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Uyghur News / Radio Free Asia English

» Orphan Refugees Have Few Options - 26-February-2010
A number of children have fled ethnic violence in Burma to find refuge in Thailand, but how long can they rely on financial support from aid groups? playerFile = "http://www.rfa.org/english/FlashPlayer.swf"; fpFileURL = "http://a9.g.akamai.net/f/9/9391/6h/rfa.download.akamai.com/21309/ENG/Burma_Refugee Children.flv"; fpPreviewImageURL = "http://www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/burmese-orphan-02262010165103.html/backround.jpg"; playerSize = "610x340"; videoScreenSize = "610x343"; fpButtonSize = "70x70"; fpAction = "play"; Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved. © Radio Free Asia

» Quiz: Mekong River in Burma - 26-February-2010
Test your knowledge about the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle and Shan State in Burma. Related links: Traveling down the Mekong River Watch the related videos: The Ice Triangle Behind the Bamboo Curtain Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved. © Radio Free Asia

» Hunger Strike on Death Row - 26-February-2010
Death-row prisoners in China highlight debate over capital punishment. AFP The Chinese Supreme People's Court building in Beijing, March 30, 2006. HONG KONG—Three Chinese death-row inmates who say they were tortured into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit have staged a hunger strike to draw attention to their case, amid a new U.N. warning that the death penalty carries too high a cost to societies that use it. The three men—Fang Chunping, Huang Zhiqiang, and Cheng Fagen—began to refuse food at the Jingdezhen municipal jail in the eastern province of Jiangxi on Tuesday in protest their convictions and sentences for murder along with one other man, Cheng Lihe, who didn’t join the hunger strike. Beijing-based rights lawyer Teng Biao said he along with dozens of other lawyers had been involved in the case. “All the lawyers involved in this case think that there is a very big problem with these convictions,” Teng said. “These four men were forced to confess to crimes they hadn’t commit

» On Titans of Greek Mythology - 25-February-2010
A former top Chinese official considers what makes a civilized society. AFP Bao Tong during an interview at his home in Beijing, April 27, 2009. By Bao Tong BEIJING—China's two annual parliamentary sessions are about to open. Whom do they represent? They represent the people, who are voluntarily following the Party leadership. They represent officials, who get their power to lead the people from Party orders. In short, they represent the Party, the leadership, and their followers, all mixed up together. They represent public servants and their masters. This is where their convenience, their legality, their power, their interests, the truth, where it all lies. Now that is superiority. And while we're thinking about this, all mixed up and muddle-headed, lets also think about Greek mythology. The Greek gods aren't much like Chinese gods. Chinese gods all have the feeling of a leader to a greater or lesser extent: they inspire fear. Most of the Greek gods who live on Mount Olympus seek ple

» Oscar Nod May Aid Awareness - 25-February-2010
Will an Academy Award nomination for a film about Burma make the world care about abuses in this tiny country? Courtesy of burmavjmovie.com. Poster for Academy Award-nominated documentary Burma VJ. WASHINGTON—The head of a Burmese media organization featured in an Oscar-nominated documentary says he hopes Academy Award coverage will raise international awareness of human rights abuses in his country. "Burma VJ: Reporting From A Closed Country," by Danish filmmaker Anders Østergaard, recounts how the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a Norway-based news team, managed to surreptitiously film and distribute footage of 2007 street protests against Burma's military rulers. The protests were violently crushed by the military, with even monks falling victim to government-sanctioned violence. DVB director Aye Chan, speaking here this week after a screening of the film at the U.S.-funded National Endowment for Democracy, said Burma’s problems too often become center stage for a brief time before

