Kadeer - has any association with the ETIM or its leadership, and that they deplore the use of violence in the cause of Uyghur liberation. Making their own goals incompatible with the the ETIM's methods.

"The World Uighur Congress has never had anything to do with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement."

Rebiya Kadeer, President, World Uyghur Congress

East Turkestan Islamic Movement?

The East Turkestan Islamic Movement is said to be an Islamist resistance group based in East Turkestan. It was placed on the United States list of prescribed groups in August 2002 after representations from Beijing, which accused it of carrying out a number of terrorist attacks against Han interests in East Turkestan. Including a number of car bombings during the 1990s. To date they have been blamed for over 150 deaths.

A 2005 report by Washington also linked the group to Al-Qaeda.

However, there are strong doubts amongst some observers that the group is responsible for many of the attacks attributed to it. In some cases there are even doubts that the group exists at all.

In June 2009 officials in Washington - lead by US Congressperson Bill Delahunt -launched an investigation into the prescribed status of the ETIM's, and into the evidence presented against the group by Beijing.

The investigation noted that there was a substantial overlap between claims made by Beijing regarding the ETIM and previous claims regarding the Uyghur resistance movement in general. Fuelling suspicions that Beijing had either recycled incidents, or that it was attempting to conflagrate the actions of multiple unrelated groups, in order to give the impression that a larger, organized, group was at work.

According to the US Congressional Research Service many of the attacks attributed to the ETIM took place during the 1990. Though there is no documentary evidence that he group existed prior to 2000. Equally, according to testimony given by Sean Roberts, Director of International Development Studies at George Washington University - as a group the ETIM is so obscure that they had never encountered references it prior to it being prescribed, despite having spent the 20 years studying the politics and people of the region.

According to Roberts, there is insufficient weight of evidence against the ETIM to determine that it is as dangerous as it is claimed, as large as it is claimed, or that it has ties to groups such as Al-Qaeda.

"It is difficult to justify the allegations that ETIM is a sophisticated and dangerous terrorist organization with links to Al-Qaeda"
Sean Roberts, Director, International Development Studies, George Washington University, US

Roberts went as far as to question whether the ETIM still exists.

"it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the organization no longer exists at all"

Sean Roberts

To date, neither Beijing nor Taipai has been unable to produce evidence linking Kadeer, or the World Uyghur conference to the ETIM.

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit