Silencing Uighurs

Two years after deadly riots killed 200 people in far western China, the government continues to silence critical voices in the province, particularly those of Muslim Uighurs trying to speak out, Amnesty International says.

In a report issued on the two-year anniversary of the Xinjiang riots, the human rights group said China's Uighurs continue to face extreme pressure from China's public security machine. Uighurs in particular are singled out, arrested and in some cases pursued to other countries as part of China's strategy to silence criticism, the group said.

"The government is not only still muzzling people who speak out about July 2009, it is using its influence outside its borders to shut them up,” Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Director for the Asia-Pacific, said in a news release. “The general trend towards repression that we see all over China is particularly pronounced in Xinjiang, where the Uighur population has become a minority in its own homeland.”