» RFA Wins Gracie for Web Coverage of Uyghur Women - 24-February-2010
RFA’s multimedia Web coverage of Uyghur women won American Women in Radio & Television’s Gracie Allen Award this year. WASHINGTON, DC – Radio Free Asia is a proud recipient of American Women in Radio & Television’s Gracie Allen Award this year. In recognition of this honor, RFA President Libby Liu praised the team behind RFA’s winning entry, “Half the Xinjiang Sky,” a multimedia Web page focusing on in-depth coverage, images, and video relevant to Uyghur women following the deadly events in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Guangdong province in the summer of 2009. “With this prestigious award, we recognize the impact journalism can make in understanding the lives of women throughout the world,” Liu said. “Radio Free Asia’s multimedia team developed this Web page with the hope of spotlighting the struggles and reality faced by Uyghur women in China since last summer.“We at Radio Free Asia are honored and thank American Women in Radio & Television for recognizi

» China To Shake Up Cybercafes - 24-February-2010
Web site owners will have to provide photos and personal details. AFP People use computers at an Internet cafe in Beijing, June 3, 2009. HONG KONG—China looks set to go ahead with a large-scale shake-up of its Internet cafe industry in a move critics say is aimed at further tightening controls over its citizens online. Officials at China's Ministry of Culture recently set out guidelines for people wishing to set up large chains of Internet cafes, paring back the thousands of privately run smaller operations. “It’s hard to mount ‘clean-up’ operations when there are so many Internet cafes,” said the proprietor of an Internet cafe surnamed Chen in the eastern province of Anhui. “There isn’t the time and energy to install monitoring software at every single one of them, and they can always delete it again anyway.” “The point of this is to cut down on the number of small and medium-sized Internet cafes,” Chen said. Investment sought Officials say they want to encourage entrepreneurs to bid

» Cash for Influence - 24-February-2010
China stands to gain clout with a bigger financial foothold in North Korea. AFP Wang Jiarui (L), head of the International Liaison Department of Chinese Communist Party, walks with Kim Jong-Il (C) in Pyongyang, Feb. 8, 2010. SEOUL—China's reported plans to invest billions of dollars in North Korea reflect Beijing's bid to prop up the regime and keep a dominant role in the region rather than to lure Pyongyang back to multilateral talks, analysts say. A number of state-owned Chinese banks and other companies are close to a deal to invest nearly U.S. $10 billion in North Korean infrastructure, after talks with the official Pyongyang-based Taepung International Investment Group, Seoul’s Yonhap news agency has reported. The report couldn't be immediately confirmed. The investment earmarks funds to build railroads, harbors, and homes in North Korea, the report said, adding that more than 60 percent of the investment would be put up by Chinese banks. The deal, with North Korea’s State Develop

» Cambodia’s Circus Kids - 24-February-2010
For 130 youths, circus school offers a first rung on the ladder up and out of poverty and exploitation. playerFile = "http://www.rfa.org/english/FlashPlayer.swf"; fpFileURL = "http://a9.g.akamai.net/f/9/9391/6h/rfa.download.akamai.com/21309/ENG/CambodiaCircus1.flv"; fpPreviewImageURL = " "; playerSize = "610x380"; videoScreenSize = "610x380"; fpButtonSize = "70x70"; fpAction = "play"; Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved. © Radio Free Asia

» Burma Frees Opposition Leader - 23-February-2010
Newly freed U Tin Oo calls for the release of opposition party leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. playerFile = "http://www.rfa.org/english/FlashPlayer.swf"; fpFileURL = "http://a9.g.akamai.net/f/9/9391/6h/rfa.download.akamai.com/21309/ENG/Burma_U_Tin_Oo.flv"; fpPreviewImageURL = "http://www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/water-sickens-villagers-02172010173052.html/Water-Sickens-Villagers.jpg"; playerSize = "610x340"; videoScreenSize = "610x343"; fpButtonSize = "70x70"; fpAction = "play"; Related links: Opposition Calls for Talks Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved. © Radio Free Asia

