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Cambodia to return Uighurs
[Straits Times] CAMBODIA is sending 20 Chinese Muslims who fled there after July unrest in Xinjiang back to China where they face possible persecution, a US-based Uighur rights organization said on Friday. The group has been taken to the Phnom Penh airport and is about to be put on a plane to Shanghai, said Henryk Szadziewski of the Uighur Human Rights Project in Washington. 'There is a plane ready to take them away,' he said, adding that his organisation had received the information from local sources in Cambodia. US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters, 'we are deeply disturbed by reports the Cambodian government might forcibly return this group of Uighurs without the benefit of a credible refugee status determination process. 'We strongly urge the Cambodian government to honor its commitment under international law,' he added. The group arrived at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office after fleeing deadly unrest in northwest China's Xinjiang region and their presence in Phnom Penh was first made public two weeks ago. The clashes between Xinjiang's Muslim Uighur community and China's majority Han ethnic group left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to an official toll. Posted by: Fred 2009-12-19 |
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