[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 576 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 576

     Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the 
       Government of the People's Republic of China has violated 
    internationally recognized human rights by implementing severe 
restrictions on the rights of Uyghurs to freely associate and engage in 
religious and political speech, subjecting detained Uyghurs to torture 
  and forced confessions, carrying out extrajudicial killings against 
   Uyghur dissidents, and pressuring other governments to unlawfully 
 return Uyghurs to China, where they face mistreatment and persecution.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 7, 2012

 Mr. McGovern (for himself, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Ellison, Mr. 
  Wolf, Mr. Moran, and Mr. Pitts) submitted the following resolution; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
     Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the 
       Government of the People's Republic of China has violated 
    internationally recognized human rights by implementing severe 
restrictions on the rights of Uyghurs to freely associate and engage in 
religious and political speech, subjecting detained Uyghurs to torture 
  and forced confessions, carrying out extrajudicial killings against 
   Uyghur dissidents, and pressuring other governments to unlawfully 
 return Uyghurs to China, where they face mistreatment and persecution.

Whereas Uyghurs in China face worsening repression by the Government of China, 
        through increasing controls on religious, political, and cultural 
        activity, and through increasing security restrictions, deprivations of 
        due process, forcible disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial 
        killings;
Whereas as a result of this institutionalized discrimination by the Government 
        of China against Uyghurs, confrontations between Uyghurs and Chinese 
        police have intensified since July 5, 2009, when violence broke out in 
        Urumqi during initially peaceful protests, reportedly resulting in the 
        deaths of 197 people and the detention of more than 1,400 people;
Whereas hundreds of persons detained after the July 2009 riots have not been 
        accounted for by the Government of China, and serious allegations of 
        torture and other human rights abuses by Chinese police have gone 
        uninvestigated;
Whereas many of the Uyghurs detained in relation to the July 2009 events are 
        feared to have been subjected to torture and forced confessions during 
        their imprisonment;
Whereas trials for many of the Uyghurs charged in relation to the July 2009 
        events have lacked transparency, and defendants have allegedly been 
        denied the right to choose their attorneys;
Whereas at least 24 Uyghurs and 2 Han Chinese have been sentenced to death, 9 
        individuals have been sentenced to death with a 2-year reprieve, 8 
        Uyghurs and one Han Chinese man have been executed, and several more 
        individuals have been sentenced to life in prison or given jail terms in 
        connection with the July 2009 events;
Whereas, on July 18, 2011, reports indicate that Uyghurs in Khotan who had 
        gathered at a local bazaar to peacefully protest repressive Chinese 
        policies were arrested by Chinese police, prompting an angry crowd to 
        follow the police to the police station, where violence broke out;
Whereas at least 4 people were reportedly killed as a result of the July 18, 
        2011, clashes, and an estimated 70 people were allegedly arrested in 
        connection with the event;
Whereas, on the weekend of July 30, 2011, a series of knife and bomb attacks 
        took place in the city of Kashgar, resulting in the deaths of several 
        people;
Whereas in September 2011, 2 men were given 19-year prison sentences, and 4 men 
        were sentenced to death by a Chinese court for their alleged involvement 
        in the July 30, 2011, and July 31, 2011, attacks;
Whereas the 4 condemned men were allegedly tortured into giving confessions and 
        were denied adequate legal representation during their trials, despite 
        Chinese claims that their trials were ``open and fully protected the 
        suspects' legal rights'';
Whereas, on December 28, 2011, during an official 100-day ``Strike Hard'' 
        campaign in Xinjiang, Chinese forces fired on a group of Uyghurs in 
        Khotan;
Whereas 7 members of the Uyghur group were reportedly killed, along with a 
        Chinese security officer, while 4 Uyghurs were injured, and 4 adults and 
        up to 5 children from the group, ages 7 to 17, were and continue to be 
        detained following the clash;
Whereas the whereabouts of these detained individuals are unknown, but they are 
        believed to still be held in detention in China, and are feared to have 
        sustained serious injuries;
Whereas in addition to severely mistreating Uyghurs within China, in the last 
        few years, the Government of China has reportedly increased its pressure 
        on other countries, including Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, 
        Nepal, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, to return Uyghurs who had sought 
        asylum in those countries back to China;
