FREE HUSEYINCAN CELIL ORGANIZATION, HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA

2nd Year In Chinese Prison And His Whereabouts is unknown

2008-04-04T11:45:00.005-05:00

Canada to attend Olympics opening

Harper says he's not planning on going, urges Beijing to respect rights, peaceful protests

Ottawa presses China for location of jailed Canadian

Canadian officials called the Chinese ambassador yesterday to ask that Beijing tell Huseyin Celil's family where the imprisoned Canadian is being held, the Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed.

Family of Canadian serving life in prison in China say his whereabouts unknown

The family of a Canadian convicted of terror charges and serving life in prison in China say Beijing has refused to tell Ottawa the prisoner’s whereabouts.

China remains silent on Burlington man's welfare

Family seeks whereabouts of jailed Chinese-Canadian activist

Family unable to locate Canadian jailed in China

China activist jailing criticised

Canada Brings Up Human Rights Issues With China

click on the titles to read more

Tortured Abroad? Forgotten At Home?

2008-02-29T12:47:00.000-05:00

Feb 29, 2008 04:30 AM

Alex Neve
Chris MacLeod
Lorne Waldman

In three different corners of the world – China, Egypt and Ethiopia – three Canadian citizens languish in prison. Each has very likely been tortured. Each is at very real risk of being tortured again. None faces any prospect of gaining their freedom soon. All seem to have been forgotten. Each deserves more from their government.

Huseyin Celil has been in prison in China since the end of June 2006. His wife and four children in Burlington have endured anxious fear for his safety ever since. Celil is an ethnic Uighur. In the far western reaches of China a decades-old campaign of brutal repression against the Uighur people has intensified in recent years. Torture, unjust imprisonment and other abuses abound. Celil thought he had escaped to safety. But he was surreptitiously arrested and sent back to China while visiting with his wife's family in nearby Uzbekistan. He has known nothing but injustice ever since. Last year, after a blatantly unfair trial, he was sentenced to a life term in prison. He believes that the Uighur people's rights should be respected. He has been convicted of being a "splitist", a Chinese government euphemism for terrorist.

Read All

In surprise move, China lets Celil meet sister

2008-01-05T01:23:00.000-05:00

Imprisoned Canadian complained of lack of medical attention, Uighur-Canadian group leader says

OMAR EL AKKAD

January 4, 2008

In a rare event, Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil was allowed to meet one of his family members last week, as he continues to serve a life sentence in China.

One of Mr. Celil's sisters, Meryem, met with the imprisoned Canadian for about 20 minutes, according to Mehmet Tohti, head of the Uyghur Canadian Association. It was the first time he had talked to his sister in 13 years, Mr. Tohti said. Mr. Celil was arrested in Uzbekistan and handed over to China in 2006. He was travelling on a Canadian passport at the time.

Read All

Help Canadians detained abroad

2007-11-08T23:06:00.000-05:00

Nov 06, 2007 04:30 AM

MohamedO Hassan

In a nation like Canada with so many communities from every corner of the world, it is not unusual for some of our citizens to find themselves caught in the global terror-fighting dragnet.

Some Canadians, such as myself, hail from the very places that today are theatres of operations in the war on terror: Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Lebanon. Others, who were born here, may share a common name or culture with those perceived to be targets of the global-war-on-terror machinery.

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DEATH FOR CELIL IN PRISON

2007-04-20T09:56:00.000-05:00

AFTER CELIL'S FIRST COURT TAKEN PLACE THE DECISION MADE AS A RESULT OF DEATH IN THE PRISON IN OTHER WORDS SENTENCED FOR LIFE. MOST LIKELY LIFE SENTENCED PRISONERS EVENTUALLY ARE EXCECUTED IN CHINA.
WHAT WE SHOULD DO IS EVERYTHING TO HELP HIM BY DRAWING CANADIANS ATTENTION TO THE MATTER AS QUICKLY AS WE CAN.
WE ARE TRYING TO SET UP A GENERAL PROTESTING IN TORONTO WITH EVERYBODIES ATTENDANCE.
PLEASE DO NOT TREAT THIS VERY CLOSE FRIEND’S NEWS AS AN EMAIL OR NEWS TRASH.
SPREAD THE NEWS AND HAVE AN IDEA TO HELP US ON THIS.
BELOW SOME MEDIA COVERAGE

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N19414202.htm
Other Other
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=172249
https://www.amnesty.ca/urgentappeal/celil.php
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/

FOREIGN MINISTER GOES TO CHINA

2007-04-19T01:11:00.000-05:00

Minister MacKay Announces Trip to Norway, Belgium, China and South Korea

April 18, 2007
No. 58

The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, today announced that he will travel to Oslo, Norway, to attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. The Minister will then visit Brussels, Belgium, to attend a high-level event on Afghanistan, travelling next to China and concluding his trip with a visit to South Korea.

The NATO meeting is one of two foreign ministers’ meetings that NATO holds each year. Minister MacKay will then travel to Brussels on April 28 to participate in a panel discussion on democracy in Afghanistan, as part of the Brussels Forum 2007.

In China, Minister MacKay’s program will include discussions with his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing. This bilateral visit will serve as a further occasion to discuss a number of issues of importance to Canada, including the consular case of Huseyincan Celil, and to set priorities for productive cooperation between Canada and China.

On May 1 and 2, Minister MacKay will visit South Korea and meet Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Song Min-soon to discuss bilateral and multilateral issues, including Canada’s security interests in the region and the Six-Party talks on North Korea. The Minister will also visit the Demilitarized Zone to see first hand the area of past confrontation with North Korea.

- 30 -

For further information, media representatives may contact:

Foreign Affairs Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
613-995-1874
http://www.international.gc.ca

APRIL 1st The First Year In Detention - Protesting Chinese Injustice

2007-03-25T21:04:00.000-05:00

We are planning a protest in front of the Chinese Consulate Toronto for the First Year of Brother Huseyincan Celil's Detention with the association of the Uyghur Canadian Association.

We still do not know anything about Celil's second trial however with the help of our community we hired a Chinese lawyer to defend our brother Celil and inform us in anyway possible under the unjust treatment of Chinese Government .

We ask everybody to join us and spread the word around. At least kindly forward this message to your mailing list.

Protesting will be taken place in front of Chinese Consulate 240 St. George Street, Toronto between 01:00 PM - 03:00 PM on Sunday APRIL 1st.

For the Map >>>
For more information >>>

New Lawyer in China is on -We Thank to Our Community for their support

2007-03-04T19:57:00.000-05:00

Since it has been three weeks we started the campaign for hiring a new lawyer in China for our brother Huseyincan Celil.
We have reached the targeted amount for the expenses of the new lawyer and he is on his way to Urumqi where our brother Celil is in prison.
We thank to our community for their generous supports. It is really important that we stand together at the times of our needs.
You can still send your donations… information here>>>

Supporters seeking new lawyer for Celil

2007-03-01T00:29:00.000-05:00

Supporters of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen detained in China, say that his court-appointed lawyer is inadequate and that Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs has recommended they obtain independent legal advice there.

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Engaging China requires a balance of values and interests

2007-03-01T00:27:00.000-05:00

Let us therefore engage China effectively on human rights. Let us also have a comprehensive and balanced framework for our bilateral and multilateral discussions. For the pursuit of values without also emphasizing interests puts both at risk.

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Senator blasts Harper's stand on China

2007-02-23T01:55:00.000-05:00

Senator Jack Austin said former prime minister Jean Chretien was particularly successful in securing the release of political prisoners.
Read All

Resolve dual-citizenship row with China, MPs urged

2007-02-23T01:48:00.000-05:00

300,000 Canadian passport holders at risk because of Beijing's policy, experts warn

Read All

Another Canadian held by Chinese

2007-02-20T19:35:00.000-05:00

A Chinese Canadian businessman from Mississauga has been detained – without formal charge – in Fujian, China, for four months in the midst of a business dispute with his distribution company's Hong Kong supplier.

>>>Read All>>>

Canadians Assess Action on Huseyin Celil Case

2007-02-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many adults in Canada have a clear idea of the way their federal administration should deal with the case of Huseyin Celil, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 53 per cent of respondents think the Canadian government should protest the treatment of Celil, who is being held by Chinese authorities on terrorism charges, through regular diplomatic channels.

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Who is Huseyin Celil?

2007-02-18T15:18:00.000-05:00

Caught in the grip of Beijing

He is a very stubborn man, a pious imam and a proud Uighur. He's drawn the wrath of China's authorities who brand him a terrorist. Huseyin Celil is also a Canadian, jailed in an unknown prison in western China. And his case is straining relations between the two nations

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070217.CELIL17/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/?pageRequested=all

2007-02-18T15:16:00.000-05:00

These days, attention is focused on the case of Huseyin Celil, who emigrated to Canada from China. On a trip to Uzbekistan, he was arrested and shipped to China. He has been held at an undisclosed location for about eight months.

Read all

Celil Needs Your Help!

2007-02-13T22:58:00.000-05:00

HE NEEDS OUR HELP!
Celil’s situation is getting worse and terrifying along with the latest bad news of Ismail Samed’s execution whose case was parallel to Celil’s.
As you know recent updates below, China does not allow any Canadian officials or lawyers to defend Huseyincan Celil through his trial started recently.
This seems unfair and unjust yet we should remember that we are dealing with biggest horrendous and horrific country in the world, communist China.
Celil’s family lawyer Chris MacLeod said that He couldn’t get to China because China did not approved his travel visa.
Therefore we have no choice but hiring another lawyer in China who can be able to defend Celil and provide us his updates in Urumqi, China.
With the help of Chris Macleod and Amnesty Canada another lawyer in China will be hired.
We need to raise up to $12.000 to cover new lawyer expenses. Already we have matching $3000 promised by Amnesty Canada.
We need our community’s support on this fund. We ask everybody to involve and help out.
Please spread this campaign everyone in your mailing lists and let everybody know.
We also ask our community leaders to participate and inform their people through their services.
Please contact us via freehcorg@gmail.com for more information on transferring your donations or any other concerns.

Terrifying parallels

2007-02-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

Man executed in China belonged to same minority group as Burlington detainee

By Dana Borcea
With Spectator wire services
(Feb 10, 2007)

The wife of a Burlington man imprisoned in China is reeling after hearing that another man, detained for similar reasons, has been executed.

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Celil Won't Face Death Penalty in China: MacKay

2007-02-13T22:04:00.000-05:00

Josh Pringle
Sunday, February 11, 2007

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay says the Canadian Government is doing everything it can to convince China to respect the rights of Huseyin Celil.

The Burlington father of six is accused of terrorism, and China doesn't recognize his dual citizenship.

MacKay told CTV's Question Period that there's no reason why Canada cannot insist on respect for human rights, and still have trade with China.
Read All

Harper warns China on human-rights trade threat

2007-02-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

y Randall Palmer Fri Feb 9, 5:58 PM ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Beijing on Friday against trying to use trade as a lever to deflect criticism of its human rights record, including its treatment of a Canadian imprisoned in China.
He gave a blunt response to remarks by a Chinese official, published on Friday, that the two countries need to trust each other for their economic relationship to flourish.
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Canada-China row intensifies over terrorism charges

2007-02-12T15:31:00.000-05:00

Montreal- The Canadian government came under fire Thursday for its handling of a diplomatic row with China, after the family of a Chinese-Canadian held on terrorism charges said he had been abandoned by Canadian diplomats. Huseyin Celil, a member of the Muslim ethnic Uighur community who lived in the Xingjiang province of China, was arrested on terrorism charges in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent while visiting family on March 27, 2006.

He was extradited to China three months later under an agreement between the Uzbek and Chinese governments.
Read All

China Executes Uighur Activist ISMAIL SAMED

2007-02-12T15:21:00.000-05:00

BEIJING — China has executed Uighur Muslim activist Ismail Samed on charges of "splitting the Chinese motherland" with rights groups and his lawyer slamming his trial as politically motivated and unfair.
Read all

Canadian 'anger' at China trial

2007-02-12T15:16:00.000-05:00

The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is said to be "displeased" that Canadian diplomats did not attend the trial in China of a Canadian Uighur.

Huseyincan Celil, an ethnic Uighur and a rights activist, is on trial on terrorism charges in Urumqi in Xinjiang, home to a Muslim majority.

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China rejects concerns about Muslim activist

2007-02-09T02:54:00.000-05:00

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday Canadian diplomats had no right to be present at a court hearing for a Chinese Uighur Muslim accused of terrorism who was awarded joint Canandian citizenship two years ago.

Yu Shanjiang, also known as Huseyincan Celil, fled China in the 1990s and traveled last year to Uzbekistan, where he was detained and then extradited back to China on terrorism charges.

China has not recognized his Canadian citizenship, obtained in 2005.

Read All

Detainee alive, tortured in jail, wife learns

2007-02-09T02:52:00.000-05:00

Kamila Telendibaeva is now sure of two things she didn't know last week.

One is that her husband is alive. The other is that Chinese authorities have tortured him in prison.

"I'm 100 per cent sure they did it," she said yesterday.

Read All

Family claims Chinese-Canadian tortured in China

2007-02-09T02:50:00.000-05:00

Updated Thu. Feb. 8 2007 10:09 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The family of a Chinese-Canadian imprisoned in China on terror-related charges spoke with CTV News inside the country, despite the fear that police would arrest them for talking to the foreign press.

Huseyin Celil's sister, mother and older brother met CTV's Steve Chao to speak out about his alleged mistreatment.

"He is being tortured by Chinese police," said Celil's mother. "They forced him to sign a confession, or he would be put in a hole and buried alive."

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Celil's desperate family had given up hope

2007-02-09T02:48:00.000-05:00

GEOFFREY YORK

Globe and Mail Update

URUMQI, China — When he was marched in handcuffs into a courtroom in this remote Chinese city last week, Huseyin Celil was like a man returning from the grave.

