Summary

We will follow the constitution, pay compensations to the victims, respect equality before the law, severely handle cases according to law, and do a  good work of preparing [the work of] prosecution and of approving rapidly the Public Security requests for detention.

—Statement by the Urumqi Procuratorate regarding the investigation into the July 5-7 protests in Urumqi

That day, a large group of armed police arrived at our neighborhood and took many Uighur men away. They went after every young man they could catch—those who lived there, and those who just happened to be there. I saw how they were taken away—the police loaded a full bus of these young men. I think they took some from the street and others from their home; I was inside myself, but could see [from the window] the police loading the men into their bus.

Their families and we, the neighbors, could not do or even say anything—we all were too scared to come out, fearing they would take us away as well. I don’t know where the men were taken, and their relatives don’t know either. I have not heard of anyone being released after that.

—Gulmira G., a witness to a July 6, 2009 raid in one of the Uighur neighborhoods in Urumqi

In the aftermath of the July 2009 protests in western Xinjiang province, Chinese security forces detained hundreds of people on suspicion of participation in the unrest. Dozens of these detainees, and possibly many more, have since “disappeared” without a trace.

 

The protests of July 5-7, 2009, in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, were one of the worst episodes of ethnic violence in China in decades. Information about the Xinjiang protests and their aftermath remains fragmentary. On July 5, protests by Uighurs, an ethnic minority group, against the killing of Uighur workers at the Guangdong toy factory appear to have begun peacefully. It remains unclear how the protest turned violent, with Uighur sources blaming the riot police for the excessive use of force against the protestors.

Chinese authorities were quick to accuse a variety of external forces of masterminding and sponsoring the unrest. They specifically blamed Rebiya Kadeer, a former political prisoner in Xinjiang and a prominent Uighur rights activist living in exile in the United States, for planning and organizing the protests. No evidence, however, has been provided to support those claims, and many analysts believe that the root causes of the protests were largely related to China’s longstanding discriminatory policies toward the Uighur minority.

By the evening of July 5, large groups of Uighur youths launched brutal attacks against Han Chinese residents in southern parts of Urumqi, leaving scores dead or injured, and setting dozens of buildings and cars on fire. Security forces did not reestablish control until the morning of July 6. On July 7, they attempted to prevent retaliatory assaults by Han Chinese residents of Urumqi, although at least some Uighurs fell victim to these attacks.

The latest official figures put the death toll from the protests at 197 people, the majority of them Han. More than 1,600 were injured. Uighur groups continue to question the official death toll, saying it underestimates the number of Uighur victims.

In contrast to the complete block on information after the 2008 protests in Tibet, in Urumqi the authorities allowed access for foreign journalists and even took measures to facilitate their work. However, the authorities prevented the journalists from documenting the arrests that followed the protests and other potential violations by the security forces. Indeed, some reporters were detained and escorted out of Uighur areas.

 

Chinese authorities also blocked the channels of uncensored information, including the internet, international phone lines, and text messaging for all but accredited foreign reporters; more than 50 internet Uighur forums and online discussion groups have been blocked since the protests. At the same time, the Chinese government used both the official media and other means of mass propaganda to promote its version of events domestically and internationally.

In the wake of the Urumqi protests, Chinese authorities declared they would deal decisively with perpetrators of the violence. Immediately after the protests and in the following two months, they released a number of contradictory statements regarding the number of people detained by the security forces in connection with the unrest, which seemed to have reached well over a thousand people. On October 12, 2009, China pronounced the first sentences in protest-related cases: six Uighur men were sentenced to death and one to life imprisonment.

This report is based on Human Rights Watch research conducted in the aftermath of the July protests. It documents the enforced disappearances of at least 43 Uighur men and teenage boys who were detained by Chinese security forces in the wake of the protests. The actual number of “disappeared“ persons is likely significantly higher than the number of cases documented by Human Rights Watch, as our ability to collect information was limited. Out of fear of retaliation, few witnesses or family members were willing to come forward with their stories.

