Following the release of a letter purportedly written by family members of Rebiya Kadeer which blamed her for the violence in Urumqi a month ago, the Chinese government is continuing the campaign by broadcasting interviews with her children on CCTV and in official papers. Danwei translates part of an interview from Xinhua with her son, Alim, 33, who has been imprisoned for tax evasion since 2007:
When the investigators went to the company to investigate tax evasion, mother gave me a phone call from abroad to tell me that we should cover ourselves in gasoline, go out into the square to protest, and then burn ourselves. I hung up without saying a word. I couldn’t understand how, as a mother, she could have no feelings toward me. I am a father, and I love my children and they still need me. So I didn’t do it. I would never do that.
From CCTV:
And in Chinese:
New Dominion blog points out about these interviews:
In the Chinese version but omitted from the English, the family members are asked whether Xinjiang has ethnic unity. Rebiya’s daughter, in particular, spoke fondly of her education in a multiethnic school. “There was never any conflict,” she recalls. “Han, Uyghur, Kazakh, Tatar, Uzbek, Kyrgiz: we were one big family.” (at 8:20)
Also of note, Rebiya’s son, interviewed in a Xinjiang prison where he is serving time for tax evasion, put some blame on Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.
The same blog also has a post noting that the interviews and letter from Kadeer’s family members follows a decade of police pressure on the family.
See also “Uighur leader Kadeer fears for her children in China” from AFP.
