Wow! The Cambodian government just put them on a plane sent by China and deported them. This is a story I have mentioned recently here. No messing around with human rights concerns and human rights activists—bam, just sent them back. From an AP story posted on a Cambodian blog:
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A group of Muslims who fled China after deadly ethnic rioting and sought asylum in Cambodia were sent back home Saturday, even though rights groups fear they face persecution there.
Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak said the 20 members of the Uighur minority had been put on a special plane sent from China that left Phnom Penh International Airport Saturday night.
“They are going back to China,” he said.
Cambodia has been under intense pressure from China to deport the Uighurs, whom Beijing has called criminals after they fled the country with the help of a secret network of missionaries. The expulsion came a day before Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visits Cambodia as part of a four-country tour.
The United States, the United Nations and human rights groups had urged Cambodia to stop the deportation. A spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency said it had not finished evaluating the Uighurs, including two children, for refugee status.
The Uighurs were being deported because it was determined they entered the country illegally, Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said earlier. He said two other Uighurs who had been with the group are missing.
Some countries have refused to send Uighurs — such as those released from U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba — back to China over concerns about retribution and abuse.
“It is hugely concerning that Cambodian authorities are not giving this group an opportunity to seek asylum, or for authorities to assess their asylum case,” Brittis Edman, a Cambodia researcher with Amnesty International, said late Saturday before the group left.
“This group will be particularly vulnerable to torture. Because of those concerns, Cambodia shouldn’t send them back.”
Uighurs say Beijing has long restricted their rights, particularly clamping down on their practice of Islam.
Bottomline is that it looks like China isn’t going to mess around and get squishy with Islamic supremacism in China. Since our Marxists and Maoists, especially in the Obama Administration (Anita Dunn, where are you?), are bending over backwards to appease Islamists, I’m wondering how their reverence for China squares with this latest action.
For new readers, we have been following Uighur issues ever since the Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay were considered for release into the refugee community in the US. See ‘State Department calls Gitmo prisoners refugees’ here.
Here is a post Judy wrote in October of 2008 where she quotes Andrew McCarthy on the Uighurs:
And Andy McCarthy, who has more experience than practically anybody at prosecuting jihadists, wrote :
Jihadists — and there is not question that the Uighurs are jihadists — do not recognize distinctions based on the Westphalia world of nation-states. In their view, it is Dar al Islam or Dar al Harb: i.e., you are either part of the realm of the Muslims or the realm of war, and the goal is to turn Dar al Harb into Dar al Islam by any means necessary. Releasing trained jihadists into the United States on the theory that their beef is with the Chinese and they have no problem with us would be a delusional act of suicide.
Also, note that we learned just a few days ago that we have an exiled Uighur leader living in a town near you, here.
You can bet that the Obama Administration tip-toes around this issue so as not to tick-off the Chinese who hold our financial future in their communist hands.
To find all of ours stories on Uighurs, you may have to use our search function for several spellings of the word: Uighurs, Uyghurs, and Uighers.