[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 137 (Monday, September 17, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H10393-H10395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CALLING ON GOVERNMENT OF PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TO RELEASE CERTAIN 
             PRISONERS AND END SUPPRESSION OF UYGHUR PEOPLE

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree 
to the resolution (H. Res. 497) expressing the sense of the House of 
Representatives that the Government of the People's Republic of China 
should immediately release from custody the children of Rebiya Kadeer 
and Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil and should refrain from further 
engaging in acts of cultural, linguistic, and religious suppression 
directed against the Uyghur people, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 497

       Whereas the protection of the human rights of minority 
     groups is consistent with the actions of a responsible 
     stakeholder in the international community and with the role 
     of a host of a major international event such as the Olympic 
     Games;
       Whereas recent actions taken against the Uyghur minority by 
     authorities in the People's Republic of China and, 
     specifically, by local officials in the Xinjiang Uyghur 
     Autonomous Region, have included major violations of human 
     rights and acts of cultural suppression;
       Whereas the authorities of the People's Republic of China 
     have manipulated the strategic objectives of the 
     international war on terror to increase their cultural and 
     religious oppression of the Muslim population residing in the 
     Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
       Whereas an official campaign to encourage Han Chinese 
     migration into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has 
     resulted in the Uyghur population becoming a minority in 
     their traditional homeland and has placed immense pressure on 
     those who are seeking to preserve the linguistic, cultural, 
     and religious traditions of the Uyghur people;
       Whereas the House of Representatives has a particular 
     interest in the fate of Uyghur human rights leader Rebiya 
     Kadeer, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and her family as Ms. 
     Kadeer was first arrested in August 1999 while she was en 
     route to meet with a delegation from the Congressional 
     Research Service and was held in prison on spurious charges 
     until her release and exile to the United States in the 
     spring of 2005;
       Whereas upon her release, Ms. Kadeer was warned by her 
     Chinese jailors not to advocate for human rights in Xinjiang 
     and throughout China while in the United States or elsewhere, 
     and was reminded that she had several family members residing 
     in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
       Whereas while residing in the United States, Ms. Kadeer 
     founded the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy 
     Foundation and was elected President of the Uyghur American 
     Association and President of the World Uyghur Congress in 
     Munich, Germany;
       Whereas two of Ms. Kadeer's sons were detained and beaten 
     and one of her daughters was placed under house arrest in 
     June 2006;
       Whereas President George W. Bush recognized the importance 
     of Ms. Kadeer's human rights work in a June 5, 2007, speech 
     in Prague, Czech Republic, when he stated: ``Another 
     dissident I will meet here is Rebiyah Kadeer of China, whose 
     sons have been jailed in what we believe is an act of 
     retaliation for her human rights activities. The talent of 
     men and women like Rebiyah is the greatest resource of their 
     nations, far more valuable than the weapons of their army or 
     their oil under the ground.'';
       Whereas Kahar Abdureyim, Ms. Kadeer's eldest son, was fined 
     $12,500 for tax evasion and another son, Alim Abdureyim, was 
     sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $62,500 for tax 
     evasion in a blatant attempt by local authorities to take 
     control of the Kadeer family's remaining business assets in 
     the People's Republic of China;
       Whereas another of Ms. Kadeer's sons, Ablikim Abdureyim, 
     was beaten by local police to the point of requiring medical 
     attention in June 2006 and has been subjected to continued 
     physical abuse and torture while being held incommunicado in 
     custody since that time;
       Whereas Ablikim Abdureyim was also convicted by a kangaroo 
     court on April 17, 2007, for ``instigating and engaging in 
     secessionist'' activities and was sentenced to nine years of 
     imprisonment, this trial being held in secrecy and Mr. 
     Abdureyim reportedly being denied the right to legal 
     representation;
       Whereas two days later, on April 19, 2007, another court in 
     Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 
     sentenced Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil to life in prison 
     for ``splittism'' and also for ``being party to a terrorist 
     organization'' after having successfully sought his 
     extradition from Uzbekistan where he was visiting relatives;
       Whereas Chinese authorities have continued to refuse to 
     recognize Mr. Celil's Canadian citizenship, although he was 
     naturalized in 2005, denied Canadian diplomats access to the 
     courtroom when Mr. Celil was sentenced, and have refused to 
     grant consular access to Mr. Celil in prison;
       Whereas a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson publicly 
     warned Canada ``not to interfere in China's domestic 
     affairs'' after Mr. Celil's sentencing; and
       Whereas Mr. Celil's case was a major topic of conversation 
     in a recent Beijing meeting between the Canadian and Chinese 
     Foreign Ministers: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved,  That it is the sense of the House of 
     Representatives that the Government of the People's Republic 
     of China--
       (1) should recognize, and seek to ensure, the linguistic, 
     cultural, and religious rights of the Uyghur people of the 
     Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region;
       (2) should immediately release the children of Rebiya 
     Kadeer from both incarceration and house arrest and cease 
     harassment and intimidation of the Kadeer family members; and
       (3) should immediately release Canadian citizen Huseyin 
     Celil and allow him to rejoin his family in Canada.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega) and the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Smith) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from American Samoa.