» A Glimpse of North Korea - 23-February-2010
A U.N. agency releases census details that show the country is dying younger. AFP North Korean children sit inside a government-run nursery in North Korea's South Pyongan province, July 20, 2005. SEOUL—North Koreans are getting older and their health is declining, according to the first census conducted in the tightly closed country in 17 years. Its armed forces have also shrunk below their storied “million man” status, with possibly fewer than 700,000 people under arms, the census—conducted in 2008 for the first time since 1993—shows. North Korea previously released data showing its population rising to 24 million from 21.2 million in 1993, or just under 1 percent, although the country in believed to have lost as many as 2 million people to starvation since the mid-1990s. The U.N. Population Fund, which helped North Korea conduct the census and sent five teams of observers to monitor it, has now released more detailed data from the survey. Infant mortality rose from 14.1 to 19.3 per 1

» Opposition Calls for Talks - 23-February-2010
In Burma, a top opposition leader renews his appeal for dialogue. AFP Tin Oo talks to journalists at his residence following his release from detention in Rangoon, Feb. 13, 2010. BANGKOK—A top opposition politician recently released from house arrest at his home in Rangoon has called on Burma’s military government to hold talks with his party on the country’s political future. “There will be a solution if the other side agrees to meet with us and discuss matters,” said National League for Democracy (NLD) vice-chairman U Tin Oo shortly after a ban on leaving his home was lifted. “That is how we see things. We have been making every effort from our side,” he said, adding that NLD leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, still under house arrest, has called for meetings with representatives of the ruling junta. He said he has paid a number of calls on fellow opposition politicians and is working closely with NLD youth groups now that he has greater freedom of movement. But U Tin

» Call To End China's Gulag - 22-February-2010
A former official lobbies China's central government to abolish labor camps. AFP A "re-education through labor" group heads to work in Tuanhe, near Beijing, June 12, 1986. HONG KONG—A former official in northeastern China who was sent to labor camp after she organized a petition calling for the abolition of China's gulag, has renewed her call in a letter to China's leaders ahead of this year's annual parliamentary sessions in Beijing.Liu Jie, former director of a state livestock farm under the jurisdiction of Heilongjiang's provincial general land reclamation bureau, was herself sent for "re-education through labor" by administrative sentence, which can be imposed for up to three years without trial, after signing the October 2007 petition along with 12,000 others.Liu, 56, was released in April 2009 after serving 18 months in a labor camp in Qiqiha'er, where she was sent for "instigating trouble" and "disturbing social order.""I know Liu Jie," said Beijing-based civil rights lawyer Li

» Deficit Strains China Ties - 22-February-2010
The U.S. trade deficit with China continues to drive tensions, despite a decline last year. AFP Chinese 100 yuan notes shown alongside a U.S. $100 dollar bill in Beijing, Oct. 14, 2004. BOSTON—The U.S. trade deficit with China has declined for the first time in eight years, but experts expect little change in debates over Beijing's controversial currency policy.In 2009, the trade gap with China fell to U.S. $226.8 billion from a record $268 billion a year before, but the improvement was the result of the recession rather than any shift in China's policies, economists say."It's the weaker economy," said Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, noting a 12 percent drop in imports from China and a 45 percent cut in the U.S. trade deficit with the world."China was just part of the larger story," Hufbauer told Radio Free Asia."U.S. imports drop pretty fast when we have a recession because our imports are dominated by consumer goods,"

» Rohingya Beaten, Deported - 19-February-2010
Minority refugees from Burma face harassment and worse in Bangladesh. AFP A Rohingya refugee walks through Kutupalong Makeshift Camp, Sept. 9, 2009. BANGKOK—Burmese minority refugees in Bangladesh are being beaten, jailed, and deported, according to residents of a camp overseen by a United Nations agency. The refugees say a growing number of Rohingya refugees in a second, unofficial camp, known as the Kutupalong Makeshift Camp, lack food and are being harassed by local authorities and residents when they leave the camp to seek supplies. A refugee in the official refugee camp, run by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said refugees from both camps were barred from leaving. “The refugees who are in the registered camp are supported by the UNHCR, but the refugees who are living in the unregistered camp—they are not supported by anything. And right now it is very difficult for them to survive their life because they cannot go out for work, and they don’t even get any [food],”