His family had been convinced that he was probably dead. For months, they had been hounding the prisons of Urumqi, begging for any news of him. They searched computer records and spoke to prison staff, desperate for any sign that the Canadian religious leader was still alive.

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China says agreement with Canada doesn't apply to Celil case

2007-02-09T02:44:00.000-05:00

Audra Ang, Canadian Press

Published: Thursday, February 08, 2007

BEIJING - The case of a Canadian activist jailed for alleged terrorist links will be handled according to Chinese law and is not subject to consular agreements, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Thursday.

Read all

Protest marks Xinjiang 'massacre'

2007-02-07T05:27:00.000-05:00

Dozens of exiled Uighur Muslims have protested outside China’s embassy in Washington DC on the 10th anniversary of a massacre that some say was on a similar scale to events in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Protesters waved Uighur flags and chanted slogans calling on China to account for the many people they say were killed on February 5, 1997.

Read all

Harper Angry Diplomats Missed Start of Trial for Canadian

2007-02-06T15:31:00.001-05:00

Josh Pringle
Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to know why there was no Canadian diplomat present at a recent court appearance for a Canadian man imprisoned in China.

Harper is insisting that Canadian diplomats in China attend future court proceedings

Senior Government Officials say diplomats in Beijing and Ottawa fumbled the ball when Huseyin Celil appeared in court last week.

Celil has been jailed at an unknown location in China for almost eight months for alleged ties to terror groups.

Canadian Finance Minister in China

2007-02-06T15:26:00.000-05:00

China does not recognize his Canadian citizenship and Ottawa has been aggressively lobbying for his release. His family says he is being persecuted because he is a Muslim and a political dissident who fled his homeland in the 1990s.
Canada's campaign to have Celil released has angered Chinese officials, as did Canada's granting of honorary citizenship to the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.
Read All

PM irked as diplomats miss activist's hearing

2007-02-06T15:20:00.000-05:00

Government says Canadian diplomats in Beijing and consular officials in Ottawa fumbled the ball

JEFF SALLOT AND GEOFFREY YORK

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA AND BEIJING — Angered by what he believes is lack of attention to a serious human-rights case, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is demanding an explanation for why no Canadian diplomat was present at the recent court appearance of a Canadian man accused of terrorist activities.

Both Canadian diplomats in Beijing and consular officials in Ottawa fumbled the ball last week when Huseyin Celil appeared in a Chinese court, a senior government official said Monday night in Ottawa.

Read All

Harper wants action on Burlington man in Chinese prison

2007-02-06T15:17:00.000-05:00

The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The prime minister is angry and wants to know why there was no Canadian diplomat present at a recent court appearance for a Burlington man imprisoned in China.

A published report today quotes a senior government official saying that diplomats in both Beijing and Ottawa fumbled the ball when Huseyin Celil appeared in court last week.

Stephen Harper is insisting that Canadian diplomats in China attend future court proceedings, which opened Friday in the provincial city of Urumqi.

Diplomats say they have been frustrated by the fact that China will not recognize Celil's Canadian citizenship.

But the official says a Canadian representative should have been present for the opening of the trial as a signal of how seriously the Harper government is taking the case.

Celil, a former imam at a mosque in Hamilton, has been jailed at an unknown location in China for almost eight months for alleged ties to terror groups.

Story of Celil

2007-02-04T14:04:00.000-05:00

Celil at the Chinese Court

2007-02-04T13:40:00.000-05:00

Huseyin Celil was brought to trial on Friday(Feb 2, Friday) in Urumqi
for 6 hours after having kept nearly 8 month in unknown location by
China's authorities.
his mother, sisters and his son joined the trial with along secrete
service members and regional police represenatatives.

government appointed lawyer has tried to represent Mr. Celil.

soon after Court opened, Mr. Celil asked to see appointed lawyer's law
lisence to confirm wether he is a
lawyer or not. court has rejected his request.

Mr. Celil asked the court he is Canadian citizen and he wants to
have the presence Canadian personal from Embassy, lawyer with law
degree that recommended by Canadian Embassy, or his wife or at least
other Canadian HR organizations to represent him at the court.
court kep silence on his request.

during 6 hours trial, government side did not present any charges
against him interestingly.

Mr. Celil also asked the court to know, after so many months, "what is
the charge against me, and why I am detained.

court spent most of the time to ask his activities in Canada.
Mr. Celil told the court that, he was a student and busy enough to take
care of his small kids.
he said to the court in response that "I live and exercise my rights
within
the limit of Canadian Law in Canada. I attend community activities if my

time permitts, but most of the time I could not able to attend any
social
events organized by Uyghurs in Canada due to my time that spent mostly
with my kids".

Mr. Celil at the end of the court asked again that he wants to see
Canadian representatives in Beijing.

his mother and sisters described that his condition is good.
also secrete police asked if there is any pictures from Canada for his
wife and new born child.

government appointed lawyer told his mother and sister that, so far in
his understanding there is no any reason he has seen why Mr. Celil was
detained and kept in China.
according to that Lawyer, his repeated request to see the charges
against Huseyin Celil was turned down and he was hoping to see it in
the court, but no one brought up any charges against him.

instead of presenting any charges against him, prosecutors simply
started to question him what kinds of activity he has engaged in Canada
against China.

court closed after 6 hours of empity talks and said there will be other
trial soon.

information is recieved from the relatives of Mr. Celil by phone.

Uyghur Canadian Association
Democracy, Human Rights through non-violence
www.uyghurcanadian.org
info@uyghurcanadian.org

Photos of the Last Protest

2007-02-04T13:37:00.000-05:00

Photos of the December 10th Protesting Rally in front of Chinese Embassy in Toronto
>>to see all click on the picture or link

Map of Chinese Consulate in Toronto

2006-12-10T00:49:00.000-05:00

240 St. George Street, Toronto

A RALLY FOR HUSEYINCAN CELIL AND ALL OTHER ABUSED PEOPLE BY CHINA ON THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY DECEMBER 10

2006-12-07T10:20:00.000-05:00

A RALLY FOR HUSEYINCAN CELIL AND ALL OTHER ABUSED PEOPLE BY CHINA ON THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY DECEMBER 10
JOIN THE RALLY IN FRONT OF THE CHINESE CONSULANT GENERAL DEC 10TH BETWEEN 02:00-04:00 PM

This coming sunday is the International Human Rights Day. Human Righs Organizaions will be demonstrating and expressing their selected subjects on that very they. Especially in Toronto there will be many events scheduled.
On the same day and one of the scheduled event is a Rally in front of the Chinese Consulant General in Toronto for Our Brother Celil and other oppressed ones by the support of Uyghur Canadian Association and Amnesty Canada.

Please take your time and join the actions

Thousands of Canadians write to protect human rights with no exceptions in Amnesty International’s global Write-a-thon

2006-12-07T09:59:00.000-05:00

Thousands of Canadians write to protect human rights with no exceptions in Amnesty International’s global Write-a-thon

Thousands of Canadians will be writing together to promote human rights as part of Amnesty International's global writeathon on or around December 10, International Human Rights Day. Amnesty International members and supporters in Canada will be holding more than 700 Write for Rights events across the country, with a goal to surpass last year's target of 20,000 letters.

Saturday December 9
Toronto, ON - Amnesty’s Toronto office at 14 Dundonald Street is hosting an open house from 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM. Former prisoner of conscience, Uyghur Rabiya Kadeer will hold a brief press conference about her three sons’ arrest in China and Uyghur-Canadian Husseyin Celil’s case. Listen to stimulating speakers, write letters and meet Amnesty supporters.

We Thank All The Contributers On Recent Petition

2006-12-07T08:42:00.000-05:00

We would like to thank all the contributors for the recent petition. Your efforts on this respectful subject were remarkable.
We all know that writing and complaining to the authorities are one of our tools for the cause of our Brother Celil and with the help of Allah the whole petition project worked well.
We have collected signatures form in Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Mississauga and Burlington. Especially our thanks to our Brothers and Sisters in Burlington area with their contributions we have collected over 1200 signatures.

Touching Off Our China Crisis

2006-11-27T23:23:00.000-05:00

A Canadian dissident in jail puts stress on our $35-billion relationship

CHARLIE GILLIS

On a warm Friday last March, after a hearty breakfast of fish cakes and salad, Huseyin Celil climbed into a car for a ride across the pockmarked streets of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Then, in the midst of a family visit with his wife's relatives, the 38-year-old from Burlington, Ont., was off to a nearby passport office to extend the family's tourist visas -- an errand that shouldn't have taken more than an hour. So he left with few parting words, waving to his wife Kamila Telendibaeva and kissing his children before setting off down the road.

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Mr. Harper Finally Acts And Defends Huseyincan Celil

2006-11-20T14:42:00.000-05:00

Considerably Good News

Since Huseyincan Celil’s detention, Prime Minister Mr. Harper defends Husyincan Celil in political arena first time and meets with the Chinese President Hu Jintao. We consider this act of our Prime Minister is just accurate and respectable. We are hoping in the near future that we can assure Celil’s wellbeing and eventually his safe return to Canada.

Some recent news coverage’s are below

PM's push on Celil cheers family

Canadian Press Photos

Prime Minister Stephen Harper And Hu Jintao

Top of the World

The Canadian Press
TORONTO (Nov 20, 2006)

It was brief and unofficial. But the meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Chinese counterpart is an "important first step," say those fighting for the release of a Burlington man jailed in China.

Chris MacLeod, a lawyer representing the family of Chinese-Canadian Huseyin Celil, centre photo, said Harper's commitment to address the issue with Chinese President Hu Jintao, at right, shows Canada won't tolerate China's disregard for international law or its poor treatment of Canadian citizens.

Celil was arrested while visiting relatives with his wife and children in Uzbekistan last March, and was extradited to his native China in June. His family fears he could face the death penalty for his activism on behalf of China's minority Uighur population.

Neither his family nor Canadian officials have heard anything about Celil since his arrest.

Harper wouldn't discuss Hu's reaction to Celil's case, but a Chinese official told Canadian reporters that it's his country's perspective that Celil is Chinese, even though he has officially renounced that citizenship.

Kamila Telendibaeva, Celil's wife and the mother of his four children, was hoping for more answers regarding his incarceration, health and ultimately the timeline for his release. But she was still thankful Harper brought up the subject.

China has signed the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, but has been criticized for failing to live up to its obligations, which include notifying Canada if it has detained one of its citizens, allowing access to that person and providing him with legal representation and a fair and transparent trial.

Harper's tough talk on China not a surprise

He's for morality
in foreign affairs

Nov. 18, 2006. 01:00 AM

THOMAS WALKOM

Morality in politics is two-edged. If enough people agree with the principled stand a politician makes, he is a hero. If they do not, he is a fool. This is the curious position in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper finds himself after his blunt (critics would say impolitic) criticisms of China for jailing a man from Burlington named Huseyincan Celil.Celil was born and raised in the Xinjiang region of China. He's also a member of China's Uyghur minority, a Muslim Central Asian.Friends call him a political activist. China calls him a terrorist. In the '90s, he was arrested and spent time in jail. His crime, according to his lawyer Chris MacLeod, was to illegally teach children the Uyghur language. Using a false Turkish passport, he fled China for neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, eventually ending up in Turkey where he obtained United Nations status as a refugee.In 2001, he came to Canada. Last year, he became a Canadian citizen. This spring, he travelled on his brand-new Canadian passport to Uzbekistan, also in Central Asia, to visit his in-laws.There, he was arrested, on no particular charge, and extradited to China — where he was sentenced to 15 years in jail on charges of murder and terrorism. His family and friends say the charges are invented. Human rights groups like Amnesty International say Celil's experiences match those of other Uyghurs who have suffered persecution for trying to exercise basic civil rights.As Celil languished in jail, civil libertarians lambasted the Harper government for failing to press Beijing harder for his release.So, this week, it seems, Harper did. He told Canadian reporters travelling with him to an economic summit in Vietnam that Canada values the freedom of its citizens more than it values trade. If that led China's President Hu Jintao to snub him at the summit (which appeared to be the case at the time), he said, then so be it."(Canadians) don't want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar," the Prime Minister said.At one level, Harper's interest in a Uyghur from Burlington might seem odd. To many Canadians, the Conservatives are the party of the almighty dollar.Certainly a lot of those with dollars think so. Harper's words have earned reprimands from many of his party's natural allies in the business world, who worry that anything other than the smoothest political relationship with Beijing could interfere with their plans to make scads of money from China.Even Harper's home province isn't pleased. "This is a misstep by the prime minister," Alberta's Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Gary Mar told one newspaper, noting that Harper's comments might hurt the tourist trade.Yet, in a more fundamental way Harper's position on the Celil case is consistent with his approach to all foreign relations. Even before becoming Conservative leader, he talked of the need to reintroduce morality into foreign affairs. "The emerging debates on foreign affairs should be fought on moral grounds," he wrote in 2003. "Modern liberals ... are trapped in their framework of moral neutrality, moral relativism and moral equivalence. But conservatives should have answers."Those particular lines were written to justify Harper's belief, written around the time of the invasion of Iraq, that Canada should hew rigorously to the position of U.S. President George W. Bush as he tried to remake the Middle East.In hindsight, they also signalled his current unbending position on Canada's involvement in Afghanistan. As Harper wrote then, morality in foreign affairs demands that countries choose sides, support their allies to the end and put real military force behind that commitment.All of which is to say that those who applaud the Prime Minister's unwillingness to sacrifice a Canadian from Burlington for trade must understand that this stubborn sensibility defines his approach to just about everything in the realm of foreign affairs — from the Israeli invasion of Lebanon to Canada's relationship with the U.S.To Harper, countries that share Canada's moral principles, such as Israel and the U.S., deserve unconditional support. Those that do not — like China —must be treated with suspicion. Is this laudable? In Celil's case, the answer is surely yes. Harper is supporting a Canadian citizen who was, in effect, kidnapped abroad.Still, it would be interesting to know what Harper would have done had Uzbekistan extradited alleged terrorist Celil not to China but to the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay. Which of his principles would have held then?

http://www.canada.com/findit/search/site/index.html?q=celil&p=9

Canada's PM gets his 15 mins with Chinese leader

Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:10 AM EST

y Darren Schuettler

HANOI (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally got his 15 minutes with Chinese President Hu Jintao, ending a mini-controversy over whether they would meet during an Asia-Pacific summit.

