Live
- Sensex closes at 82,133 after 2,000 pts rally from day low
- SMAT: Rahane’s stellar 98 leads Mumbai to final
- PKL 11: 'No one can predict who will reach the playoffs,’ says UP Yoddhas coach
- Nobody praises Kejriwal's ten-year tenure: Sandeep Dikshit
- MacBook Air M3 Hits Lowest Price in India: Find Details
- High Court Adjourns Hearing on Allu Arjun's Petition to 4 PM
- Pawan Kalyan praises Chandrababu Naidu at Swarnandhra Vision 2047 document launch
- Chirec International looks to transform education with Chirec 2.0 vision
- Telangana CM Revanth Reddy Responds to Allu Arjun's Arrest in Delhi
- Uddhav Thackeray to PM Modi: Pay attention to Bangladesh, act to end Hindus’ misery
China Protests US Condemnation of Uighur Deportations
Highlights
China\'s Foreign Ministry has lodged a protest with the United States for its condemnation of the deportation of a group of Uighurs from Thailand last week, as state television showed pictures of some being returned with hoods on their heads.
China's Foreign Ministry has lodged a protest with the United States for its condemnation of the deportation of a group of Uighurs from Thailand last week, as state television showed pictures of some being returned with hoods on their heads.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Uighurs keen to escape unrest in China's western Xinjiang region, have travelled clandestinely via Southeast Asia to Turkey.
China is home to about 20 million Muslims spread across its vast territory, only a portion of whom are Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language.
The deportation of 109 Uighurs from Thailand this week has sparked anger in Turkey, home to a large Uighur diaspora, and deep concern among rights groups and the United States, due to fears they could be mistreated upon their return.
China's Foreign Ministry, in a statement late on Saturday, said the US statement distorted the facts, was prejudiced and would only encourage further illegal immigration.
"China is extremely dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to this, and has already made serious representations with the US side," the ministry said.
"We urge the US side to properly view China's efforts to fight illegal immigration and stop making wrong statements."
A senior Chinese police officer said on Saturday that some of the Uighurs who have ultimately ended up in Turkey are being sold to fight for groups like Islamic State as "cannon fodder".
Chinese state television, also in a report late on Saturday, said 13 of the 109 were terror suspects, and showed images of some of them sitting in an aircraft with black hoods over their heads and Chinese police, wearing facemasks, beside them.
Beijing denies accusations by human rights groups that it restricts the Uighurs' religious freedoms. It blames Islamist militants for a rise in violent attacks in Xinjiang in the past three years in which hundreds have died.
China has also denied allegations of mistreatment or torture.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the exiled group, the World Uyghur Congress, said the pictures of Uighurs in hoods gave him great cause for concern.
"They've been stripped of their dignity," he said in an emailed statement.
Next Story
ADVERTISEMENT
