You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
China-Japan-Koreas
China executes ethnic Muslim for trying to 'split the homeland'
2007-02-10
China has executed an alleged Muslim separatist with a bullet through the heart, prompting condemnation from the usual suspects human rights groups who say the convict's trial was flawed and his confession coerced. Ismail Semed, an Uighur from China's far western region of Xinjiang, was sentenced to death in 2005 after being found guilty of trying to "split the motherland" and of possession of firearms and explosives. According to Radio Free Asia, he was shot yesterday morning. Chinese authorities refused to confirm the details of the case. But a spokeswoman for the Urumqi intermediate people's court told Reuters news agency that a group of people had been executed yesterday.

Semed was accused of being a founding member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which Beijing and Washington have designated as a terrorist organisation. He served two jail sentences in connection with a 1990 uprising in Baren, which left 22 dead. In 1997, he fled to Pakistan, but was deported in 2003.

Amnesty warned in a report last year that Semed's confession may have been extracted under torture. The US-based Human Rights Watch said the trial was flawed. "The death penalty was widely disproportionate to the alleged crimes," said Nicholas Bequelin, the group's China researcher. "We don't think there was sufficient evidence to condemn him."

The most prominent exile from Xinjiang, Rebiya Kadeer, said the death penalty was another case of injustice. "His trial, like most Uighur political prisoners' trials, was not fair," said Kadeer, who is president of the Uighur American Association.

Overseas Uighur and human rights groups accused the Chinese government of exaggerating the threat of violence to crackdown on movements committed to democracy and freedom of religion. Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs account for 8 million of the 19 million people in Xinjiang.
Is the number really that high?
Posted by:Fred & Seafarious

#23  He can be racially Chinese, and ethinically Muslim. Get a frickin clue what you're talking about, perhaps Geography 101 at your local community college.
Posted by: anon   2007-02-10 22:20  

#22  Usually is to the neck. They must have sold some other organs!

UUUUMMMMM, Castro is supposedly getting better
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2007-02-10 20:14  

#21  RJ - agreed! ACLU, HRW, UN, EU, AI, et al, remain silent. Must mean it's OK
Posted by: Frank G   2007-02-10 20:02  

#20  Pay attention Britian, Execution is the way to dispose of these kind of murderers, Now an International precedent has been set, Follow it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2007-02-10 18:41  

#19  Overseas Uighur and human rights groups accused the Chinese government of exaggerating the threat of violence to crackdown on movements committed to democracy and freedom of religion. Muslims committed to freedom of religion? Who knew?
Posted by: GK   2007-02-10 18:02  

#18  Semed was accused of being a founding member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which Beijing and Washington have designated as a (Muslim) terrorist organisation. He served two jail sentences in connection with a 1990 uprising in Baren, which left 22 dead. In 1997, he fled to Pakistan, but was deported in 2003.

ie: Muslim terrorist. The enemy of my enemy is NOT our friend. Screw those bastards that run China but I'm not loosing any sleep over this one.
Posted by: Icerigger   2007-02-10 17:36  

#17  I don't know whether Semed was a 'terrorist'; he WAS a Uighur nationalist/separatist. That alone probably warrants the death sentence under 'treason', even if not under 'terrorism' laws.
I do have some sympathy for his cause - bear in mind that his region - Xinjiang - was not 'Chinese' for all that long (Xinjiang translates as 'New Territory', and that name was applied c. 1884). In the chaos following WWII part of the region operated as the independent nation of East Turkestan, until Mao re-incorporated it into 'his' China in 1949. The Han Chinese (Beijing) government has treated its Turkic subjects as second-class citizens (not unlike Tibetans), exploiting them and their lands pretty much as a colony. Serious 'independence' movement began in the twilight of the USSR, as its eastern 'republics' gained autonomy, and people, ideas, and goods (weapons) moved across the border to the Uighurs.
The Baren uprising, for which Semed was executed, was indeed Islamic at its core, but at the time they had legitimate grievances, and the world was not yet associating Islamic Republic independence movements with jihadist/Islamofascits movements. I'd say his movement was ill-advised, doomed from the start, but not 'Islamist terrorism' as we currently see it.
Rebiya Kadeer, who is cited in the article as calling the execution an injustice, is a fascinating person - a businesswoman, philanthropist, social and political activist, and more. Her biography should be out soon, and ought to be a very interesting read.
Posted by: Glenmore   2007-02-10 15:00  

#16  But you heard the hue and cry---it was unfair™ and the trial was flawed™.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2007-02-10 13:23  

#15  Call a stone a stone. Islam is not an ethnicity anywhere on the planet. Regardless of the Chicom's intent.