The 15-minute chat occurred just before a gala dinner on Saturday for the leaders of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Hanoi.

"President Hu approached me at the reception prior to dinner last night," Harper told reporters on Sunday, although he gave few details of their "very frank" discussion.

In the runup to the summit, Canadian media had said Hu refused a request for a meeting with Harper, who has been an outspoken critic of China's human rights record.

Beijing later denied the snub.

"It was quite a brief one," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said of the pre-dinner chat, adding there had been no plans for a more formal sit-down meeting.

Since winning power in January, Harper's Conservative government has been a frequent critic of China's rights record.

Canada is concerned with the case of Huseyincan Celil, a Canadian citizen and human rights activist who fled China in the 1990s and who is being held in a Chinese prison for alleged terrorism links.

Liu said the case was discussed by the leaders who reiterated their positions. China considers Huseyincan a Chinese citizen.

In another potential strain to ties, Ottawa declined to renew the visa of a Chinese diplomat who was reported to have spied on followers of the Falun Gong religious sect in Canada.

In September, Canada granted honorary citizenship in September to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader and a sworn enemy of Beijing for his opposition to Chinese Communist rule in the remote, mountainous territory.

Do not forget Our Brother Huseyincan Celil in your Du'as.

2006-10-13T00:27:00.000-05:00

In this Holy Month, Ramadan, all our du'as is very effective and acceptable by Allah Teala with his permission of course... Please do remember our Brother in your du'as.
May Allah protect him from the Chinese oppressors and save him from them! Ameen

Have you seen this site?

2006-10-13T00:20:00.000-05:00

China entered the twentieth century as the remains of an empire fragmented and crushed under pressure from especially Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Russia. After imperial rule had been overthrown, no powerful central authority was established for decades. When the Communist Party came to power in 1949, China soon turned into a state of fear. That process cost the lives of tens of millions of people because of the repressive and totalitarian methods the communists used to enforce their bloody ideology. The Chinese Communist Party resorted to violence to remain in power, and implemented one of the most savage and ruthless form of communism ever, enforcing one single way of living and thinking for the entire Chinese people. Throughout that period, those who refused to abide by the rules of their communist leaders were ruthlessly exterminated
http://www.eastturkestan.net/

China jails Burlington man 15 years - Unconfirmed News

2006-09-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

By Christine Cox
The Hamilton Spectator
BURLINGTON (Sep 12, 2006)

Kamila Telendibaeva has received unconfirmed word that her husband, Muslim activist Huseyin Celil, has been sentenced to 15 years in a Chinese prison.

Celil, 37, is a Canadian citizen accused by the Chinese of being a terrorist. He was arrested in Uzbekistan in March 2006 and extradited to China in June.

Telendibaeva says Chinese police told her husband's sister that he was tried last month and received a 15-year sentence. Telendibaeva doesn't know if it's true or not, because she's heard nothing from Canadian officials.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Marie-Christine Lilkoff said the government is aware of the reports but does not have confirmation. She said there are ongoing communications with the Chinese government about the case "and we are making every effort to obtain consular access to Mr. Celil."

Telendibaeva, who gave birth last month to the couple's fourth child, plans to go to Ottawa to urge the Canadian government to take action.

"They are not doing anything for my husband," she said yesterday. "He's a Canadian, he was travelling on a Canadian passport. I'm very nervous. It's been almost four months and we don't have any news (from the government) about my husband ... They have to see him, they have to get access to him."

Celil had championed the cause of the Muslim Uyghur people.

Mohamed Tohti, president of the Uyghur Canadian Association, said the charges against Celil are bogus.

Tohti considers the information relayed by Celil's sister credible. He said Chinese police told her that Celil was being held in Bajianghu jail, a famous political jail in Urumqi. It's the first time since his extradition that Celil's exact location in China has been revealed.

Tohti said the Chinese deliberately released the information through a third party, rather than through the Canadian government.

"They ignored Canada from the beginning ... they denied his citizenship," Tohti said.

ccox@thespec.com

905-526-3323

Harper's parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, has long been an outspoken critic of China's human rights record. He is also trying to get action on t

2006-09-12T21:59:00.000-05:00

Chamber of Commerce urges government to engage more with China

Jennifer Ditchburn
September 12, 2006 - 4:03 p.m.

OTTAWA (CP) - The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is urging the Conservative government to improve its commercial ties with China, just as relations with the economic giant have hit a rough patch under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper's parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, has long been an outspoken critic of China's human rights record. He is also trying to get action on the case of Huseyincan Celil, a Canadian citizen who is being held in a Chinese cell on terror charges.

While the chamber's report on Canada-China relations steers well clear of criticizing Harper's approach, it calls for an enhancement across the board in bilateral trade and investment as well as the appointment of a senior official to deal specifically with China.

"Policy decisions affecting China cannot be taken in isolation from their impact on trade and investment and are best dealt with through ongoing senior-level engagement between both countries," reads the report, released Tuesday in advance of the chamber's annual general meeting this weekend.

Detainee in China isn't aware of his new son

2006-08-27T13:35:00.000-05:00

Detainee in China isn't aware of his new son

Ted Brellisford, the Hamilton Spectator

From left, Badrudin Celil watches his baby brother Zubayir as their mother, Kamila Telendibaeva, looks on.

By Christine Cox
The Hamilton Spectator
BURLINGTON (Aug 25, 2006)

Kamila Telendibaeva is thrilled with her newborn son, but wishes desperately that her husband, Huseyin Celil, could be there to share her joy.

Telendibaeva gave birth to the couple's fourth child Wednesday at McMaster University Medical Centre. Her husband is languishing in a jail in China, where authorities say he's on trial for terrorist activities. Celil is a political dissident who had championed the cause of the Muslim Uyghur people.

Canadian officials have not had access to him in China and Celil, 37, doesn't even know he's a father again. Telendibaeva said her son weighed 3.5 kilos and will be named Zubayir.

"I am very happy that he's healthy, he's normal, but I feel very sad that my husband wasn't there with me at the hospital," she said yesterday. "I was missing my husband."

She said her other three children are pleased their little brother is home "and are playing around the baby."

Telendibaeva hasn't seen her husband since last spring. He was arrested in Uzbekistan in March and subsequently extradited to China, although he was travelling on a Canadian passport.

Celil's lawyer, Chris MacLeod, is not sure if a trial has actually begun or not. He wonders if there was a translation error in a statement that suggested it was under way.

MacLeod said the Chinese would be breaching international obligations if they didn't tell Canadian officials what the charges were and that the trial had started. He continues to press for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to send a special envoy to Beijing to look into the Celil case.

"I think it's important," MacLeod said yesterday.

Ottawa says it has had an assurance that China will not seek the death penalty for Celil. His wife does not think he will be killed, but fears he may be tortured.

ccox@thespec.com

905-526-3323

China denies imminent execution of Uighur-Canadian

2006-08-09T11:36:00.000-05:00

WE HOPE THAT THIS NEWS IS TRUTHFUL OTHER THEN THE NEWS THAT CLAIMS HIS IMMEDIATE EXECUTION ON AUGUST 10

Reuters

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

BEIJING (Reuters) - China denied on Wednesday a report that it was about to execute a Uighur-Canadian activist it accuses of terrorism, saying his trial was not yet over.

China has waged a harsh campaign in recent years against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists pressing for an independent nation of "East Turkestan" in its far-northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs account for 8 million of the 19 million people in Xinjiang.

Huseyincan Celil, who fled China in the 1990s, was due to be executed on or before Thursday for "separatist or terrorist activities," Amnesty International said in an emailed statement.

China accuses Huseyincan of taking part in a terrorist attack on a government delegation in Xinjiang in 2000 and of murdering a Uighur in Kyrgyzstan, an Uzbek news agency said in June.

Huseyincan, 37, was arrested in Uzbekistan in March and was extradited in June to China, which refused to recognize his Canadian citizenship obtained last year, London-based Amnesty said.

"Huseyincan is a Chinese citizen suspected of having taken part in East Turkestan terrorist activities," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

"The case is being handled according to law and no verdict has been reached yet," he said in a prepared brief statement read to Reuters by telephone.

Canada has tried to obtain further information on Huseyincan's case from China but has been unsuccessful, Amnesty said.

China to execute Burlington man who championed Muslim state

2006-08-09T11:34:00.000-05:00

By Christine Cox
The Hamilton Spectator
BURLINGTON (Aug 9, 2006)

Amnesty International fears that Huseyin Celil, a Burlington man held in a Chinese jail, could be executed by tomorrow.

The organization has unconfirmed reports that Celil, 37, will be put to death for alleged terrorist activities.

Celil's wife, Kamila Telendibaeva, clings to the belief that it can't happen. Celil's sister tearfully called from China last week saying a police officer had told her Celil would be killed Aug. 10, but Canadian officials told Telendibaeva that the Chinese government said it wasn't true.

Telendibaeva hasn't seen her husband since he was arrested in Uzbekistan while they were visiting her family. Celil, a political dissident who came to Canada as a refugee, was arrested on a warrant from China. He had been sentenced to death in absentia in China.

He had championed the cause of the Muslim Uygur people in northwest Xinjiang province, an area taken over by the Chinese more than 50 years ago.

Every day Telendibaeva's three children ask her "Where's Daddy?" Telendibaeva, who is due to give birth to her fourth child Aug. 20, tells them he is coming back soon.

In reality, she is very frightened for his safety.

"I hope and I pray for good news," the soft-spoken woman says as she sits on a sofa in her modestly furnished townhouse.

"I am thinking all the time about my husband."

She rejects the possibility that he could be executed, but she worries that the Chinese authorities may torture him or mistreat him in some way.

"They can give him some medicine, some injections," she said. "They can hurt him and he can lose his health."

What frustrates her most is the lack of information. The Canadian government does not know where he's being detained.

Ambra Dickie, a Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said yesterday there are ongoing communications between the Canadian government and the Chinese government regarding Celil. Canada has formally requested information on Celil's exact whereabouts and is seeking immediate consular access.

"We continue to make every effort to confirm Mr. Celil's well-being and to ensure he is afforded due process and that his rights are protected, she said. "Chinese authorities continue to maintain that they will not seek the death penalty."

Dickie said Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is following the case very closely.

Telendibaeva's Hamilton lawyer, Chris MacLeod, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to send a special envoy to Beijing whose sole mission is to deal with the Celil case. MacLeod also thinks Canada should send a strong message by recalling its ambassador to China.

MacLeod said China has failed to meet its obligations under the Geneva Convention, including consular access, telling Canada what the charges are against Celil, and ensuring that there is a fair trial if the charges are legitimate.

Canada gave Celil refugee status to protect him from his persecutors, but now he's in their hands, the lawyer said. "They scooped him from a third country while he was travelling on a Canadian passport ... In light of China's track record, you cannot help but be concerned."

McMaster University professor John Colarusso considers Celil's chances of surviving are "pretty slim." Colarusso said the Uygur separatist movement is fairly strong in western China and China might execute Celil as an example, although that would make him a martyr for the Uygurs. Some countries don't care about Canadian passports if a person has dual citizenship, he said.

Telendibaeva said Celil doesn't have a Chinese passport because China doesn't give them to Uygurs, and that he did not know it would be dangerous to visit Uzbekistan.

Beth Berton-Hunter, an Amnesty International spokesperson, said the organization has put out an Urgent Action call.

It is urging human rights supporters everywhere to appeal to Chinese authorities on Celil's behalf, including faxing the ambassador to Canada, Lu Shumin (613-789-1911).

Amnesty International says the death penalty is used extensively and often arbitrarily in China.

At least 1,770 people were executed and 3,900 sentenced to death last year. Amnesty International has documented several cases of Uygurs being executed for alleged separatist or terrorist activities.

ccox@thespec.com

905-526-3323

Timeline

1998

1998 -- Huseyin Celil flees China for Uzbekistan and later Turkey.

2001 -- Huseyin Celil and his wife Kamila Telendibaeva arrive in Canada as political refugees.

2005 -- They receive Canadian citizenship.

March 27, 2006 -- Celil arrested in Uzbekistan.

June 2006 -- Celil quietly deported to China from Uzbekistan.

August 2006 -- Unconfirmed reports that Celil will be executed Aug. 10.

China to execute Canadian: human rights group

2006-08-09T11:28:00.000-05:00

CTV.ca News Staff

A Canadian man held in a Chinese prison could be executed by Thursday, Amnesty International fears.

The organization has unconfirmed reports Huseyin Celil, of Burlington, Ont., will be put to death for alleged terrorist activities.

Celil, 37, was arrested in Uzbekistan in March and was extradited in June to China, which refused to recognize the Canadian citizenship he obtained last year, Amnesty International said.

The Chinese government on Wednesday denied Celil will be put to death by Thursday, claiming his trial is still not over.

Celil, a political dissident who fled China in the mid-1990s and came to Canada in 2001 as a refugee, has been sentenced to death in absentia in China.

According to reports, he championed the cause of the Muslim Uygur people in Xinjiang province, an area taken over by the Chinese government more than 50 years ago.