[[Page H10394]]

                             General Leave

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on H. Res. 497.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from America Samoa?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this 
resolution, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to first thank again my colleague from New Jersey 
for his participation in managing the other side of the aisle on this 
proposed legislation. I thank the chairman of the Foreign Affairs 
Committee, the gentleman from California, Mr. Tom Lantos, for his 
leadership and for his support of this legislation. Especially I want 
to thank my good friend and colleague, the distinguished senior ranking 
member, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, for her authorship of this human rights 
resolution.
  With passage of this measure, Congress will shine its spotlight on 
the brutal suppression of the Muslim Uyghur people by the Chinese 
Government, and the despicable retaliatory actions of the Chinese 
Government against the leading Uyghur human rights voice, Rebiya 
Kadeer.
  Similar to the Tibetans, the Turkic Muslim Uyghur have long sought to 
protect their cultural survival in the face of the Chinese Government-
supported migration of the Han Chinese to the Uyghur homeland. Chinese 
authorities severely restrict economic and educational freedoms for the 
Uyghurs, regularly destroying books and closing places of worship.
  Most trials of Uyghur prisoners are held in secret and many political 
prisoners are routinely executed without the knowledge of their 
families. Thousands of Uyghur political prisoners are held without 
charge or even trial and are routinely abused or tortured.
  Mr. Speaker, the People's Republic of China continues to brutally 
suppress even the slightest attempts of peaceful political, religious 
and cultural expression of the Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Province. After 
the attacks in the U.S. on September 11, the People's Republic of China 
has used the pretext of the war on terrorism to justify these severe 
human rights violations in Xinjiang and routinely labels the Uyghurs as 
terrorists and as splitists.
  When the Uyghur people found their human rights voice in Rebiya 
Kadeer, the Chinese Government immediately moved against her and 
sentenced her to 8 years in prison. They arrested her while she was on 
her way to meet representatives of our Congressional Research Service.
  After international lobbying efforts, the Chinese Government finally 
released her from prison. They told her that her children would pay a 
steep price if she continued to lobby for human rights in Xinjiang.
  When you carry the hopes and dreams of your entire people on your 
shoulders, it is impossible to be quiet in the face of such brutal 
oppression. Upon arriving in the United States, Rebiya continued her 
human rights work through the International Human Rights and Democracy 
Foundation and as president of the Uyghur American Association and the 
World Uyghur Congress in Munich, Germany.
  Mr. Speaker, the Chinese Government held to their word and arrested 
her sons in Xinjiang. Her daughter was placed under house arrest. Using 
the pretext of a tax investigation to strip the family of all the 
remaining possessions and business interests, one son was fined $12,500 
for tax evasion. Another was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined 
$62,500. Yet another was sentenced to 9 years in prison on April 17, 
2007, for secessionism.
  The Ros-Lehtinen resolution before us, Mr. Speaker, also raises the 
human rights of Uyghur Canadian Huseyin Celil. He was recently 
convicted by a Chinese court to life imprisonment on bogus charges. The 
Canadian Government has been denied access to him throughout his trial.
  The blatant refusal to accept even the most basic norms of diplomatic 
conduct and refusing Canadian embassy officials to visit Mr. Celil not 
only flies in the face of long-established diplomatic norms and 
standards, but it is a flagrant violation of Mr. Celil's 
internationally recognized human rights.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to join me in supporting this 
resolution and in sending the Chinese Government a strong message that 
it needs to respect the minority rights of the Uyghur people, that it 
