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              China Angered at Rights Award for Exiled 'Terrorist'

   by Reuters

   China expressed anger on Friday about an exiled leader from the
   violence-prone far western Chinese region of Xinjiang receiving a
   rights award in the United States, saying he was a wanted criminal.

   Dolkun Isa, executive chairman of the Munich-based [1]World Uyghur
   Congress, the leading ethnic Uighur group that advocates democracy and
   human rights in Xinjiang, received an award from the [2]Victims of
   Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington on Wednesday.

   China put Isa, a former student activist in Xinjiang, on list of Uighur
   "terrorists" in 2003. Germany accepted his claim of refugee status and
   granted him a passport in 2006. Isa says he condemns all terrorism.

   Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Isa was a wanted man
   in China for crimes including murder.

   "The giving of this award by the relevant organization to a terrorist
   like Dolkun Isa, who has carried out multiple crimes, is to profane and
   sully human rights and the rule of law," Hong said at a daily news
   briefing.

   Foundation officials said they gave him the award for leading "a
   movement of principled opposition to the ongoing persecution" of the
   Uighur people and for continuously seeking a peaceful solution with the
   Chinese government.

   The World Uyghur Congress cited Isa as saying in his acceptance speech
   that he rejects violence and the Uighurs are a "people of peace and
   development."

   "These principles make the Uighur issue not a Uighur problem, but a
   Chinese government problem, a condition generated by systematic denial
   of fundamental human rights and freedoms," he said.

   Hundreds of people have been killed in unrest in Xinjiang in the past
   few years. The government blames the violence on Islamist militants
   wanting to establish an independent state called East Turkestan for
   ethnic minority Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkic
   language and hail from Xinjiang.

   Exiles and rights groups say the unrest is not organized by any
   cohesive militant group but is more a reaction to repressive government
   policies. China strongly denies abusing anyone's rights in Xinjiang.

     __________________________________________________________________

   [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/china-angered-at-rights-award-for-exi
   led-terrorist/3264323.html

References

   1. http://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/
   2. http://victimsofcommunism.org/
   3. http://www.voanews.com/content/china-angered-at-rights-award-for-exiled-terrorist/3264323.html