Whereas arbitrary arrests, torture, harsh prison sentences, and forced 
        disappearances have been carried out against asylum-seeking Uyghurs who 
        have been forcibly returned to China, in violation of the principle of 
        nonrefoulement;
Whereas at least 20 Uyghurs who had fled to Cambodia to seek asylum following 
        the violence in 2009 were forcibly returned back to China from Cambodia 
        on December 19, 2009;
Whereas 2 days following the extradition of the Uyghurs from Cambodia, China 
        awarded Cambodia with an agreement to provide a United States 
        $1,200,000,000 aid and loan package;
Whereas after more than 2 years of not knowing the fate of the returned Uyghurs, 
        recent reports indicate that 4 of the Uyghurs have been sentenced to 
        life in prison, 12 have been sentenced to terms of between 16 and 20 
        years, and a woman and 2 children have been released, while the fate of 
        the remaining Uyghurs remains unknown;
Whereas according to news accounts, the Uyghurs' trials were fundamentally 
        unjust, in that defense attorneys were given insufficient time to 
        prepare a defense, families of the accused were prevented from attending 
        the trials, and the accused were forced to cover their faces while 
        entering and exiting the courtroom;
Whereas Uyghur refugee Ershidin Israel was forcibly returned to China from 
        Kazakhstan in May 2011, in violation of customary international law as 
        well as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 
        1967 Protocol, to which Kazakhstan is a party;
Whereas 11 Uyghur refugees were extradited from Malaysia to China in August 
        2011, while 5 Uyghur refugees remain in Malaysia; and
Whereas Nur Muhammed, a Uyghur, was arrested in Thailand on August 6, 2011, 
        charged with illegal entry into the country, and handed over to Chinese 
        authorities at the airport in Bangkok, rather than being brought before 
        a court as required under Thai law, and has since disappeared: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) strongly condemns any violence against innocent 
        individuals regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or religious 
        beliefs, and recognizes that individuals who have committed 
        crimes must be brought to justice in full compliance with 
        international human rights and legal standards, including 
        independent courts, habeas corpus and due process protections, 
        the free choice of legal defense, and the right to challenge 
        the accuser and any evidence in court;
            (2) recognizes that the government policies of suppression 
        against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, particularly the ``Strike 
        Hard'' campaigns, as well as government policies regarding 
        other ethnic groups within the People's Republic of China, have 
        created an atmosphere of ethnic tension in those areas;
            (3) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China to--
                    (A) desist from further executions based on trials 
                that violate international human rights and due process 
                standards;
                    (B) ensure that trials are conducted in an open and 
                transparent manner in accordance with the international 
                obligations of the People's Republic of China;
                    (C) allow international observers and the media to 
                attend those trials;
                    (D) provide a list of all individuals detained or 
                arrested in the aftermath of the July 2009 events in 
                Xinjiang to the International Committee of the Red 
                Cross and the public, and to grant access to those 
                individuals for family members and independent legal 
                counsel;
                    (E) cease all government-sponsored crackdowns 
                against people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous 
                Region, including against people involved in peaceful 
                protests or religious or political expression; and
                    (F) refrain from pressuring or requesting other 
                governments to forcibly return Uyghurs to China; and
            (4) calls on the President of the United States to--
                    (A) unequivocally state the strong opposition of 
                the United States to the legally flawed trials, 
                executions, and harsh prison sentences against peaceful 
                Uyghur protestors;
                    (B) raise those human rights concerns publicly and 
                in all meetings with Chinese officials;
                    (C) restate the interest of the United States to 
                open United States consulates in Lhasa, Tibet, and in 
                Urumqi, Xinjiang; and
                    (D) as a matter of policy, direct the United States 
                Embassy in Beijing to automatically request permission 
                from the appropriate Chinese authorities for United 
                States Embassy staff to observe trials if credible 
                reasons exist that such trials may not meet 
                internationally recognized human rights and legal 
                standards.
                                 <all>