China accuses Celil of taking part in a terrorist attack on a government delegation in Xinjiang in 2000 and of murdering an Uygur in Kyrgyzstan, an Uzbek news agency reported in June.

"(Celil) is a Chinese citizen suspected of having taken part in East Turkestan terrorist activities," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters by telephone.

"The case is being handled according to law and no verdict has been reached yet."

Ambra Dickie, a Canadian foreign affairs spokesperson, said there are ongoing communications between the Canadian and Chinese government regarding Celil.

"We continue to make every effort to confirm Mr. Celil's well-being and to ensure he is afforded due process and that his rights are protected," Dickie told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.

"Chinese authorities continue to maintain that they will not seek the death penalty."

Canada has formally requested information on Celil's exact whereabouts and is seeking immediate consular access.

Celil's wife, Kamila, has not seen her husband since he was arrested in March while they were visiting Uzbekistan.

She said every day their three children ask where he is.

An Amnesty International spokesperson said the organization has put out an Urgent Action call.

With files from The Canadian Press

China to kill Canuck?

2006-08-09T11:24:00.000-05:00

We Pray For These Suspicious News Are Incorrect

2006-08-09T11:12:00.000-05:00

China: Husein Dzhelil

(known as Huseyin Celil)
aged 37, Canadian citizen

Updated: 8 August 2006

Husein Dzhelil standing in front of the Canadian Parliament buildings, Ottawa, Ontario, May 2005.

According to unconfirmed reports, Canadian citizen Husein Dzhelil is due to be executed in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of northwest China, on or before 10 August, for alleged ‘separatist’ or ‘terrorist’ activities.

The news about his pending execution was passed on to his relatives in Kashgar in the XUAR by an unnamed police officer, according to whom he is held in Urumqi, the regional capital. He is believed to be held incommunicadoand is at high risk of torture or ill-treatment. Further details of his trial and conviction remain unclear.

Since Husein Dzhelil was forcibly returned to China, his family in Canada have been trying to find out his whereabouts and any charges against him but the Chinese authorities have refused to disclose this information. The Canadian authorities have also tried to obtain further information about his situation but this has apparently been unsuccessful.

Husein Dzhelil, who is originally from the XUAR, reportedly fled China in the mid-1990s after being detained in connection with his political activities there. He eventually went to Turkey where he sought asylum through the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He was recognised as a refugee and resettled to Canada in 2001. He was detained on 27 March 2006 in Uzbekistan where he was visiting his relatives, and handed over to the Chinese authorities at the end of June. The Chinese authorities have refused to recognize Husein Dzhelil’s Canadian citizenship, which he gained in November 2005. According to his family, when Husein Dzhelil was extradited from Uzbekistan, the Uzbek authorities kept his Canadian passport.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Over recent years, Amnesty International has monitored growing numbers of forced returns of Uighurs to China from several of its neighbouring countries, including those of Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan. In some recent cases, returnees are reported to have been subjected to serious human rights violations, including torture, unfair trials and even execution.

The Chinese authorities have been mounting a crackdown on the “three evil forces” of “separatist, terrorist and religious extremists” in the XUAR. It has resulted in serious and widespread human rights violations directed against the region’s Uighur community, prompting many of them to flee the country. Many of those who leave go to Central Asia. The plight of Uighurs asylum seekers in Central Asia has, however, worsened as these countries have strengthened their economic, military and political cooperation with China through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). In June this year, just prior to the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting in Shanghai and the extradition of Husein Dzhelil to China, the Chinese and Uzbek leaders reaffirmed that cracking down on the so-called "three evil forces", including “ East Turkestan forces”, is the common interest of China and Uzbekistan.

The death penalty is used extensively and often arbitrarily in China. Based on public reports available, Amnesty International estimated that at least 1,770 people were executed and 3,900 sentenced to death in 2005. The true figures, which are classified as a “state secret”, are believed to be much higher. A Chinese legal expert was recently quoted as stating that approximately 8,000 executions are carried out in China each year. Over recent years, Amnesty International has documented several case of Uighurs being sentenced to death and executed in the XUAR for alleged “separatist” or “terrorist” activities.

TAKE ACTION:

Please send appeals to to arrive as quickly as possible, in Chinese, English, or your own language:

urging the authorities to stay the execution of Husein Dzhelil immediately;
calling on the authorities to provide full information about his whereabouts and state of health;
expressing deep concern that Husein Dzhelil appears to have been convicted and sentenced to death after an unfair trial;
urging the authorities to conduct a full and open review of the evidence and legal procedures used to convict and sentence Husein Dzhelil, and based on the outcome of that review, to either retry Husein Dzhelil in full accordance with international fair trial standards, or release him immediately and unconditionally;
reminding the authorities that Husein Dzhelil is a Canadian citizen and urging that he be given access to Canadian consular officials in China while he remains in detention.

WRITE TO:

Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China:

WEN Jiabao Guojia Zongli
The State Council
9 Xihuangcheng Genbeijie
Beijingshi 100032
People's Republic of China
Fax: + 86 10 6529345 or (c/o Ministry of Communication)
Email: gazette@mail.gov.cn
Salutation: Your Excellency

Chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regional People's Government:

Ismail TILIWALDI Zhuxi
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu
2 Zhongshanlu
Wulumuqishi 830041
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People's Republic of China
Email: master@xinjiang.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Chairman

President of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China:

XIAO Yang Yuanzhang
Supreme People’s Court
27 Dongjiao Minxiang
Beijingshi 100006
People's Republic of China
Fax: +86 10 65292345
Salutation: Dear President

COPIES TO:

Ambassador for the People's Republic of China:

His Excellency LU Shumin
515 St. Patrick Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 5H3
Fax: (613) 789-1911

Secretary of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regional Party Committee:

WANG Lequan Shuji
Zhonggong Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu Weiyuanhui
2 Jiankanglu
Wulumuqishi
Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu
People's Republic of China

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY

Missing in China-Still no word from Canadian human rights activist facing death penalty in China

2006-07-29T10:49:00.000-05:00

By Sharda Vaidyanath

Epoch Times Ottawa Staff

Jul 27, 2006

This photo shows Muslim Uighurs in the old quarter of Kashgar of narrow alleys and adobe-style homes, in the far flung outpost of the ancient Silk Road in China's far western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The Central Asian home to Turkic speaking Muslim Uighurs has seen growing numbers of Han Chinese migrants after 55 years of communist domination and an eroding traditional lifestyle. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

- Canadian Could Face Execution in China Thursday, June 29, 2006

Despite weeks of pressure from the Canadian government, China has yet to release Canadian citizen and Burlington resident Huseyincan Celil, who was arrested because of his political activism on behalf of human rights in China's Xinjiang Province and who faces a possible death sentence.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pamela Greenwell confirmed that he is in Chinese custody but specifics about his whereabouts and well-being are still unknown. Greenwell said that "the communication is ongoing to secure Consular visits."

The Chinese consider Celil "a terrorist" and that is very worrying, said Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty Canada, which launched a letter writing campaign on Celil's behalf in April when he was extradited by Uzbekistan to China.

Celil, 37, was visiting his in-laws in Uzbekistan, accompanied by his wife and children, when authorities arrested him on March 27, and secretly deported him to China roughly a month ago. Neve said, "obviously he didn't think the risk was serious." Amnesty is in touch with his family and the situation for his pregnant wife is "very stressful." Neve said.

Neve added that the Canadian government needed "a very intense and comprehensive strategy" to deal with this case and that Canadians must maintain high level pressure to secure Celil's release. Neve said, "It is precisely at such a time when you are held in incommunicado detention that the risk of serious human rights abuses, most particularly torture, exists." He explained that torture was very commonplace in China, a country that he said routinely victimized weak detainees.

Celil, who worked for the human rights for the Muslim Uighur minority of China's northwest Xinjiang Province, fled China's persecution of that community in 1994 and was sentenced to death in absentia for his political activism. He came to Canada in 2001. After obtaining refugee status, he subsequently became a Canadian citizen, settling with his family of four young children in Burlington.

In many ways, Xinjiang Province suffered a fate similar to Tibet since the predominantly Han Chinese took control of the province in 1956. The discrimination and lack of rights the Uighur Muslim minority faced pushed them towards separation from Mainland China. Huseyincan Celil fought for freedom from Communist control of his people and province and is therefore considered a threat to China.

Uzbekistan, much like other central Asian republics, has a security arrangement with Beijing to turn in outspoken separatists or political activists. According to the Amnesty International website, China is using the War on Terror that began after the September 11 attacks to harshly suppress many political dissidents.

Canadian's detention in China sparks furor

2006-07-21T15:08:00.000-05:00

Critics rally outside consulate in Toronto, as secrecy envelops Huseyin Celil

SCOTT ROBERTS

With a report from Reuters

At least once a week three-year-old Abdul Celil picks up the telephone and pretends to talk to his father, Huseyin.

With nothing but a dial tone at the other end, the boy asks how his daddy is and when he's coming home.

He never gets an answer so he asks his mother. She tells him soon but fears that may be a lie.

The truth is Kamila Telendibaeva doesn't know when or even if her husband is coming back to their Burlington, Ont., home. She doesn't even know if he's alive.

"That's my worst fear," she said yesterday outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto.

"I don't know if he's being tortured or killed. I can't talk to him. I don't even know where he is. No one does."

Mr. Celil (pronounced je-lil) became a Canadian citizen last November.

This year he travelled to Uzbekistan to visit his wife's family. He was arrested in March and extradited last month to China, where he could face the death penalty for "separatist" activities.

He is being held in China under a veil of secrecy. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Beijing will not say where Mr. Celil is and won't even acknowledge his Canadian citizenship.

He hasn't spoken with his family or his lawyer since his arrest.

Critics are calling the official Canadian response too slow and too weak.

"The Canadian embassy in Beijing has not done everything I wish they would do to express our distress," said Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat based in China.

"I feel the ambassador should be more involved in the case. We need to be speaking to the foreign ministry and finding out where Mr. Celil is and ensure his rights are being respected."

Ms. Telendibaeva, who is seven months pregnant with her fourth child, said she is exhausted by efforts to find her husband.

At a protest yesterday, she joined about 20 people shouting "Shame on China" in an effort to raise awareness about the case.

Mr. Celil was born in China's far-western Xinjiang province. He is a Uighur -- a Muslim, Turkic-language minority group that has long fought with the Chinese government for greater freedom.

Before his arrest, Mr. Celil was an imam at a Hamilton mosque and studying accounting at Mohawk College. Family and friends say he is a devoted husband.

Cihan Aydin describes him as a mentor.

"He's just so peaceful and is always looking to help people however he can," said Mr. Uildirim, 30, who asked Mr. Celil to be the imam at his wedding.

"He taught me a lot and was there when anyone needed him."

Chinese officials say Mr. Celil is a terrorist who, among other things, helped assassinate a political leader in Kyrgyzstan.

In 1994, he was arrested in China on charges of forming a political party, his wife said. After serving just a month in prison, he escaped, eventually buying false documents to enter Uzbekistan.

That is where the couple met, while he was working as a fabric salesman in 1998. They married a year later and spent two years in Turkey before coming to Canada as refugees in 2001.

Meanwhile, in China, a court sentenced Mr. Celil to death in absentia for his alleged role in the anti-government political movement.

Amnesty International yesterday slammed the Chinese government for failing to uphold basic human rights. It also called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to personally address the issue before the situation deteriorates.

"I think we are worried that we are not yet seeing a firm and assertive response now that [Mr. Celil] is in China," said Alex Neve, general secretary of Amnesty International Canada.

"We need our highest levels of government involved."

Mr. MacKay wouldn't disclose the government's next move, only saying it's doing everything it can.

"The Chinese won't acknowledge it . . . When you mention his name -- we've approached the ambassador, we've approached the foreign minister -- what they say is 'Oh, do you mean that terrorist, that Uighur terrorist?' " the Foreign Minister said.

In the meantime, Ms. Telendibaeva waits and worries about her husband's fate.

"I don't know what to do any more," she said. "I want him to see his baby but I don't know if he will. We need help. I think the government is our only hope."

One Weak Rally For Brother Huseyincan Celil that was a shame

2006-07-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

A rally had taken place in front of the Chinese Consul in Toronto. Unfortunately, more then supporters and politicians there were media personals.

In contrast, that should not have the outcome of our contributions. There were merely 20 people who mostly Turkish-Canadians neither Uyghurs nor Canadians even though rally organized by Uyghur Canadian Association that claimed its efforts respectful on the cause of the brother Celil. This might be the result of complex issues of our society in general which confuse us sometimes in application.

Earlier our friends and supporters in Ottawa via www.huseyincelil.com and brothers who organized rally last Tuesday the 18 with conclusion no action due to the sabotage they report that we believe this rally would concluded with more supporters.

This showed us how politics would be a dysfunctional and harmful tool in the hands of the people who are not capable of, which same result might cause by the people who ideologically oppose for the cause of our brother Husyincan and sadly His condition remains unknown.

As a community we should be more concern of our struggles.

NDP calls for diplomatic delegation to secure Celil's release from China

2006-07-18T21:11:00.000-05:00

China mum on fate of detained Canadian

2006-07-18T21:03:00.000-05:00

Demands for legal consular access denied more than three weeks into disappearance

GEOFFREY YORK

BEIJING -- More than three weeks after a Canadian citizen vanished into Chinese police custody, Chinese authorities are rejecting all of Canada's requests for information on the fate of the 37-year-old man.

The prisoner, Huseyincan Celil, was allowed into Canada as a political refugee in 2001 and became a Canadian citizen. But he was arrested in Uzbekistan on March 27 and extradited last month to China, where he could face the death penalty for alleged "separatist" activities in a Muslim province.

