Banned Books Week
CHINA (XUAR)
Tohti Tunyaz
historian behind bars
Prisoner of conscience Tohti Tunyaz, an ethnic Uighur from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region
(XUAR) in northwestern China, is serving an 11- year prison sentence in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region No. 3 Prison because of his research into Uighur history.
Tohti Tunyaz (who writes as Tohti Muzart) is a postgraduate student in Japan specializing in the history of Chinese government policy towards minority groups.
Detained on 11 February 1998, during a visit to the XUAR to research his thesis, he was charged with “inciting separatism” and “illegally acquiring state secrets”. He was sentenced on 10 March 1999 by the Urumqi Municipality
Intermediate People’s Court, and appealed to a higher court where he was sentenced in October 2000 to 5 years’ imprisonment for committing the crime of illegally procuring state secrets plus 7 years for inciting “splittism”, consolidated to 11 years, with 2 years’ subsequent deprivation of political rights. During his trial, the court referred to documents he obtained in the XUAR, and to a book advocating “ethnic separatism” called The Inside Story of the Silk Road, which he was accused of publishing in Japan. His professor in Japan, Sato Tsugitaka, has asserted strongly that the so-called “state secrets” consisted of a list of 50-year-old documents provided by an official librarian, and that Tohti Tunyaz has not published any books advocating “ethnic separatism”. According to an article published in the January 2001 issue of China’s national security newsletter, Tohti Tunyaz “turned his back on his homeland” by going to Japan to study for his PhD, where he “came under the influence of western liberal thinking” and “engaged in Xinjiang minority splittist activities”.
Tohti Tunyaz is imprisoned at a time of increased government repression in the XUAR, particularly affecting the mainly Muslim Uighur population. Following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA, China has intensified its XUAR crackdown by closing down mosques, burning Uighur books, and branding those in favor of independence for the region as
“terrorists”.
In May 2001, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Tohti Tunyaz’ imprisonment was arbitrary and in violation of his right to freedom of thought, expression and opinion.
Please urge the Chair of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region People’s Government to release Tohti Tunyaz immediately & unconditionally and to protect the right of everyone in the XUAR to freedom of expression, regardless of race, religion, or political opinion.
Ismail Tiliwaldi Zhuxi
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu
2 Zhongshanlu
Wulumuqishi 830041
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People’s Republic of China
E-mail: master@xinjiang.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Chairman
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: 202-328-2582
E-mail: chinaembassy_us@fmprc.cn
Salutation: Your Excellency
Airmail postage abroad: 80¢