This all is coming from a country that cancelled it's century's old tradition of the "year of the pig".

Did they kill him? Sounds like it. But to be quite frank they did the right thing. How many times have we heard from Mullahs in the USA and elsewhere demanding Sharia law and convertion of the entire nation? I could care less what they did to this terrorist.
Posted by: Icerigger   2007-02-10 11:13  

#14  Throughout the history of muslims in china the policy has always been to tolerate them until pissed of then harshly kill lots of them until they quit pissing china off.

Rinse, repeat, Rinse, repeat....
Posted by: 3dc   2007-02-10 11:12  

#13  but note, iiuc a Uighur isnt a Hui. A hui, though differing in background and culture from a Han Chinese, is still Chinese speaking. A Uighur is Turkic speaking.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2007-02-10 10:52  

#12  "moslem is a RELIGION, not an ethnicity"

not in China. In china someone of traditional chinese background is Han Chinese. A Chinese of muslim background, who, for ex, has no tradition of ancestor worship, etc is a Hui, and they dont cease to be a Hui just cause they decide Allah is an illusion and religion is the opiate of the people.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2007-02-10 10:51  

#11  Funny how the Guardian can only find outrage and printing space when "threats of violence to crackdown on movements committed to democracy and freedom of religion" involve the Muslims.

Of course, in their defence, it would take up so much space to report on the multiple daily incidents of Muslims killing infidels.
Posted by: Cruck Therens3902   2007-02-10 10:32  

#10   separate with societal undercurrents of being unclean and inferior.

Not all that deep under the current. It was once explained to me by an American-born and reared, half-Japanese (mother), half-caucasian American (father), Princeton University graduated chemical engineer that the fact that Japanese are clean and orderly compared to other Asians -- particularly Chinese -- was demonstrated by the design of their storage chests, which are all over little drawers, "a place for everything and everything in its place." This bright and lovely young lady from Oregon, trained in logical thinking, said this to me with a straight face and with no sense of irony whatsoever. I was shocked speechless.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-02-10 09:14  

#9  Who'd they invoice for the bullet?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2007-02-10 08:28  

#8  China executes ethnic non-Chinese

There fixed it for you. For the Chinese as a culture [or for that matter Japanese or Korean], all other foreign devils non-Chinese [Japanese,Korean] are non-blood and, by their long history, separate with societal undercurrents of being unclean and inferior.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-02-10 06:55  

#7  If the ChiComs are doing the job we do not have the stomach for then all power to the ChiComs. We can deal with them later and, whatever their many misdeeds, they represent civilization over barbarism and are to be preferred on this basis alone.

In the meantime, "huzzah!" for one more dead muslim "separatist". I hope he is enjoying Hell.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-02-10 06:33  

#6  "executed an alleged Muslim separatist with a bullet through the heart"
!? Usually is to the neck. They must have sold some other organs!
Posted by: Jens Claimp2916   2007-02-10 05:27  

#5  Several Uighurs were caught in Afghanistan, and put into Gitmo. They were threatened with rendition to China, and rolled over on their comrades in Al-Q. A couple were sent back to Afghanistan a couple of years ago, and immediately disappeared - rumor has it that they are working for Afghani Intelligence, spotting Al-Q supporters from their old crews.
Posted by: Shieldwolf   2007-02-10 02:26  

#4  Yes, Sea, the number is that high. Was a solid majority until the Communist Chinese sent 'settlers' - as much as anything, to secure control of the oil fields. Quite a lot of discontent over rule by Beijing. A lot of quite 'traditional' Muslims, and supposedly a few went to Afghanistan to do jihad against the inifidel. I'm trying to learn more, but the info coming out of China is suspect, at best.
Posted by: Glenmore   2007-02-10 01:42  

#3  A few years back I read an article saying many Uighurs knew they were supposed to be Muslim, but weren't perfectly sure what exactly that was. I suppose you could call that "ethnic Muslim." (The article's author was interested in opportunities for Christian evangelism there.)
Posted by: James   2007-02-10 01:24  

#2  Gah! You can't be a "ethnic" moslem - moslem is a RELIGION, not an ethnicity. Get it straight.

Wotta buncha freakin' losers.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2007-02-10 00:56  

#1  China has executed an ethnic Muslim

Ahhh, the joys of a real police state - executions, Tien an Mien Square - something to really seethe over (or to stay quiet about).
Posted by: Mullah Lodabullah   2007-02-10 00:31  

00:00