Rebiya Kadeer

Rebiya Kadeer (Uyghur: رابىيه قادى, "Rabiye Qadir"; zh-stp|s=热比娅·卡德尔 |t=熱比婭·卡德爾 |p=Rèbǐyǎ Kǎdé'ěr) (b. 21 January 1947) is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang in the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Life

In 1999 she was detained, tried and imprisoned by PRC authorities on charges of "leaking state secrets", having sent newspaper clippings to her husband Sidik Rouzi, an expatriate living in the United States who is active in protesting Chinese policies towards the Uyghurs. Kadeer was detained in August 1999 while on her way to meet a US Congressional Research Service delegation investigating the situation in Xinjiang at the time, and was alleged to be in possession of a list of 10 people "suspected of having a connection with national separatist activities". In 2004, her sentence was reduced by a year based on citations of good behavior in the women’s prison of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region where she was being held.

On 14 March 2005, Kadeer was released early, nominally on medical grounds, to United States custody. The U.S. had pressured for her release, and the action came in advance of a visit by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region. On 17 March, Kadeer flew to the U.S. and joined her family in Washington, D.C.. In response to Kadeer's release, the United States agreed to drop a resolution against China in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, causing human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to moderate their praise somewhat.

Kadeer was born into poverty but enjoyed a successful career as an entrepreneur, starting first with a laundry service and then expanding her activities to eventually own a trading company and department store in Xinjiang. She was also an active philanthropist within the community, most notably through her foundation of the 1,000 Families Mothers Project, a charity intended to help Uyghur women start their own local businesses.

Kadeer's successes as a businesswoman earned her the local nickname "the millionairess" and also a position at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. She became a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, but was barred from re-election in 1998 for failing to condemn her husband's statements in the United States.

In 2004 she won the Rafto Prize for human rights, and in 2006 she was nominated by Swedish parliamentarian Annelie Enochson as one of the candidates (among 191 people who were publicly nominated) for the Nobel Peace Prize. Annelie Enochson stated in her nomination, "Rebiya Kadeer champions the rights of western China's Uighur ethnic group and is one of China's most prominent advocates of women's rights... [she] has also used her resources as founder and director of a large trading company in northwestern China to provide fellow Uighurs with training and employment." [http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-09-11T193240Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-267016-1.xml&archived=False] The Chinese government condemned the nomination. [http://english.people.com.cn/200701/09/eng20070109_339386.html]

Kadeer was elected as the president of the World Uyghur Congress by its II. General Assembly meeting held on November 24−27th, 2006, in Munich, Germany.

A biography of Kadeer, "Die Himmelsstürmerin" (The Great Idealist), written by German writer Alexandra Cavelius in German, was published in June 2007 by German publisher Heyne.

She has denied the existence of East Turkestan Islamic Movement, and has stated her belief that all the Uyghur organizations fight peacefully. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_6250000/newsid_6250100/6250105.stm BBC 中文网 | 国际新闻 | 热比娅:中国突袭东突营地令人怀疑 ] ]

On June 5 2007 at a conference on democracy and security held in Prague Rebiya Kadeer met privately with President of the United States George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush. In his speech President Bush said about her: " "Another dissident I will meet with here is Rebiya Kadeer, 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 Rebiya is the greatest resource of their nations- far more valuable than the weapons of their army or oil under the ground. So America calls on every nation that stifles dissent to end its repression, trust its people and grant its citizens the freedom they deserve." [ [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/06/20070605-8.html President Bush Visits Prague, Czech Republic, Discusses Freedom ] ]

On September 17 2007 House of Representative of 110th United States Congress passed by a voice vote House Resolution 497 [ [http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-497 GovTrack: H. Res. 497: Text of Legislation ] ] , demanding the Chinese Government to release the imprisoned children of Rebiya Kadeer and Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil and change its suppressive policy towards Uyghur people. Speaking in support of the bill, Congressman Chris Smith said: " "At turning points in history...one honest and courageous man or woman often comes to represent the entire people in the eyes of the world.... 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." " [ [http://observechina.net/info_Eng/artshow.asp?id=7440 Observechina ] ]

ources

* [http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa170102005 News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International]
* [http://www.rfa.org/english/news/politics/2005/03/17/uyghur_kadeer/ Radio Free Asia: China Frees Rebiya Kadeer]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4357607.stm BBC News Profile: Rebiya Kadeer]
* [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/64392/ Norwegian Foundation Gives Award to Rebiya Kadeer: iFEX]
* [http://www.randomhouse.de/book/edition.jsp?edi=203202&frm=true&fbm=false REBIYA KADEER, WITH ALEXANDRA CAVELIUS THE STORMER OF THE SKY]

References

External links

* [http://www.forcedmigration.org/video/uyghur/media/kadeer.htm Interview with Rebiya Kadeer in Washington DC]