For three weeks, the Canadian government has been trying to get access to Mr. Celil to give him the consular service that any imprisoned Canadian is entitled to receive. But Chinese authorities are refusing to give any details of his whereabouts, even though they are obliged under international law to permit consular access to a foreigner who is detained in their custody.

The Globe and Mail has also made repeated requests for information about Mr. Celil to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security over the past several weeks, but both ministries have refused to comment.

The only hint of his fate has come from a Chinese newspaper, which mentioned his case as an example of China's fight against "terrorism."

The Canadian embassy in Beijing has confirmed that it has failed to obtain any details of Mr. Celil's fate or whereabouts, even after three weeks of requests and a formal diplomatic note -- one of the toughest actions that a government can take without affecting its relations with another country.

"We are making every effort to obtain immediate consular access to Mr. Celil in China," a spokeswoman for the Canadian Foreign Ministry said recently. "We will continue efforts to confirm Mr. Celil's well-being and to ensure he is afforded due process and his rights are protected."

Mr. Celil was arrested in China in the mid-1990s for his work on behalf of the Uighur people, the Muslim minority in the Xinjiang province of western China. He was sentenced to death in absentia for founding a political party to work for the Uighurs. After escaping from China, he travelled to Turkey and came to Canada as a refugee in 2001.

Chris MacLeod, the lawyer for Mr. Celil's family in Burlington, Ont., says the Canadian government is not taking enough action in the case.

"It's very troubling," he said in an interview. "A Canadian citizen is being punted around like a football. He travels to Uzbekistan and finds himself in the interior of China. It's unbelievable."

Mr. MacLeod is seeking a visa to enter China to search for Mr. Celil. He also wants Canada to send an official envoy to China to pursue the case.

"Diplomatic notes just aren't going to solve this," he said. "Canada hasn't taken any significant steps yet. We're a country of immigrants and refugees, and there should be an onus on the Canadian government to take a clear stand in protecting him. We should be a safe haven for people who are persecuted elsewhere."

Mohamed Tohti, president of the Uighur Canadian Association, said the Chinese government seems to be saying that Mr. Celil is still a Chinese citizen, even though the Chinese constitution specifies that someone who gains citizenship in a foreign country automatically loses Chinese citizenship.

"If this loophole opens, there are a million Chinese-Canadians who could be punished by China," he said.

Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat in China who is now a political scientist at Brock University, said the Chinese authorities are using the Celil case to send "a message of disdain" to the new Conservative government in Ottawa.

"China has developed greater confidence of its role in the world in recent years," Mr. Burton said in an interview, "and sees Canada as less and less important to its national interests."

He criticized the Canadian embassy for failing to act strongly enough. "I cannot but think that if Mr. Celil was not a Uighur-Canadian, the embassy would be much more vigorous in pursuing this matter."

TUESDAY'S RALLY IS CANCELLED HOWEVER COMING THURSDAY THE 20TH REMAINS

2006-07-17T19:07:00.000-05:00

WITH UNEXPECTED ISSUES ON TUESDAY'’S RALLY CAUSE THE PROTESTING TO BE CANCELLED NEVERTHELESS THE 20TH RALLY REMAINS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE CANCELLATION.

A RALLY FOR BROTHER HUSYINCAN CELIL PROTESTING IN FRONT OF THE CHINESE CONSULATE IN TORONTO

2006-07-14T11:51:00.000-05:00

PLEASE MAKE A CONTRUBUTION AND ASK US HOW YOU CAN HELP IN THE ORGANIZATION VIA OUR EMAIL freehcorg@gmail.com

Uyghur Community in Toronto will have a peaceful rally in front of the Chinese Consulate General on Tuesday July 20, 2006 at 01.00pm

Please advise your friends to take part in the rally.

Address:
Chinese Consulate General
240 St. George Street,
Toronto
Ontario M5R 2P4

Take Action

Passport status a mystery

2006-07-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

MPs press to help Canadian in China
By Daniel NolanThe Hamilton Spectator(Jul 7, 2006)
A Burlington man appears to be in custody in China without his Canadian passport, raising fears China still regards him as a Chinese national and is ignoring Canadian requests to see him and check on his wellbeing.
China has still not confirmed to Canadian authorities that Huseyincan Celil, who fled China in 1994 because of his political work with the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang province, has been in their custody for the past two weeks after being extradited from Uzbekistan.
Calgary Tory MP Jason Kenny, who has taken a personal interest in the case as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary assistant, said this follows a diplomatic note, appeals from the Canadian ambassador in Beijing and appeals to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa.
Celil's wife in Burlington said that her brother in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, says Uzbeki authorities have told him Celil's Canadian passport remains in their hands, even after they handed him over to Chinese authorities at the end of June.
"When I heard that, I was really upset and angry," Celil's wife Kamila Telendibaeva said yesterday.
"It's really upsetting. They didn't give his Canadian passport when the government sent him to China. Maybe China didn't want the Canadian passport?"
She and her lawyer Chris MacLeod of Hamilton hope the government can do more to pressure China. MacLeod has appealed to Harper to send an envoy to China. Hamilton East-Stoney Creek New Democrat MP Wayne Marston, his party's human rights critic, also called on Ottawa to do more yesterday.
MacLeod is worried China's lack of response and not taking the passport indicates the father of six is viewed "as a Chinese national who left China and is now coming back to China . . . That fits the bill for China (that) this is not about a Canadian citizen."
Kyrgyzstan, a neighbour of China and Uzbekistan, accuses Celil of being behind two terrorist attacks in 2000, but his friends and family say that's impossible because he was living in Turkey as a refugee. He was sentenced to death in absentia in China for his political work, but Uzbekistan says China has told it he will not face capital punishment. Celil, who lived in Kyrgyzstan before moving to Turkey, came to Canada in 2001. Celil was detained in Uzbekistan in March while he and his wife visited family.
Kenny said Canada has asked Uzbekistan to confirm whether they transferred Celil to China without his passport. He called it a complex problem because China does not recognize dual nationalities. The Foreign Affairs website warns Chinese who have become Canadians that recognition of Canadian citizenship is not automatic.
"These are very pertinent questions," Kenny said. "There are many countries that don't recognize dual citizenship for a national, but we, of course, are treating Mr. Celil as a Canadian who deserves full consular access."
He said the government is looking at other measures to press its case with China.
dnolan@thespec.com
905-526-3351

Diplomacy isn't working

2006-07-10T12:40:00.000-05:00

By Robert HowardThe Hamilton Spectator(Jul 4, 2006)
Huseyincan Celil is a Canadian citizen believed to be in a jail cell somewhere in China. It is outrageous that a foreign government will not even say whether it has a Canadian in prison.
China is not even acknowledging it has the Burlington resident. His wife isn't sure he is still alive. That's utterly unacceptable and Beijing must be informed, in the strongest possible language, that Canada will not tolerate denial of basic human rights to Canadian citizens.
China is a trading superpower, which influences how tough other governments are in confronting it on its appalling human rights record. But Ottawa must insist, inside or outside traditional diplomacy, that Canadians are treated in accordance with international standards of justice.
Citizenship doesn't provide immunity against arrest or imprisonment in another country. But it must ensure Ottawa will go to bat for its citizens -- insisting on such basic rights as competent counsel and a fair and transparent judicial process.
Celil is accused by his native China of working for a violent separatist movement in Xinjiang province. He escaped China and received refugee status and later citizenship in Canada. Sentenced to death in absentia by a Chinese court, Celil was arrested in March in neighbouring Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan says he has been sent to China. Beijing is saying nothing.
This is all-too-familiar ground for Ottawa:
* William Sampson was imprisoned without a lawyer, brutally tortured and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia in 2001. Released in 2003.
* Canadian Zahra Kazemi died in Iran during interrogation after being arrested taking photos outside a prison. A medical witness says she was brutally tortured and raped and died of head injuries. No autopsy was ever allowed and the only person ever charged in her murder was acquitted.
* Maher Arar is a Syrian-born Canadian who was held as a terrorism suspect for a year without charges in a Syrian jail.
Diplomacy is traditionally based on notes and niceties. A rapid non-traditional response -- perhaps even a phone call from the Prime Minister's Office to one of Beijing's aging despots -- may be needed to save another Canadian from torture or death. Ottawa needs to act.

Quote of the Day

Harper gets plea to save Canadian

PM to aid detainee in China

Kyrgyzstan: human rights activists stage a picket in front of the Embassy of China

2006-07-10T12:39:00.000-05:00

Friday , 07 July 2006
Activists of the Uigur diaspora of Kyrgyzstan and local human rights community staged a picket in front of the Embassy of China in Bishkek on July 5.Protesters' first demand concerned citizen of Canada Huseyincan Celil detained by the Uzbek authorities this March and extradited to China where he was wanted as a religious extremist [see Ferghana.Ru report on June 28]. The Uigurs and human rights activists demanded his release. They also demanded to put an end to harassment of the family of Rabija Kadyr, the head of the Uigur Association in the United States.
The demands to Chinese Chairman Hu Jintao were turned over to Embassy officials, a copy was sent to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

China’s Islamic Frontier

2006-07-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

On June 27 the government of Uzbekistan transferred Huseyincan Celil, now a Canadian citizen, to Chinese custody to await execution. While authorities of the People’s Republic of China charge that Mr. Cecil is guilty of killing Chinese delegates in Kyrgyzstan in 2000, the evidence suggests that Cecil was in fact in Turkey at the time under the direction of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The Toronto Star noted that the man “was sentenced to death in absentia for founding a political party to work on behalf of the Uighur people in Xinjiang province.” Beijing’s insistence on the execution of a man who is likely to be purely a human rights activist is not difficult to explain, but rather illustrative of the anxiety the Chinese Communist Party maintains over the country’s Muslim west.
If China’s west is to be won, it will largely take place in the following decade. The Xinjiang Autonomous Uighur Region, located in China’s northwest, is home to approximately eight million Uighur Muslims – there are several million Hui, Kazakh, and Tajik Muslims as well – and is the likely flashpoint should any ethnic separatist movement threaten the mainland’s territorial integrity. The region’s most radical group, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), not only has ties to al-Qaeda, but is also providing the government in Beijing with a pretext for solidifying their control over the province’s Uighur population.
The vast majority of the limited debate that has occurred in the United States on this matter has mistakenly focused on the question of whether the Chinese do indeed have a terrorist problem, and in either conclusion, whether the CCP has manipulated the situation to consolidate their hold on the country’s restive population. While both issues must be taken into account when examining the situation in Xinjiang, the aspect that best encompasses the question of China’s Islamic west is the frontier factor.

The total population of Xinjiang remains relatively sparse. Of China’s 1.3 billion people, only about 20 million live in Xinjiang despite the fact that the province constitutes about one-sixth of China’s total landmass. The region’s expanding importance to China’s economy, the Islamic presence in the region, and the threat of separatist and terrorist organizations have led Beijing to conclude that the country’s northwestern frontier must be tamed.

The government’s handling of their Muslim citizens in the Chinese west has been both authoritarian and effective. Under the “Strike Hard” campaign begun in the mid-nineties, those who have studied in madrassahs abroad are monitored by Chinese authorities, and all material considered subversive is confiscated at the border from those returning from the Central Asia or the Middle East. Executions of suspected terrorists are frequent, while arrests are often made for the slightest potential infraction. Last year more than 18,000 were arrested in Xinjiang for what Beijing classifies as “endangering state security.”

As is the case with all religions in China, few decisions by Muslim leaders are made independent of CCP interference. There is one Islamic seminary in China and all imams must be graduates of this state-run institution. Imams are employees of the state and few actions are conducted without supervision by the official security apparatus or their informers. Such efforts are not limited to Chinese territory. About 350,000 Uighur immigrants live in neighboring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and Beijing has called on these Central Asian states to maintain a firm control of these populations to ensure that none come to pose a threat to China’s hold on Xinjiang.

The People’s Republic of China is among the world’s foremost violators of human rights. This has created a dilemma for Washington in both conducting the war on terror and in its relations with Beijing. In a diplomatic row between the two countries in May, Chinese officials harshly condemned the United States’ decision to send five Chinese Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay to Albania rather than back to their home country. Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao revealed his displeasure when he noted: “This act by the US and Albanian sides is a gross violation of international law and we are strongly opposed to this.” Pressure from Beijing was so strong not to accept these Chinese citizens that Albania was the sole country of more than twenty not to be intimated by the PRC’s demands.

In a piece in The Wall Street Journal on June 27, Uighur human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer detailed the nefarious methods used by the PRC in maintaining their uncontested authoritarian rule over Xinjiang. Ms. Kadeer was arrested in 1999 for sending newspaper clippings to the United States and planning to meet with a U.S. congressional delegation in the Xinjiang capitol of Urumqi. After the Bush administration secured her release in March 2005, a stern warning was issued. “Before I left Beijing, Chinese officials warned me that if I spoke out against the plight of the Uighurs, my children and my business would be ‘finished,” wrote Kadeer. Earlier this month Chinese authorities followed through on their word when they beat Ms. Kadeer’s children – allowing the female to call the mother during the beatings so she could hear the suffering – and latter arrested the three on charges of “plotting to split the state” and tax evasion.

While China’s leadership may falsely categorize those seeking human rights and greater autonomy as terrorists, and their methods of control fail to follow acceptable norms, it is clear that the PRC faces a real and legitimate terrorist threat. Islamists in Xinjiang maintain extensive ties to international terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda. The leading terrorist organization, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), maintains communications with jihadist groups in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of its more experienced members fought with the mujahadeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and safe houses and cells have been uncovered everywhere from Germany to Pakistan. In fact, in late June, Chinese diplomats in Pakistan wrote the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they had information that members of ETIM were operating in Pakistan and maintain plans to kidnap them.

