Uighur Muslims seek asylum from China in Cambodia

Phnom Penh, NU Online
At least 16 Uighurs have fled ethnic unrest in China and are seeking asylum with the help of the United Nations refugee agency in Cambodia, a government spokesman in Phnom Penh said Friday.

Fierce clashes in China's far-western Xinjiang region in July between the local Muslim Uighur community and China's majority Han ethnic group left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to an official toll.<>

"First we learned that there were 16 of them, but we don't know how many more now. There is no official information from the UN," Cambodian interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told AFP.

The Washington Post newspaper reported Thursday that 22 Uighurs were seeking asylum in Cambodia, but Khieu Sopheak said the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had not yet shared details of the case.

"We don't know when they arrived. Now they are under control of UNHCR. UNHCR has not yet sent any information to the ministry of foreign affairs," Khieu Sopheak said.

There was no immediate comment from the UNHCR.

China said on November 10 that it had executed nine people over the unrest in Xinjiang.

According to statements by the Xinjiang government, they included eight Uighurs and one Han Chinese. A total of 21 people were convicted in October.

China's roughly eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities - which China denies - and tensions have simmered in the Xinjiang region for years.

China says it faces a serious terrorist threat from Muslim separatists in Xinjiang, but rights groups have accused Beijing of exaggerating the threat in order to justify very tight controls in the vast region. (afp/dar)