China Executes Muslim Uighur Accused of Separatism
BEIJING (AP) - A Muslim has been executed on charges of seeking independence for China's Muslim-majority northwestern region of Xinjiang and making explosives, a court official said Tuesday.
Kuerban Tudaji, an ethnic Uighur, was sentenced to death June 30 and later executed, said Fu Rongqing, a spokesman for the Supreme People's Court in Xinjiang. Fu said he wasn't sure of the date the execution was carried out.
Death sentences in China typically are carried out shortly after the last appeal fails. Most executions are by gunshot to the head or neck, while some courts use lethal injection. Fu said Kuerban Tudaji was convicted of seeking independence for Xinjiang - or trying to "split China,'' in legal terms - and for making and transporting explosives and ammunition.
The human rights group Amnesty International issued a statement saying it "strongly condemned'' the execution and expressing concern that Kuerban Tudaji didn't receive a fair trial. China's communist government claims Uighur separatists are fighting to turn Xinjiang into an independent theocratic state and are part of an international Islamic terrorist network.
But foreign experts are skeptical of claims of an organized campaign. Opponents of Beijing's rule over Xinjiang say the government is using terrorism as an excuse to tighten control over a region that is divided from the rest of China by language, ethnicity and religion. Chinese leaders tolerate no challenges to Communist Party rule, but the extent of the crackdown in Xinjiang is unknown because of controls on information from the area. - AP Latest from AP-Wire
That is so true. The UN spouts off all the time about the U.S. And that is about it.