The Chinese authorities have the duty to thoroughly investigate incidents of violence and the right to punish the perpetrators in accordance with international law. However, our research indicates that instead of launching an impartial investigation in accordance with international and domestic standards, Chinese law enforcement agencies carried out a massive campaign of unlawful arrests in the Uighur areas of Urumqi, many of which resulted in “disappearances” of the detainees.

Enforced disappearances are serious violations of international human rights law. An enforced disappearance occurs when state authorities detain a person and then refuse to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or the person’s whereabouts, placing the person outside the protection of the law and increasing the likelihood of other abuses, such as torture and extrajudicial execution. The practice of “disappearances” and unlawful arrests also violates various provisions of Chinese criminal and procedural law.

While the Chinese legal system is anything but transparent, and criminal suspects are often held in incommunicado detention for prolonged periods of time, such cases do not necessarily constitute “disappearances” as long as the detention is acknowledged and at least some information about the detainee and his or her whereabouts is available. The cases described in this report, however, qualify as enforced disappearances because following arrest, the authorities have either denied the fact of detention or refused to provide any information about the detainees’ whereabouts or fate despite requests from relatives.

On July 6-7, 2009, Chinese police, armed police, and the military conducted numerous large-scale sweep operations in two predominantly Uighur areas of Urumqi—Erdaoqiao and Saimachang. The operations, on a lesser scale, continued at least through the end of July.

According to witnesses, the security forces sealed off entire neighborhoods, searching for young Uighur men. In some cases, they first separated the men from other residents, pushed them to their knees or flat on the ground, and, at least in some cases, beat the men while questioning them about their participation in the protests. Those who had wounds or bruises on their bodies, or had not been at their homes during the protests, were then taken away. In other cases, the security forces simply went after every young man they could catch and packed them into their trucks by the dozens.

In addition to large-scale sweeps, the security forces also detained an unknown number of people in the course of targeted raids, usually involving smaller groups of police officers or soldiers who took Uighur men from their homes, places of work, hospitals, or the street. In some cases, the security forces seemed to act on leads received from previously detained individuals. These raids continued at least through mid-August.

The victims of “disappearances” documented by Human Rights Watch were young Uighur men—most in their 20s, although the youngest victim was 14 years old, and some witnesses reported that the police had detained boys as young as 12 during the raids.

In most cases documented by Human Rights Watch, the men and boys detained in the course of these sweeps and raids have been missing since the security forces took them away. Their families’ attempts to inquire about the relatives at local police stations or with other law enforcement agencies proved futile—the authorities either said they had no knowledge of the arrests, or claimed the inquiry was still ongoing without admitting the fact of detention, or simply chased the families away.

In the absence of proper legal representation, local human rights groups, independent reporters, and channels of communication with the outside world, the families of the “disappeared” have nowhere to turn for help or to report the cases.

Chinese authorities did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s request for information about the numbers, legal status, or ethnic breakdown of the detainees.

China has an appalling record of unacknowledged detentions following mass protests. Previous incidents of unrest in Xinjiang, as well the 2008 mass protests in Tibet, were followed by hundreds of unaccounted-for detentions, summary trials that did not meet basic due process standards, and credible reports of torture and ill-treatment in custody.

Key Recommendations

Human Rights Watch urges the Chinese government to:

·       Immediately end the practice of enforced disappearances;

·       Account for every person held in official or unofficial places of detention;

·       Release those against whom no charges have been filed;

·       Ensure that all arrests are carried out in accordance with international law;

·       Allow all detainees contact with family and unhindered access to legal counsel of their choice;

·       Discipline and prosecute as appropriate security forces responsible for “disappearances,” unlawful arrests, or mistreatment of detainees; and

·       Allow independent international investigations into the Urumqi unrest and its aftermath.

 

Human Rights Watch urges the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to take the lead on an international investigation into the events in Xinjiang, and calls on China’s international partners, including the United States and the European Union, to extend full and active support to such an investigation.