needs to immediately release the children of Rebiya Kadeer and cease 
all harassment of her family members, and set free Mr. Celil so he can 
return to Canada to be reunited with his family.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in very strong support of this resolution offered 
by Ms. Ros-Lehtinen that asks the Chinese Government to recognize the 
rights of the Uyghur people and to free the children of Rebiya Kadeer, 
an extraordinary human rights activist and Uyghur spokeswoman.
  At turning points in history, Mr. Speaker, of oppressed peoples, one 
honest and courageous man or woman often comes to represent the entire 
people in the eyes of the world. In the United States, on matters 
related to civil rights, it was the Reverend Martin Luther King. In 
Burma, it is Aung San Suu Kyi. In India, it was Gandhi. For Chinese 
Catholics, it was Cardinal Kung. In Poland, it was Lech Walesa and John 
Paul II. For Tibetans, it is his Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
  For the Uyghur people, deprived of their religious freedom, robbed of 
their cultural and linguistic rights and marginalized in their own 
homeland by the government-organized Han Chinese migration, it is 
Rebiya Kadeer.
  For years, Ms. Kadeer was a voice crying in the wilderness, asking 
the serial human rights abusers in Beijing to recognize the rights of 
the Uyghur people. In 1999, the Chinese Government imprisoned her. In 
2005, it released her into exile into the United States, warning her 
not to advocate for her people. Her husband and several children were 
already in exile here. Others remained behind. In 2000, while she was 
in prison, one of her daughters testified at a human rights hearing 
that I chaired on the Uyghurs, and she was very powerful in her 
statement on behalf of her mom.
  Even though some of her children still lived in China, this 
incredibly brave woman established a Uyghur human rights foundation. 
Now she has become the quintessential symbol of Uyghur aspirations and 
hopes. She is a recognized leader in the Uyghur exile and human rights 
communities, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and a friend of President 
Bush after their meeting in Prague this past summer.
  Mr. Speaker, we all want Beijing to act like a responsible 
stakeholder in the world. I make no secret of my conviction that 
Beijing has a very long way to go. The list of serious human rights 
abuses committed by the Chinese Government is long. It includes the 
persuasive systematic exploitation of women and the murder of their 
children through forced abortion as part of its coercive one-child-per-
couple policy. Against the Uyghurs, it is used as a means of genocide, 
of trying to destroy an entire race and ethnic group of people because 
of their ethnicity. The imprisonment of democratic dissidents and 
religious believers remains a serious and pervasive problem in the PRC, 
as does the marginalization of the Tibetans in their homeland on the 
roof of the world.
  The extensive use of torture has been documented time and time again. 
Manfred Nowak, the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations, went to 
China and came back, and his report is literally an indictment. If you 
are arrested, if a Han Chinese, a Uyghur or anyone is arrested, the way 
they get a conviction is they torture you. Eventually you sign on the 
bottom line and you admit your so-called crimes. They have also 
forcibly repatriated North Korean refugees. Again, there is abuse after 
abuse after abuse, and the Uyghurs are at the brunt of it.
  The oppression of the Uyghurs in their homeland along the Silk Road 
must be included, Mr. Speaker, on any list of Chinese Government's most 
serious abuses. In the United States, Ms. Kadeer has ensured that the 
world does not forget the oppression of the Uyghur

[[Page H10395]]

people, and the Chinese Government has retaliated now, as they have in 
the past, by harassing her children who live in the Xinjiang Uyghur 
Autonomous Region by placing them under house arrest, by incarcerating 
them and by beating them.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, the House of Representatives, both Republicans 
and Democrats alike, ask that Beijing end this campaign of retaliation 
against the Kadeer family. We join the voice of those who care for 
those kids, an anguished mother who cries, ``let my children go.''