Not only do Xinjiang Islamists operate in a diverse variety of states, but foreign extremists have sought refuge in the radical sectors of China’s Uighur community as well. Chinese authorities have captured Taliban militants in Xinjiang, and there have been reports that the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan maintains a cell in the province. It is also worth noting that outside terrorist groups come to Xinjiang not because of a perceived regional lawlessness, but because they expect to find elements in the Muslim community that will harbor them.

Extremist groups in Xinjiang also look to foreign terrorist organizations to draw inspiration for their propaganda efforts. According to Rohan Gunaratna and Kenneth George Pereire in the most recent issue of the China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, “ETIM, and associated groups, have learned from groups, such as the Chechen terrorists, to exploit Western human rights and humanitarian associations, to assist various activities.” Thus, the organization’s principle propaganda outlet is strategically based in Munich where the group hopes to capitalize on European liberalism.

On occasion ETIM has released videos that appear to emulate those produced by al-Qaeda. Footage of the airliners crashing into the World Trade Center has been celebrated in these videos and one such propaganda piece claims that the group has brought down a Chinese plane. While this claim has not been substantiated and is likely a fabrication, some analysts believe that the PRC’s efforts to contain ETIM’s profile – as well as limit the dissemination of information that could discourage human and capital investment in the region – provide for the possibility that such an event could have occurred.

The Chinese labeled ‘three evils’ of terrorism, separatism, and extremism may be a burden to the leadership in Beijing, but they also play to the CCP’s benefit. Chien-peng Chung, an Assistant Professor of Politics at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, noted in CEF Quarterly: “For all their collective malfeasance, it must be admitted that the ‘three evils’ offer rather good mass media propaganda for the PRC government to keep ethnic demands on the defensive, dismiss foreign scrutiny … and perhaps most importantly, sustain the unity of the Han Chinese ethnicity.”

The Han Chinese – the national majority constituting 92 percent of China’s population – are just beginning to settle China’s northwest in large numbers, but the demographics of Xinjiang have already greatly been altered in the last half-century. As was noted by the BBC, in 1950 Uighurs made up 94 percent of Xinjiang’s population, whereas today they are estimated to be just less than half. Nevertheless, Chinese officials maintain that they possess no plans to dilute the influence of Muslim Uighurs in the province as one official recently suggested: “There's very little difference in the ethnic balance between now and the early 1950s,” and Beijing’s encouragement of westward migration “certainly isn’t an issue of moving Han people to Xinjiang.”

Beijing’s lack of sincerity in their statements regarding the demographic implications of the Han Chinese settlement of the country’s northwest frontier is an inevitable result of the government seeking to avoid alarming Xinjiang’s Uighurs. The state has taken measures to contain any such future developments where “reactionary” elements may attract widespread support. This is largely being accomplished by Han migrations to Xinjiang. As Chien-peng Chung stated in his aforementioned work, “the government has been promoting an unstated but deliberate policy of ethnic encirclement by authorizing Han settlements in neighborhoods separate from, but close to, Uighur” communities.

The emphasis on maintaining a firm grip on the situation in Xinjiang is not only aimed at preventing a popular secessionist movement, but it also represents a concerted effort to ensure the economic stability of the region. The province of Xinjiang is becoming increasingly important to China’s economic growth, and its geographic location bordering Central Asia and Pakistan ensures the region’s vital role as a gateway for energy resources. While the Xinjiang is a significant producer of domestic coal and oil, it is also essential for the expanding quantities of oil and natural gas imported from Central Asia that must pass through the province on their way to China’s high consumption eastern cities. With Beijing’s efforts to secure energy resources across the globe, it is doubtful they will ease their grip on Xinjiang anytime soon.

China is settling its west and is likely to achieve success in bringing both economic prosperity and repression of regional autonomy to Xinjiang. Beijing and the region’s Islamic terrorists will continue to clash, and as Henry Kissinger stated during the Iran-Iraq War, it’s a shame they both can’t lose. But one thing is for certain: there will be many more Huseyincan Celil’s caught in the struggle for China’s Islamic frontier.

China: More Security for Envoys in Region

2006-07-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

By ILAN GREENBERG
Published: July 4, 2006
Chinese officials have urged Central and South Asian countries to increase security for Chinese diplomats after the deportations of Uighurs to China from neighboring countries. Uzbekistan announced last week the deportation of Huseyincan Celil, a Uighur in exile from China. Beijing says he is a member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which it calls a terrorist group. Mr. Celil was arrested in Uzbekistan in March and faces the death penalty if put on trial in China. In May, Kazakhstan deported two Uighurs to China to face charges of terrorism and sedition. Uighurs, who are Muslim, are half the population of Xinjiang Province, on the border with Kazakhstan.

Update on Uyghur in Uzbekistan, Husein Dzhelil or Celil

2006-07-10T11:55:00.000-05:00

I received this from Canada's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to my letter about Husein Celil. This is the first time I have received a response from authorities when I've written about a prisoner of conscience. Of course the difference here is that Canada is not the perpetrator in this case, but rather trying to free Husein Celil. Still, I am impressed that Canada took the time to respond to me. Here you can read about Husein Celil and email/mail your own letters on his behalf, to Canada (where he is a citizen) and Uzbekistan (where he is being held and likely to be extradited to China for execution).
I would be curious to hear whether other activists have received responses from authorities concerning any human rights concerns.
________________________________________
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0G2

May 15, 2006

Ms. Celia Llopis-Jepsen

Dear Ms. Llopis-Jepsen:

This is in response to your email of April 26, 2006, in which you
express concerns regarding the detention of Mr. Huseyincan Celil, in Uzbekistan.

I wish to assure you that officials of Foreign Affairs Canada in
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in Moscow, Russia, and in Ottawa, are aware of Mr. Celil's case and have been working tirelessly towards a resolution. Officials are actively continuing their diplomatic efforts and are in regular communication with Mr. Celil's family.

The Consular Affairs Bureau is mandated by the Privacy Act, which
prohibits the disclosure of personal information by a government department or agency unless the consent of the individual(s) who are the subject of the information has been obtained. Any personal information cannot be disclosed to unauthorized parties without the explicit consent of the individual(s) concerned.

As you can appreciate, the Canadian government has a legal obligation to safeguard the privacy of Canadian citizens. We would like to stress, however, that the Government of Canada is pursuing this matter very seriously in order to bring an end to Mr. Celil's detention in Uzbekistan.

Thank you for writing and taking the time to express your concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Janice Hayes
Director
Ministerial Correspondence Division

Family losing hope for missing Canadian

2006-07-07T15:14:00.000-05:00

Harper has yet to respond, they say
Ex-activist may be in Chinese prison

Jul. 5, 2006. 10:44 AM

JESSICA LEEDER AND HEBA ALY

STAFF REPORTERS

After 100 days since Huseyincan Celil was taken into foreign custody, questions still swirl around his disappearance, his whereabouts and the Canadian government's response.

The Chinese-born Muslim refugee is a Canadian citizen and father of six who has been shuttled between captors so secretively that his family isn't even sure he's still alive.

Aside from comments from Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay that his office began trying months ago to secure Celil's release, Ottawa has barely acknowledged the fact the Burlington imam and former political activist is a prisoner whose prospects turned grim when he apparently surfaced in Chinese custody last week. He faces a death sentence there.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not responded to a letter sent last week by Celil's Hamilton-based lawyer, Chris MacLeod, requesting he send a special envoy to secure Celil's release. Harper's help, Celil's family says, is their only hope.

Sandra Buckler, Harper's spokeswoman, said the letter was received. She could not say how long it will take Harper to respond, adding that response time varies depending on how many ministries are involved.

The case against Celil, who became a Canadian citizen last year, is confusing and complex. It involves allegations that he has multiple aliases, and that he used at least one of them to assassinate a political leader and commit terror-related crimes in Kyrgyzstan and China.

Celil's lawyer has deemed the allegations bizarre, and says he has documents to prove his client's innocence. It's unclear whether Ottawa has its own information on Celil's alleged crimes, or whether, over the past 100 days, he's simply slipped further into the cracks.

The saga of Celil's captivity began when the 37-year-old was arrested on March 27 in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan. He was there with his wife visiting relatives who travelled to see him from nearby China, and was taken into custody when he tried to renew a visitor's visa.

Celil's family said they suspected he was arrested because of Uzbekistan's close ties with China.

Celil was imprisoned in China in the mid-1990s, allegedly for political activities in Xinjiang province. He was connected to the Uyghurs, a minority group of Turkish-speaking Muslims who have been accused by China of leading a violent separatist movement.

After he escaped, Celil was admitted to Canada as a refugee in 2001. While he and his wife were beginning their new life in Hamilton, a Chinese court sentenced Celil to death in absentia.

When he was arrested in Uzbekistan last March, his family began to fear for his life, worrying he would be extradited to China and killed. But for nearly three months, Uzbek officials kept Celil in custody.

They allowed him three consular visits with Canadian representatives. He had no family contact.

But his future was quickly clouded by a statement issued by the Uzbek Embassy in London, suggesting Celil has multiple aliases, including "Guler Dilaver," a Turkish citizen wanted by neighbouring Kyrgyz law enforcement officials for "for membership in terrorism groups, kidnapping, taking hostages and illegal weapon possession."

A pro-government website alleges Dilaver was involved in a May 2000 attack on a state delegation in Xinjiang province. It also alleges he is responsible for the March 2000 killing of Nigmat Baizakov, former head of the Uyghur Society in Kyrgyzstan.

Celil's lawyer argues the charges are a "ruse" because Celil was in a different country at the time.

Seven month's pregnant with the couple's fourth child, Celil's wife, Kamila Telendibaeva, said she was told Uzbek authorities were waiting to see if her husband's fingerprints matched those on file in China and Kyrgyzstan before deporting him.

Last week, Uzbekistan confirmed it had turned Celil over to Chinese officials. Telendibaeva began wondering if her husband is even alive. Last week, she began pleading for help. "Only the Canadian government can help to bring my husband back," she said. "They have to do more. They have to do more."

MacLeod said if he doesn't receive a response from the Prime Minister's Office by the end of the week, he'll make the trip to China himself. He said a high-level intervention is necessary not only to free Celil, but also to ensure the safety of other Canadian immigrants travelling abroad. "They need to know that when they get a Canadian passport, they can actually safely leave this country for other countries."

The Canadian government insists it is doing what it can.

Last Tuesday, a diplomatic note — the strongest instrument governments can use to communicate without damaging relations — was hand-delivered to Chinese officials asking about Celil's whereabouts. So far, there has been no official response.

With files from Michael Mainville, the Star's stringer in Moscow

Kyrgyz Uyghurs Protest At Chinese Embassy

2006-07-07T15:12:00.000-05:00

Kyrgyz Uyghurs Protest At Chinese Embassy

Some of the protesters at July 5 picket in front of the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek

(RFE/RL)

BISHKEK, July 5, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Representatives of ethnic Uyghurs living in Kyrgyzstan today demonstrated in front of the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek to demand the release of an ethnic Uyghur held in a Chinese jail.

Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen, was detained by Uzbek authorities in Tashkent in March and later deported to China.

Beijing accuses Celil of involvement in an attack six years ago on a state delegation in China's western Xingijang Province, the home of Turkic-speaking Uyghurs.

The demonstrators handed over a petition to a Chinese Embassy official and dispersed peacefully after about one hour.

Canada presses China over deported Uighur activist

2006-07-07T15:10:00.000-05:00

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is pressing China to reveal what it has done with a Canadian citizen who is also a member of the Muslim Uighur minority, Canada's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Huseyincan Celil, who friends say fled China in the mid 1990s, was arrested in the central Asian nation of Uzbekistan in March. Uzbekistan has told Ottawa it deported Celil to China, the ministry said.

Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs account for about 8 million of the 19 million people in China's northwestern province of Xinjiang. Beijing has waged a long campaign against Uighur separatists, whom it labels terrorists.

Uighur activists say they fear China could put Celil, 37, on trial and then execute him. Celil has three young children in Canada and his wife is pregnant.

"When we were informed by Uzbekistan that Mr. Celil was extradited to China, Canada made immediate representations to the Chinese government ... we will continue to press China to confirm that he is in fact being held there," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Kim Girtel.

The Uighur Human Rights Project, an activist group based in the United States, said it feared Celil was "at extremely high risk of arbitrary detention, torture, and even execution."

Girtel said Ottawa had formally asked Uzbekistan to release Celil on humanitarian grounds.

Canada angered Uzbekistan last year when it agreed to resettle 50 Uzbek refugees, who fled to neighboring Kyrgyzstan after troops quelled an uprising.

Uzbekistan: Family Demands Release Of Uyghur Imam Extradited To China

2006-07-07T15:09:00.000-05:00

Uzbekistan: Family Demands Release Of Uyghur Imam Extradited To China

By Breffni O'Rourke

Uyghurs in Xinjiang, where Celil is from (file photo)

(epa)

The family of a Canadian Muslim religious leader extradited from Uzbekistan to China is demanding his release. Imam Huseyincan Celil, an ethnic Uyghur activist, is reportedly facing possible execution. Family lawyer Chris MacLeod told RFE/RL from Toronto that the Canadian government must make the strongest possible representations to Beijing to get him released.

PRAGUE, June 30, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Huseyincan Celil traveled from his home in Canada to Tashkent early this year to meet in the Uzbek capital with three of his children, who still live in China.

But disaster struck on March 27 when Celil was detained by Uzbek authorities apparently acting on a request from China.

MacLeod says that for Beijing to "flagrantly" trample on human rights when it is in the midst of preparing to host the world at the Olympics "is an offense to all freedom-loving people around the world."

Detained And Extradited

Family members visited him regularly in detention in Tashkent until mid-June, when he disappeared. The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs this week informed the family that Uzbekistan had extradited him to China.

