Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
47
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
proceedings and stated that these allegations were
unfounded. According to the government, medical
investigations had been carried out after parents
complained that their sons were subjected to physical
pressure during interrogation, but no bodily injuries
were discovered. An investigation launched by the
Zhambul regional procurator’s office into allegations
of ill-treatment was closed by the office of Internal
Affairs of South Kazakstan Region, reportedly
because of lack of evidence. The office of the
Procurator General upheld the decision to close the
investigation. The Supreme Court suspended the
custodial sentences of two of the young men,
Isakhanov and Saparbaev (first names not known),
after it concluded that their punishment was
exceptionally severe in view of their age at the time
they reportedly committed the offence.
ethnic Uighur community
Uighurs are Turkic people who are predominantly
Muslim. They are the largest indigenous group living
in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR),
northwest China; a smaller number live in Central
Asia. The ethnic Uighur population in Central Asia
finds itself increasingly accused of sympathizing with,
and even supporting, the banned Islamic opposition
movements in Central Asia, and therefore its members
often become targets of persecution, including
arbitrary arrest, forcible deportation and ill-treatment,
by the authorities.
China has also been putting increasing political
and economic pressure on some Central Asian
republics, such as Kazakstan, and has sought
assurances from them that they would help to arrest
alleged “ethnic separatists” (originally from XUAR
who seek independence from China) that live on their
territory and deport them back to China. AI was
concerned that if extradited to China, these ethnic
Uighurs would be at risk of torture and execution. In
January 1999 Kazakstan forcibly deported three
ethnic Uighurs from XUAR to China. According to
latest information Hemit Memet, Kasim Mapir and
Ilyas Zordun were kept in secret detention in XUAR
and sentenced to death in a closed trial in April 2001.
There were fears that all three had been tortured in
detention.
Political prisoner
AI was concerned at reports that Nurpolat Abdullah, a
30-year-old ethnic Uighur citizen of Australia, may
have been detained by the Kazak Committee for
National Security (KNB) for political reasons,
because of his suspected contacts with alleged Uighur
"separatists" from XUAR in Kazakstan.
Nurpolat Abdullah is an ethnic Uighur originally
from the XUAR, who became an Australian citizen in
the 1980s. He returned to Central Asia in the late
1990s and was involved in trade and was mainly based
in Kazakstan, though he travelled from time to time to
neighbouring countries for business purposes. He is
married with two children - the youngest was born
while he was in pre-trial detention.
Nurpolat Abdullah was reportedly arrested at his
home in Almaty by a large group of officers from the
Almaty department of the KNB on 2 October 2000.
The officers searched the house but reportedly found
nothing. However, the KNB later claimed to have
discovered hand grenades, as well as literature calling
for the overthrow of the state, in the house. Nurpolat
Abdullah’s arrest followed a police operation on 28
September 2000 reportedly against a banned
underground Uighur organization called East
Turkestan, in which four ethnic Uighurs from XUAR,
allegedly wanted for the murder of two Kazak
policemen, were shot dead by the police when
reportedly resisting arrest. Before and after this
operation police were reported to have searched the
homes of numerous local Uighurs. Several
independent sources accused the police of having used
excessive force - over 200 police officers were
reportedly involved in the operation. The police
claimed that Nurpolat Abdullah was responsible for
the organization of the criminal group of which the
four men killed were members. He was charged with
four articles of the Kazak Criminal Code: formation of
a criminal organization with the purpose of
committing serious and grave crimes and leadership
of such an organization (Article 235, part 2); terrorism
(Article 233 part 3); illegal storage of ammunition,
explosives or explosive devices by an organized group
(Article 251 part 3); and concealment of a serious or
grave crime (Article 363).
Supporters of Nurpolat Abdullah maintained that
he was innocent and that the criminal case against him
was fabricated because of his ethnic origin, which
made him susceptible, in the eyes of Kazak law
enforcement authorities, of having contacts with
alleged Uighur “separatists” from XUAR, wanted by
China.
At the time of writing Nurpolat Abdullah’s trial
was still ongoing. Two co-defendants, Abdusattar
Muhamedzhan and Aziz Tursuntai, were facing
similar charges.
Death in suspicious circumstances
On 9 June the body of Dilbirim Samsakova, a
prominent Uighur activist, was discovered near the
Kapchagay water reservoir, some 60 kilometres
outside Almaty. She had been reported missing since
24 May. She had reportedly been hit on the head with
a blunt object. The circumstances of her death were
unclear. On 24 May she had apparently received a
phone call from an acquaintance asking her to meet
him urgently. Her family alerted the police after she
failed to return home that night. AI was concerned at
allegations that Dilbirim Samsakova’s murder was
politically motivated, and that she was killed because
of her ethnic origin and to punish her for her related
high-profile activities in support and defence of ethnic
Uighurs.
44-year-old Dilbirim Samsakova was the