                              {time}  1545

  We also ask that Beijing immediately release Hussein Celil, an ethnic 
Uyghur who is a citizen of Canada, so he can rejoin his family living 
in that country.
  Finally, in the darkness of the political oppression of the Uyghur 
people, Rebiya Kadeer stands out as a beacon of light and hope. Let us 
honor her and her family and her work by enthusiastically supporting 
this resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend and thank my good 
friend from New Jersey. I call him the champion of human rights all 
over the world. Wherever there is violation of human rights, he is 
there; and I commend him for his efforts all these years that I have 
been privileged to work closely with him on these issues.
  Mr. Speaker, I recall years ago Mr. Mandela was accused by a former 
Prime Minister of Great Britain as being a terrorist. Of course, having 
served in prison for 29 years, all he was trying to say was that 
something was wrong in South Africa. They call it apartheid. If that 
isn't a human rights violation, I don't know what is.
  But the fact that these two people, the lady and her children and 
this Canadian citizen, whether it is 2 or 3 or 3 million, our 
government and this Congress should give every attention as far as to 
the needs of those people as far as human rights violations are 
concerned.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support 
of H. Res. 497, expressing the sense of the House of Representatives 
that the Government of the People's Republic of China should 
immediately release from custody the children of Rebiya Kadeer and 
Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil and should refrain from further engaging 
in acts of cultural, linguistic, and religious suppression directed 
against the Uyghur people, and for other purposes. I want to 
congratulate my good friend and colleague, the distinguished ranking 
member of this Committee, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, for this important human 
rights resolution. It is the responsibility of the Congress to remind 
the government of the People's Republic of China of their obligations 
to live up to international standards to protect ethnic cultural 
identities and minority rights.
  Mr. Speaker, not only does the People's Republic of China 
systemically abuse the basic human rights of its minority citizens, but 
its repressive tactics extend to the members of politically active 
human rights advocates' families. Furthermore, the government has 
manipulated the international war on terrorism to justify its 
repressive treatment of the Muslim population living in Xinjiang, as 
well as encouraging Chinese migration into the region in an attempt to 
purify the region of its traditional Uyghur occupants.
  It is extremely important that the United States hold the government 
of the People's Republic of China responsible to international 
standards regarding political as well as basic human rights. The 
government brutally suppresses even the slightest attempts of peaceful 
political, religious, and cultural expression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. 
As a member of Congress, I feel particularly responsible to Uyghur 
human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer, who was arrested while she was on 
her way to meet representatives of our Congressional Research Service. 
While she was released from prison following international lobbying 
efforts, deemed a prisoner of consciousness by Amnesty International, 
upon resumption of her human rights advocacy abroad, her sons in 
Xinjiang were arrested and remain imprisoned to this day.
  This resolution also raises the human rights issues of Huseyin Cecil, 
a Uyghur Canadian who was recently convicted in a kangaroo court to 
life imprisonment on ``bogus'' charges. The Canadian government and 
Embassy Officials have been refused access to their citizen throughout 
the process, and the Chinese government has blatantly refused to accept 
even the most basic norms of diplomatic conduct.
  By supporting this resolution, the United States will alert the 
Chinese government that it must respect the minority rights of the 
Uyghur people as well as the rights of human rights advocates. The 
resolution requires the immediate release of the children of Rebiya 
Kadeer as well as Mr. Cecil so that they might all return to their 
families.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important 
resolution.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega) that the House suspend 
the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 497.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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