"This is terrifying news," said Alim Seytoff, the director of the U.S.-based Uyghur Human Rights Project. He called this development "the worst-case scenario."

Seytoff was referring to the harsh treatment Chinese authorities have meted out to Uyghur rights activists and separatists seeking to restore an "East Turkestan" state in what is now China's western Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

Stronger Response From Canada?

In the Canadian capital, Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Department spokeswoman Kim Girtel said Canada would continue to press China to confirm that Celil is being held there.

But the Celil family's lawyer, Chris MacLeod, wants a more forceful approach. He told RFE/RL that Canada must let the world know that it should not "mess with Canadian citizens." He said in this case, Uzbekistan has seen fit to turn over a Canadian citizen to China without even consulting Canada.

"We want the Canadian government to very vigorously remind Beijing that 'A,' this is a Canadian citizen, he belongs nowhere other than in Canada; and 'B,' to remind them as well that China is hosting the 2008 Olympics -- a coming together of nations from around the world -- and that it is very inappropriate for them to be detaining Canadian citizens whose only offense has been exercising their right to express themselves," he said.

Uzbekistan, like Russia and other Central Asian republics, has a security agreement with Beijing that human rights groups say commits them to extradite any political dissidents wanted in China who arrive on their territory. China reportedly negotiated these deals with a view to countering the Uyghur separatists.

An Activist For Uyghur Issues

The lawyer denied that Celil had been involved in any acts of violence to further the Uyghur separatist cause.

"His 'crimes' -- if you can call them that -- in China were teaching Uyghur children -- those under the age of 18 -- their Turkic mother tongue, which is an offense; teaching them the tenets of their [Muslim] faith, and speaking out broadly against the oppressive tactics of the Chinese government in its dealings with the Uyghur people," he said.

Celil carried on similar activities in Canada as a Canadian citizen, advising and reminding the Canadian government of what the Uyghur people face in China. It was for this reason that he came onto the "radar screen" of the Chinese government, MacLeod said, and that's "just unacceptable."

However, China reportedly wants Celil on charges relating to an attack six years ago on a Chinese state delegation visiting Xinjiang province. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Further complicating the situation is that Celil's name appears in the sentencing document of Uyghur activist Ismail Semed, who was sentenced to death in 2005 for separatist activities. Celil is described in that document as an accomplice of Semed. It is not clear if Semed has already been executed.

Neither Uzbekistan or China has publicly commented on Celil's case.

Celil fled China in the 1990s for Turkey, and arrived in Canada in 2001 as a refugee.

The 37-year-old Imam has six children (three of whom are in Canada) and his wife, Kamila, is pregnant.

Canadian citizen facing execution in China

2006-07-07T14:35:00.000-05:00

Watch the TV Program

Canadian citizen facing execution in China

Updated Wed. Jun. 28 2006 11:21 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A Canadian citizen faces execution after being extradited from Uzbekistan to China.

Huseyincan Celil, a 37-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen from Burlington, Ont., was sentenced to death in China for human rights work he did on behalf of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province.

According to reports, Celil founded a political party in China to work on behalf of the Uyghur people.

Celil was arrested in March while he and his wife were visiting her family in Uzbekistan.

On Monday morning, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canada informed his wife that he had been extradited to China.

"It's terrible they sent him to China. I have no idea whether he's alive or dead," Kamila Celil told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday.

Celil said she has had contact with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and Parliamentary Secretary Jason Kenney, but she has little reason to believe they can help.

During the four months her husband spent in prison in Uzbekistan, no foreign affairs representatives visited to speak on his behalf, Celil said.

However, according to reports, MacKay sent a diplomatic note to Uzbekistan demanding Celil's return.

The couple has three children together, and another on the way.

Celil said she spent two days in hospital after learning of the most recent development in her husband's situation.

Huseyincan Celil fled China in the mid-1990s and came to Canada in 2001 as a refugee.

The Foreign Affairs department is attempting to establish contact with China regarding Celil's status, and will reportedly demand that an official from the Canadian consulate be allowed to visit him in jail.

Huseyincan Celil is in the hand of notorious chineese torment and Canada could not protect him even dough he is a citizen.

2006-06-27T14:35:00.000-05:00

Huseyincan Celil is in the hand of notorious Chinese torment and Canada could not protect him even dough he is a citizen.

However lately Canadian Government did use almost every possible avenue to protect their citizen from Iraq and Media was behind this issue with full pages support.

It was amazing how media and Canadian Officials worked together to save their citizens.

Unfortunately we haven’t seen any support and interest on Huseyincan Celil detention in Uzbekistan and finally extradition to China where most likely to be tortured to death.

We know Canada is a peace loving country with equalized human rights. But when it comes to practice we do not see the promises go through…

Sadly Husyincan Celil’s issue couldn’t even take place as much as Whales in danger or the World Cup’06.

Canadian citizen extradited to China could be put to death

2006-06-27T12:58:00.000-05:00

Uzbekistan has extradited a Canadian citizen to China, where he faces a death sentence.

Huseyincan Celil, of Burlington, Ont., has been extradited by Uzbekistan to China, where he could face execution as a political dissident. (Canadian Press)

Huseyincan Celil was sentenced to death in China for human rights work.

The 37-year-old was sentenced in absentia for founding a political party to work on behalf of the Uighur people, a minority ethnic group in the Xinjiang province.

A father of six, Celil fled China in the mid-1990s. He came to Canada in 2001 from Turkey as a refugee and became a Canadian citizen.

The Burlington, Ont., resident has been held in an Uzbekistan jail since March. He was arrested in March while trying to renew his visitor's visa in the capital Tashkent.

A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs said the department informed Celil's family of the development on Monday and is trying to confirm where Celil is being held.

Celil and his wife have three children in Ontario and he has three more in China, a family friend told the Hamilton Spectator in April.

The same friend said Celil was in Uzbekistan in an attempt to try to get his three children out of China, but didn't explain how.

Burlington man back in China, faces death

2006-06-27T12:49:00.000-05:00

By Daniel Nolan
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jun 27, 2006)

A Burlington man sentenced to death in China for human rights work there, now finds himself back in that country after being extradited from Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan has informed Canada they have handed Huseyincan Celil, 37, over to China. His family was told of the development yesterday morning by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The move has frightened his family and friends.

The father of six was sentenced to death in absentia for founding a political party to work on behalf of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province.

Celil, who fled the Chinese province in the mid-1990s, came to Canada from Turkey in 2001 as a refugee, and is now a Canadian citizen.

"It's an unfortunate turn of events," said Hamilton lawyer Chris MacLeod, who is liaisoning between Celil's wife Kamila and the Canadian government. "It's reprehensible that he goes from Uzbekistan to China when we put everyone on notice that we wanted him back."

MacLeod said Celil's wife is not doing very well.

"She's very emotional about it, obviously," said MacLeod. "China's record with Uyghurs is pretty terrible, and they were pretty hard on Huseyincan last time before he escaped."

The whereabouts of Celil, who was arrested in March while visiting Uzbekistan, had been unknown to his family for the last two weeks. They went to visit him in prison in the capital of Tashkent, but were told he had been transferred or moved because his cell was being reconstructed. They were not told where he had been sent.

Apart from the death sentence, it is alleged Celil killed Chinese delegates while in Bishkak, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, in March 2000; and kidnapped Chinese delegates in June of that year.

MacLeod and friends say that is impossible because Celil was in Turkey in 2000 under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. They believe the charges were trumped up because of his political work on behalf of the Uyghur people and to let China to get ahold of him.

His plight has drawn the attention of human rights groups across the globe, including Amnesty International.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay sent a diplomatic note to Uzbekistan demanding Celil's return.

Mississauga Liberal MP Paul Szabo, who has queried the government in Question Period about Celil's situation, called his falling into the hands of China a very grave situation.

"I think people can tell you that once you've been sentenced to death (in China) they don't wait too long to carry it out," he said. "It's time to say some prayers."

He said he has spoken to interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham and he is going to ensure the government has sent a diplomatic note to China on Celil.

Szabo didn't believe the Conservative government had done all it could to retrieve Celil from Uzbekistan and now must show its mettle in dealing with China.

"I can't imagine anything that would delay the government from taking the strongest stand possible," he said. "You have to fight this one big time, and if you didn't, what can you say to others Canadians abroad who get into some difficulty."

Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Kim Girtel said Canada is trying to confirm with China that Celil is in its hands.

She wouldn't say how hard it will press China for his return.

"It's step by step," Girtel said. "It's too early to speculate. We have to get confirmation from the Chinese authorities and from there go forward. At this time, it's premature. China is a big country. A very big country."

MacLeod called on Ottawa to send a parliamentary delegation to retrieve Celil from Uzbekistan and he reiterated that for China.

He said the "positive" aspect to Celil being in China is Canada and China have long-standing diplomatic relations and embassies as compared to Uzbekistan and Canada.

Girtel couldn't say if a delegation is being considered, but said department officials were aware of MacLeod's request.

Officials at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa could not be reached for comment.

dnolan@thespec.com

905-526-3351

Imam now in China's hands

2006-06-27T12:43:00.000-05:00

Jun. 27, 2006. 01:00 AM

DANIEL NOLAN

TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE

A Burlington man, who faces a death sentence in China for his human rights work, now finds himself back in that country after being extradicted from Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has informed Canada they have handed Huseyincan Celil, 37, over to China. His family was told of the development yesterday morning by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The move has frightened his family and friends. The father of six was sentenced to death in absentia for founding a political party to work on behalf of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang province. Celil fled the province in the mid-1990s and came to Canada from Turkey in 2001 as a refugee. He is now a Canadian citizen. "It's an unfortunate turn of events," said lawyer Chris MacLeod, who is liaisoning between Celil's wife, Kamila, and Ottawa. "It's reprehensible that he goes from Uzbekistan to China when we put everyone on notice that we wanted him back." MacLeod said Kamila is not doing well after receiving the news from Ottawa. "She's very emotional about it, obviously," said MacLeod. "China's record with Uyghurs is pretty terrible and they were pretty hard on Huseyincan last time before he escaped." Celil, an imam, was arrested and imprisoned in Uzbekistan in March. He, his wife and three children had been visiting his in-laws. Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Kim Girtel said yesterday Canada is trying to confirm with China that Celil is in its hands. Once that has been determined, Canada will demand a consul official be allowed to visit him in prison.Hamilton Spectator

Imam's location unknown

2006-06-13T12:08:00.000-05:00

Moved out of Uzbekistan centre
Burlington family fears he'll be killed

Jun. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM

NAOMI CARNIOL

STAFF REPORTER

Burlington imam Huseyincan Celil, an advocate for China's Uighur minority group held since April in an Uzbekistan detention centre, has been transferred to an undisclosed location, his relatives say.Celil's wife Kamila Telendibaeva told the Toronto Star that when her father visited the detention centre on Saturday, the guards there told him Celil had been transferred, but they wouldn't provide any details. Telendibaeva said she hasn't been able to sleep since learning of her husband's transfer. "I can't do anything," she said yesterday. "I'm always thinking, where is he?"Celil's family here worries he will be deported to China — which has strong ties with Uzbekistan — and killed. Celil was once imprisoned in China for working on behalf of the minority Uighur population in China's northwest Xinjiang province. He and his family arrived in Canada as refugees in 2001. They settled in Hamilton before moving to Burlington last year. Celil was sentenced to death in absentia by a Chinese court. He is also charged with murder and kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan..Celil was in Uzbekistan to visit his wife's relatives. He was arrested in March while trying to renew his visitor's visa in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, expressed concern about the latest development. "We're quite worried about Mr. Celil's whereabouts and safety right now in any country and that certainly includes a country where human rights violations are rampant like Uzbekistan. "It's precisely at a time when a government is refusing to provide information about a detainee's whereabouts that they're often at the gravest risk. Neve urged the Canadian government to be more involved. "It's a critical time for the Canadian government to be intervening very forcefully at very high levels of both the Canadian and Uzbek governments." Celil's lawyer Chris MacLeod agreed. "The only solution is for the prime minister to authorize a high-level parliamentary delegation ... to go to Uzbekistan with the intention of seeking Celil's release."

According to the teachings of the Prophet PBUH...

2006-05-29T17:23:00.000-05:00

Do you think that we have concerned and contributed properly on our Brother Huseyincan Celil and his issues according to the teachings of our Prophet PBUH.Please share your ideas…

Have Your Say - Forum

2006-05-29T17:20:00.000-05:00

Be Sincere And Serious...Having forum was one of our friends idea which may help our community in better way.
Do not be one of those people who do not participate at the point of just reading and having comment...

Nawaf Smadi and His Family's Contribution

2006-05-28T22:26:00.000-05:00

Huseyin Celil, Testimony at the Bishkek High Court in 1998.

2006-05-28T22:13:00.000-05:00

Huseyin Celil, Testimony at the Bishkek High Court in 1998.

Essalamu Alaikum we Rahmutullahi we Berakatahu.

Dear elders, emigrant brothers and sisters, travellers, ladies and gentlemen participating in this trial, masters! I
thank Allah for giving me this opportunity to say a few words and I thank you for spending your valuable time
through this trial. I am happy to be able to tell you about my problems, or instead my ill-fated people’s problems.

I am known as Dilaver Güler, my name is Huseyincan Qari Haji. I am a Turkish citizen, with Uyghur descent and I am
a merchant. Before I was arrested, I lived in Istanbul. I have been in Kyrgyzstan prison for 9 months and now I am
on trial with a chance to speak. You have all heard the reason of my incarceration throughout the trial. As I earlier
stated, there are two main reasons for my arrest: the first one is that I recite the Quran and the second is because I
became the voice against oppression because I could not stand the problems of my nation tied with a chain of
slavery. Anyone who has a mind knows that, in today’s world, especially in a democratic country like Kyrgyzstan, no
one can be arrested because of the reasons mentioned above, and no one can be deprived of his freedom.