» Crackdown on Mobile Phones - 19-February-2010
Life just got even tougher for North Koreans. AFP North Korean border guards at Panmunjom, November 2007. SEOUL—North Korea has launched a crackdown on would-be defectors and on Chinese mobile phones used by its own people along the northern border with China, according to several North Korean sources. These tougher measures have made it harder for cash-strapped North Koreans to make calls abroad appealing for help and sharply increased the cost of obtaining a guide to help sneak out of the country, they said. North Korea’s Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security announced Feb. 8 that the Pyongyang government had the means to crush “reactionary forces.” An announcer on government-run Korean Central Television (KCTV) said: “We possess a world-class striking force and means to protect our security that have not yet been entirely mentioned or made public.” Sources inside North Korea subsequently said in interviews that the authorities had stepped-up patrols for woul

» Tibetans Protest Detentions - 19-February-2010
Monks and nuns in Tibet protest over detainees unaccounted for after nearly two years. AFP This picture released on March 18, 2008, by Tibetan monks in Dharamsala, India, shows protests in Ngaba on March 16, 2008. HONG KONG—Hundreds of Tibetans staged a rare public protest in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan during the lunar new year holiday, known as Losar, according to sources in the region. Hundreds of monks and nuns from Gede and Se monasteries, and the Mani nunnery, staged a sit-in in Ngaba township [in Chinese, Aba] on Feb. 14. "Yes, [the Tibetans held a sit-in]," said one Ngaba resident. "The Tibetans have all left. Gone home." A second resident, asked if armed police were dispatched to the scene, replied, "Yes, yes, lots of them." Dekyi Dolma, a nun whose hometown is in Ngaba but who currently lives in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala, said as many as eight or nine monasteries and nunneries were involved in the protest. "They staged the sit-in because the auth

» Uyghur Leader Dead at 85 - 18-February-2010
Gen. Mehmet Riza Bekin Pasha was renowned as an advocate for the Uyghur people. RFA General Mehmet Riza Bekin Pasha's body is carried to its burial site by a military guard in Ankara, Feb. 18, 2010. ISTANBUL, Turkey—Gen. Mehmet Riza Bekin Pasha, an outspoken advocate for ethnic Uyghurs living under Chinese rule, died in the Turkish capital Ankara this week at the age of 85, after a six-month treatment for lung disease at the Gulhane Military Medical Academy here. Active in Uyghur politics and education, he also staged Uyghur-related human rights events in Turkey and founded the nonprofit East Turkestan National Freedom Center, which supported Uyghur students in Turkey and around the world. Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress, described him as a forceful leader. “I am so sad to lose my friend—one of strong alliance to our Uyghur cause. He is a history-maker who brought glory to the Uyghur people and who respectfully dedicated his whole life to their freedom,” Kadeer sa

» Tibetans Pray Before Obama Meeting - 18-February-2010
Tibetans in China risk persecution by praying for a good outcome to a meeting between their spiritual leader and the U.S. president. RFA/Lhasa resident Residents of Lhasa pray for a good outcome ahead of the Dalai Lama’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Feb. 18, 2010. KATHMANDU—Tibetans inside China burned incense, prayed, and raised Buddhist prayer flags ahead of their exiled leader’s first White House meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, despite tighter security by Chinese authorities who regard the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist. In Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and the epicenter of a 2008 anti-Chinese uprising, witnesses reported stepped-up security beginning on Wednesday, including several hundred armed personnel, in the city and concentrated around the Barkhor area in particular. Residents of Lhasa pray for a good outcome ahead of the Dalai Lama’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Feb. 18, 2010. Credit: RFA/Lhasa resident. But Tib