[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 576 Introduced in House (IH)]
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 576
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the
Government of the People's Republic of China has violated
internationally recognized human rights by implementing severe
restrictions on the rights of Uyghurs to freely associate and engage in
religious and political speech, subjecting detained Uyghurs to torture
and forced confessions, carrying out extrajudicial killings against
Uyghur dissidents, and pressuring other governments to unlawfully
return Uyghurs to China, where they face mistreatment and persecution.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 7, 2012
Mr. McGovern (for himself, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Ellison, Mr.
Wolf, Mr. Moran, and Mr. Pitts) submitted the following resolution;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the
Government of the People's Republic of China has violated
internationally recognized human rights by implementing severe
restrictions on the rights of Uyghurs to freely associate and engage in
religious and political speech, subjecting detained Uyghurs to torture
and forced confessions, carrying out extrajudicial killings against
Uyghur dissidents, and pressuring other governments to unlawfully
return Uyghurs to China, where they face mistreatment and persecution.
Whereas Uyghurs in China face worsening repression by the Government of China,
through increasing controls on religious, political, and cultural
activity, and through increasing security restrictions, deprivations of
due process, forcible disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial
killings;
Whereas as a result of this institutionalized discrimination by the Government
of China against Uyghurs, confrontations between Uyghurs and Chinese
police have intensified since July 5, 2009, when violence broke out in
Urumqi during initially peaceful protests, reportedly resulting in the
deaths of 197 people and the detention of more than 1,400 people;
Whereas hundreds of persons detained after the July 2009 riots have not been
accounted for by the Government of China, and serious allegations of
torture and other human rights abuses by Chinese police have gone
uninvestigated;
Whereas many of the Uyghurs detained in relation to the July 2009 events are
feared to have been subjected to torture and forced confessions during
their imprisonment;
Whereas trials for many of the Uyghurs charged in relation to the July 2009
events have lacked transparency, and defendants have allegedly been
denied the right to choose their attorneys;
Whereas at least 24 Uyghurs and 2 Han Chinese have been sentenced to death, 9
individuals have been sentenced to death with a 2-year reprieve, 8
Uyghurs and one Han Chinese man have been executed, and several more
individuals have been sentenced to life in prison or given jail terms in
connection with the July 2009 events;
Whereas, on July 18, 2011, reports indicate that Uyghurs in Khotan who had
gathered at a local bazaar to peacefully protest repressive Chinese
policies were arrested by Chinese police, prompting an angry crowd to
follow the police to the police station, where violence broke out;
Whereas at least 4 people were reportedly killed as a result of the July 18,
2011, clashes, and an estimated 70 people were allegedly arrested in
connection with the event;
Whereas, on the weekend of July 30, 2011, a series of knife and bomb attacks
took place in the city of Kashgar, resulting in the deaths of several
people;
Whereas in September 2011, 2 men were given 19-year prison sentences, and 4 men
were sentenced to death by a Chinese court for their alleged involvement
in the July 30, 2011, and July 31, 2011, attacks;
Whereas the 4 condemned men were allegedly tortured into giving confessions and
were denied adequate legal representation during their trials, despite
Chinese claims that their trials were ``open and fully protected the
suspects' legal rights'';
Whereas, on December 28, 2011, during an official 100-day ``Strike Hard''
campaign in Xinjiang, Chinese forces fired on a group of Uyghurs in
Khotan;
Whereas 7 members of the Uyghur group were reportedly killed, along with a
Chinese security officer, while 4 Uyghurs were injured, and 4 adults and
up to 5 children from the group, ages 7 to 17, were and continue to be
detained following the clash;
Whereas the whereabouts of these detained individuals are unknown, but they are
believed to still be held in detention in China, and are feared to have
sustained serious injuries;
Whereas in addition to severely mistreating Uyghurs within China, in the last
few years, the Government of China has reportedly increased its pressure
on other countries, including Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia,
Nepal, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, to return Uyghurs who had sought
asylum in those countries back to China;
Whereas arbitrary arrests, torture, harsh prison sentences, and forced
disappearances have been carried out against asylum-seeking Uyghurs who
have been forcibly returned to China, in violation of the principle of
nonrefoulement;
Whereas at least 20 Uyghurs who had fled to Cambodia to seek asylum following
the violence in 2009 were forcibly returned back to China from Cambodia
on December 19, 2009;
Whereas 2 days following the extradition of the Uyghurs from Cambodia, China
awarded Cambodia with an agreement to provide a United States
$1,200,000,000 aid and loan package;
Whereas after more than 2 years of not knowing the fate of the returned Uyghurs,
recent reports indicate that 4 of the Uyghurs have been sentenced to
life in prison, 12 have been sentenced to terms of between 16 and 20
years, and a woman and 2 children have been released, while the fate of
the remaining Uyghurs remains unknown;
Whereas according to news accounts, the Uyghurs' trials were fundamentally
unjust, in that defense attorneys were given insufficient time to
prepare a defense, families of the accused were prevented from attending
the trials, and the accused were forced to cover their faces while
entering and exiting the courtroom;
Whereas Uyghur refugee Ershidin Israel was forcibly returned to China from
Kazakhstan in May 2011, in violation of customary international law as
well as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the
1967 Protocol, to which Kazakhstan is a party;
Whereas 11 Uyghur refugees were extradited from Malaysia to China in August
2011, while 5 Uyghur refugees remain in Malaysia; and
Whereas Nur Muhammed, a Uyghur, was arrested in Thailand on August 6, 2011,
charged with illegal entry into the country, and handed over to Chinese
authorities at the airport in Bangkok, rather than being brought before
a court as required under Thai law, and has since disappeared: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) strongly condemns any violence against innocent
individuals regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or religious
beliefs, and recognizes that individuals who have committed
crimes must be brought to justice in full compliance with
international human rights and legal standards, including
independent courts, habeas corpus and due process protections,
the free choice of legal defense, and the right to challenge
the accuser and any evidence in court;
(2) recognizes that the government policies of suppression
against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, particularly the ``Strike
Hard'' campaigns, as well as government policies regarding
other ethnic groups within the People's Republic of China, have
created an atmosphere of ethnic tension in those areas;
(3) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China to--
(A) desist from further executions based on trials
that violate international human rights and due process
standards;
(B) ensure that trials are conducted in an open and
transparent manner in accordance with the international
obligations of the People's Republic of China;
(C) allow international observers and the media to
attend those trials;
(D) provide a list of all individuals detained or
arrested in the aftermath of the July 2009 events in
Xinjiang to the International Committee of the Red
Cross and the public, and to grant access to those
individuals for family members and independent legal
counsel;
(E) cease all government-sponsored crackdowns
against people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region, including against people involved in peaceful
protests or religious or political expression; and
(F) refrain from pressuring or requesting other
governments to forcibly return Uyghurs to China; and
(4) calls on the President of the United States to--
(A) unequivocally state the strong opposition of
the United States to the legally flawed trials,
executions, and harsh prison sentences against peaceful
Uyghur protestors;
(B) raise those human rights concerns publicly and
in all meetings with Chinese officials;
(C) restate the interest of the United States to
open United States consulates in Lhasa, Tibet, and in
Urumqi, Xinjiang; and
(D) as a matter of policy, direct the United States
Embassy in Beijing to automatically request permission
from the appropriate Chinese authorities for United
States Embassy staff to observe trials if credible
reasons exist that such trials may not meet
internationally recognized human rights and legal
standards.
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