Rebiya Kadeer, an ethnic Uighur from Xinjiang Province, China, is a prominent human rights activist.
She once was a successful businesswoman and a member of a state council. But her vocal denunciation of violence against Uighurs and the state's repressive policies led to a 8-year jail sentence and, ultimately, exile in the United States. She now acts as "the Uighurs' voice," leading a representative world body and lobbying foreign governments to support them.
The Chinese government accused Kadeer of fomenting the ethnic violence that rocked Xinjiang in July and spurred a heavy-handed government crackdown. In this interview, she discusses relations in the restive region -- and calls on the world to protect the Uighur minority.
Zubayra Shamseden acted as a translator for this interview, which was lightly edited for length and clarity. Excerpts:
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Foreign Policy: Were you involved in the unrest in Xinjiang? And how do you react to China's insistence that you helped foment the riots?
Rebiya Kadeer: No. I am the voice of these people and I want peace. The [World Uighur Congress] and I have worked since June 26, with 51 organizations around the world, to protest the violence, to go to governments and parliaments and senators around the world to intervene.
I was very disappointed [by the Chinese accusation]. I'm not very happy at all, because they're accusing me [of causing] what happened in Xinjiang, when they should be asking themselves why it took place. Why did those people take to the streets to demand justice?
And even if they [do blame] me for what happened, they should come to me and ask me, "Why did you do it?" Let's come to a dialogue then. Because if they listened to me, I would tell the Chinese authorities: Look, this is what my people want. This is what my people wish to have from you.
Instead of blaming me for everything, [the Chinese authorities] should just stop suppressing and stop killing people. They should stop doing what they've been doing. They should try to listen to the people's pleas.
With their propaganda, they've been able to mislead the international community, to lie. But it's impossible for the Chinese authorities to cheat on the local people, the Uighur people. They wouldn't believe it. They do not believe it. Even the Han Chinese, they do not believe it. The Chinese authorities clearly knew that nobody [believes] that I instigated the incident and that it happened the way it did.
They blame me for using my name, Rebiya, against them. But they use my name, Rebiya, to suppress the people. If it weren't me, they would find somebody else to blame. In the [case] of Tibet, whatever takes place, whatever happens, it's always the Dalai Lama. Always the Dalai Lama. For 50 years, that is what the Chinese authorities have been doing in Tibet. So it is in Xinjiang.
FP: Tell us what we don't hear in the media. What are you most worried about?
RK: The current situation in our country is very grave.
I don't have any proof for some of the incidences I've heard about. Based on unconfirmed sources, we're hearing that the authorities are arresting people every day. Hundreds of people. On a daily basis.
After arresting the people, the Chinese authorities are -- if they agree to work with the Chinese authorities, like as a spy, they will release them. But the rest of them are missing. Nobody knows where they have gone, all the disappeared.
In terms of wounded protesters, wounded Uighur people, they were taken to the second or third local hospitals. Somehow they all disappeared from the local hospital. They took them to the military hospital. And it's just very questionable. Why did they have to transfer them to the military hospital? We suspect some were killed or put in prison. But anything could have happened.
On the streets, we hear that people have been finding bodies [in the gutters]. Also, a television station said there were bodies found in the medical university in Urumqi. There are many of these stories, but they are from unconfirmed sources. [We don't think these were] executions by the military or the police, but Uighurs killed by Han Chinese mobs. But we don't know. We don't hear about them.
FP: One of the tensions you describe is that many Uighurs -- though not all -- want to have peace with China. But China does not want peace with the Uighurs, so much as it wants to eradicate them.
RK: That is true. The Chinese purposefully instigated the violence in Xinjiang, as well -- even when they were sending troops to stop it. They wanted the Han Chinese and the Uighurs to be violent against each other. There were Chinese security officials in ordinary, plain clothes to create Chinese mobs against the Uighurs. There was no way for the local population to know they were doing it. And you cannot find any information in China about the shootings and the killings of the Uighurs.
What the Chinese authorities say within China is that the Uighurs hate peace. But there were protests where Uighurs were holding Chinese flags, which they never do. They were trying to say: We are your citizens; we are your people. We demand change, but we demand peace.
Uighurs normally don't hold those flags -- because China invaded the region 60 years ago. China said they would give Xinjiang autonomy, but instead, it has been suppressed and they moved millions of Han Chinese to Xinjiang. The autonomous rule was never implemented. This is genocide. They want to destroy the Uighur culture -- they destroyed Kashgar, which had 5,000 years of civilization, of history.
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