Piercing through Rebiya's veil

• Source: China Daily
• [12:44 July 17 2009]
• Comments

In her Guardian article, the exiled Uygur woman also accused Beijing of misrepresenting the Shaoguan incident and the Urumqi riots by covering up the deaths of many Uygurs. But all that she could point to were so-called "witness accounts," which, of course, were unverified.

Rebiya blamed the Chinese government for her inability to verify these eyewitness accounts in Xinjiang, because she said "communications have been virtually cut off." But if that was really the case, then how could "numerous residents" have told her about the "deaths of hundreds of Uighurs?"

It is also known that after what happened in Urumqi on July 5, hundreds of overseas journalists have gone to Xinjiang. Does this constitute "a lack of transparency?"

An examination of her "witness accounts" in the Shaoguan incident is also needed. Why hasn't she checked the "witness accounts" since there should be no cut-off in communications? Does she know the names of the alleged victims? Getting those names would not be very difficult if what she claimed really happened, as the Uygur workers are relatively small in number.

Even Rebiya and her World Uygur Congress (WUC) admitted the details of the incident were unsubstantiated and filled with allegations and dubious reports, according to American-German freelance journalist F. William Engdahl's article, the hidden agenda behind Xinjiang violence (click for the article).

But that did not prevent the Munich arm of the WUC from issuing a worldwide call for protest demonstrations against Chinese embassies.

Another accusation that Rebiya made against the Chinese government is that they are "using anti-Uighur anger to shore up its own legitimacy". But that can't be true. What the Chinese government is worried about most is continuing or escalating violence which is sure to ensue if the officials are really taking advantage of the anti-Uygur anger.

Actually, what many people have seen is the government working to promote ethnic unity by broadcasting videos and pictures of the Hans and the Uygurs living harmoniously together. Ubiquitous in Urumqi or other parts of Xinjiang are huge red banners calling for ethnic harmony.

What also exposed Rebiya's hypocrisy was the fact that while her article was full of alleged atrocities committed by the Chinese government on the Uygurs, the so-called human rights fighter did not mention a word about the victims in the Urumqi riots, except the hollow words of "I in no way endorse any of the violent acts" and "I am absolutely opposed to all violence."

Does she really care about human rights? If she does, why not call on her followers to stop violence? Maybe she is just using human rights as an excuse to achieve her hidden agenda.