This arrest is not right for two reasons. The first is that reading and teaching Quran is not a crime. It is true that
Kyrgyz People that make up of the majority population of Kyrgyzstan are Muslim. When I heard that Kyrgyzstan had
joined in International Islam Conference Organization, I thought that Kyrgyzstan regards itself as a Muslim country.
Therefore, it surely means that there is no ban in religion in this country; moreover, it guarantees the democratic
regime, freedom of belief, and freedom of speech. Because of these reasons, I made a test speech on the subject
of jihad through a video cassette which you have seen during the trial. But it was only in this cassette. As you have
heard the cassette, one of the commands of Allah to human being in the Quran, is jihad, as it is interpreted, is
based on surviving humans from being slave to other humans that carries the same meaning with human rights,
and there is an effort to practise it today. Therefore, because of my knowledge, it is my responsibility to inform my
people of that Islam is a modern religion and it already has predicted the principles that today’s modern world has
yet to bring up. It is also my responsibility that because I was a member of a nation, Uyghur, which is under
oppression. In that video cassette, I did not misinterpret the Quran for my personal benefits, and the cassette has
not been copied or distributed and no crime has been committed because of this cassette either.

The second is that our resistance against the government of imperialist colonialist China and the resistance
against colonization and invaders. This is a rightful action. It is not against international laws at all! It is not against
the principles of human rights, either.

Our rightful struggle has another factor directly related to Kyrgyzstan and the other Central Asian Republics: Our
freedom is a gain for our Central Asian Brothers, nothing is wrong at all! Eastern Turkistan has a role of defensive
city wall and bastion between China and the Central Asian Republics, and this could limit the Chinese invaders to
spread to the Central Asia. But now, since there is no such a wall to push back the Chinese, the Chinese invaders
have been expanding towards the Central Asia very fast! It is really very sad that they regard us as enemy, and our
brothers cannot exactly see the genuine threat which will be disastrous for them in the future, because they are
fooled by today’s very little benefits of China.

Just because of this reason, today, I am being interrogated as a criminal in the court of my own brothers! My
situation of today is contrary to the tradition of helping each other as it was used to be in the past, the time of our
forefathers and grand-fathers, and this trial is a proof of an animosity. I think my brothers have forgotten our
history.

First of all, we are the branches of a tree. We are the descendants of the same Turkish ancestors. We have never
been enemies to each other and we should never be! Second, because of the reasons I mentioned above, in the
history, whenever we are in trouble, we have always been a safe haven to each other, helped each other, solved
our problems and our goals have always been the same. For example, in the history, upon the invasion of Czardas
Russia, Kyrgyz, Kazak, Uzbek, Turkmen People who had to immigrate to Eastern Turkistan and had taken shelters
there. However, People of Eastern Turkistan had not surrendered them to the Czarist Russia. On the contrary, we
have provided safe shelters and helped them resettle in Eastern Turkistan. At a later time, our brothers who fleeing
from Bolshevik evil, had again taken shelters in Eastern Turkistan. Our grandparents had embraced them with
open arms. In sum, there had not been a demarcated border between us until the October Revolution. For
“Eastern Turkistan Islamic Republic” founded in 1933, they shed blood and lost their lives together. For example
Kyrgyz Osman Ali was one of the commanders with a high in foundation of this country. He had been attained as
the commander of the commandership in protection of the capital. Uzbek Setiwaldican had served for the
foundation of this country and been a martyr for its sake. If you remember the date of foundation of “Eastern
Turkistan Republic”, 1944, we will see the proofs that we struggled together hand in hand: Alihan Töre, Ishakbik,
Delilkan and many more are among the many of them. Because of the reasons mentioned above and the deep
historical roots of our people, considering all the Turkic People, we devoted the name of “Eastern Turkistan” to our
homeland. Today, the majority of our people are manipulated by the Communist China’s call their motherland as
“Uyguristan” externalizing other Turkish brothers. These so-called “nations” which were brought by separating
Turkish descendants are the findings of only these two Communist Empires! In such a way that; these brothers with
the same destiny are crushed under the iron feet of China in Eastern Turkistan today!

Today, considering our interrogation like an enemy as the Kyrgyzstan state seem to benefit as political factors and
diplomacy may seem to be reasonable in respect to its relations to China. It is not controversial that China is
providing with some little benefits today. But, have our brothers thought of tomorrow? How far can they understand
the Communist China? How much do they understand about the threatening national psychology of the Chinese?
With this opportunity, we caution our brothers to be deeply aware of Chinese Evil.

Now I will mention more in detail about the two points – two crimes thrown on me.

The first one is the matter of religious teaching. Qur’an Al-Karim is the holy book of Islam and it came to show the
righteous way to all human beings as a law of life and behaviour. The proofs of the science today is admirably
among the miracles of the Holy Quran and many scientists recognize and report the existence of Allah, the
righteous of Islam and that Quran is the Holy Book when they go deep in their fields of research in science. The
knowledge in the Quran includes all the phases of life and science. I, with my identity as a student reading this Holy
Book, have the responsibility to inform about the principles of this righteous religion as a mercy and grace of Allah
to human beings, because according to the principles of our principles, whoever has the knowledge of the right has
the responsibility to inform and teach the others. I only tried to perform my duty – duty of a believer, because I have
the knowledge. As submitted to Allah, we need the Quran as a guide to show us the true path. Since we are
Muslims, and further, we are an invaded nation, we had to hold the rope of Allah very tight, therefore I continued to
inform about my religion because we needed to find a way in the Book of Allah to survive as a nation under
oppression.

Our religion is at utmost level against injustice, tyranny, oppression of innocent people, being a slave to other
humans, suppressing others. Accordingly, our political goal is in harmony with the religion and was obligatory. Isn’t
it shocking to regard what I have done as a crime and consider it as an excuse to put me in prison depriving me of
my freedom? This action is also against humanity.

The second one is the crime of my resistance against the government of China’s illegal invasion and my passion of
my motherland.

It is a very simple knowledge that illegal invasion is a crime! It is not a crime to resist the invasion! It is a crime to
attack! It is not a crime to resist the attack! Colonialism is a crime! It is not a crime to resist colonialists! It is not a
crime to love your country! It is a crime to sell your country! If these are true, it is necessary to disregard the
second crime thrown on me!

Even if you do, with this opportunity, I want to go more in detail and share my problems with each of you about the
history and today of Eastern Turkistan.

Among the Turkic People, Uygurs are the people who make the first progress and know to found a state in very old
times. In the history, Uygurs founded countries such as “Uyghur Empire”, “Idıkut Uyghur Khan”, Kharahanlar Khan”,
Saidiye Khan”, “Kashgariya (Seven Region Khan)”, “Eastern Turkistan Islam Republic” and “Eastern Turkistan
Republic”. The surface area of some of these states reached to millions km2. Uygurs are amongst the first people
using the alphabet on the earth and brought paper and printing and press to human being. Although the lands of
Eastern Turkistan were first invaded by Manchu-China Empire in 1759, Chinese people could never live in these
lands. The actual colonization started in 1884 when China gave a name to our country in their own language. Since
then, our homeland has been treated as a colony of China. In today’s map, our land is 1.848.000 km2 and this is
the second largest land after Kazakhstan among the Turkic Republics. The Eastern Turkistan People have been
made slaves despite the fact that they have such vast lands, “the equal size oil reserves as all Arab world” and
furthermore 120 kinds of minerals as well as richness of its natural resources as the most ancient culture! Slavery
has ended and there is no more colonialism in the history. Today, there are international laws and regulations
about human rights and freedom, however, Eastern Turkistan people are forced to be slaves with most primitive
ways, with the most inhumane methods, the most ruthless, and the most brutal ways!

Today, even the wild animals are protected and their rights are defended, nevertheless, Eastern Turkistan People
are made slaves without any lawful defence not respecting their rights. Maybe, Central Asian Brothers compare
this to their own time of being colonized.

No! Do not do that! China cannot be compared to anything! From the old ages to today, there has been nothing
similar to China, and there will never be! Russia brought you new culture and development, but China brought us
poverty, uncivilization, backwardness and barbarous way of life!

The world is just watching silently the most ancient, civilized nation become uncivilized and barbarous day by day.
So-called intelligent authorized people take action for the wild animals which face extinction because of the
pollution in environment and the disorder in ecologic order, however, they stay quiet for the Eastern Turkistan
genocide, extinction moaning under this excessive cruelty! This unhappy people are slowly kicked out of life by the
contagious illnesses brought to artificial creature (by tests of biologic weapons), nuclear radiation, drugs which is
allowed on purpose and even test-practised secretly, children genocide under the name of “birth control”, poverty
and attitudes like masters of slaves, apparent tortures, beating as they beat a dog on the street!

However; the ‘merciful-compassionate’ world who has mercy on the wild animals, noisy for ‘human rights’, so-called
justice defenders ignore to see these disasters!

Is it a crime if the people mentioned above seek to survive and have their freedom? Then, what is the responsibility
of the governments that respect the human rights, and regard themselves as good country with democratic values
where there is freedom of belief - the government of the people, a blood brother to us? Should he help the enemy
and sell his brother? Should he jail his brother? Should he act against democracy and human rights?

Should he sell the peace, stability, the rights and the justice in return for little benefits that has yet to come from
China? Why not speed themselves up to become colonized at the end? Because, this action speeds up China to
invade the Central Asia! It is very sad that our brothers regard us as an enemy and threat to themselves, and
embrace China ignoring its beastly intentions to swallow them. China has green lights on just to expand their lands!
We have always been sincerely pleased with your freedom, unfortunately, you do not realize the worth of your
freedom, and see your enemy as an ally, and your ally as an enemy! We are afraid that this absurdity will shorten
your freedom that is not vouchsafed for us but you who do not know its value, because your happiness is our
happiness.

I will end my words demanding justice from you hoping that you remember my sincere warnings and distinguish
your allies from your enemies clearly. I thank everybody who has participated in this trial everyday spending their
valuable time and the court who has given me the right to defend myself.

May Allah bless my dear people who have broken hearts and great compassion not to have any homelands, and
who help me spiritually, support me with their words and attitudes, and encourage my efforts with their efforts.

May Allah bless us with freedom and a place among the people of the world, AMIN!

Uyghur Activists Picket Uzbek Embassy

2006-05-25T21:08:00.000-05:00

BISHKEK, May 25, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Around 30 protesters today picketed the Uzbek Embassy in Kyrgyzstan to demand the release of Huseyin Celil, a Uyghur activist currently in jail in Uzbekistan and wanted by the Kyrgyz authorities.

Uzbekistan seized Celil on March 27 acting on Interpol warrants issued by Kyrgyz and Chinese police.

Uzbekistan claims Celil, who was carrying a Canadian passport at the time of his arrest, is actually a Turkish citizen named Guler Dilaver.

Beijing believes he was involved in a May 2000 attack on a state delegation in China's western Xingjiang Province, the home region of Turkic-speaking Uyghurs.

Bishkek holds him responsible for the killing, in March 2000, of Nigmat Baizakov, the head of the Uyghur Society in Kyrgyzstan.

Protestors at the Bishkek rally, which was organized by a Uyghur rights group called Democracy, maintain that the charges brought against Celil are fabricated.

New Contributions

2006-05-14T14:35:00.000-05:00

S. M. Tora's Contribution

Sheikh Bilal's Contributions

China is driving this

2006-05-14T13:44:00.000-05:00

Faces kidnapping, murder charges

Allegations `are not valid": Lawyer

May 13, 2006. 01:00 AM
RICHARD BRENNAN
GTA BUREAU CHIEF

A Burlington Islamic religious leader being held in Uzbekistan has been charged with murder and kidnapping in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan in central Asia, his lawyer confirmed yesterday.
But Chris MacLeod told the Toronto Star the charges against Huseyincan Celil, a local imam, can be easily refuted, saying Celil was a refugee in Turkey when the alleged incidents happened in Kyrgyzstan in March and June 2000.
"We are now compiling our documents to refute those charges and we are not going to have much difficulty at all with that as he was in Turkey under UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) administration at the time," he said. "These charges are not valid. They are as far out there as you can get."
Celil, a human-rights activist jailed for working on behalf of the Uighur population in China's northwest Xinjiang province before his 1998 escape, was arrested in March while trying to renew his visitor's visa in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.
Celil, 37, was sentenced in absentia to death by a Chinese court for founding a political party to work for the rights of the Uighur people.
MacLeod said he is convinced "China is driving this" and that Kyrgyzstan is acting as an intermediary state. It is believed that even if Celil was transferred to Kyrgyzstan, he would simply be sent to nearby China.
"We've got UNHCR documents that say ... around June 14, 1999, that he is accepted ... as an official refugee in Turkey ... and he was with his wife and disabled son," he said.
The allegations are that Celil killed People's Republic of China delegates while in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, in March 2000, and then returned and kidnapped other PRC officials in June, MacLeod said.
"They had to come with something to hold him," he said. "It makes absolutely no sense for him to leave his wife and his newborn son to fly back to Kyrgyzstan, where he already had problems, commit crimes and then fly back," he said.
Celil and his family, who arrived in Canada as refugees in 2001, settled in Hamilton, where he became active in the Muslim community. The family moved to Burlington last year.
MacLeod said he would be providing the federal government with the necessary documentation next week to refute the charges, complete with pictures of Celil in Turkey, as well as statements from other people who were with him in Turkey.
Canadian officials could not be reached for comment.
MacLeod said Celil is getting weekly visits from officials from the Canadian consul in Uzbekistan, "and it is my understanding that he is in good health."
"We continue to request the government to push aggressively for his release and return to Canada," he said.

China 'crushing Muslim Uighurs'

2006-05-10T15:38:00.000-05:00

Burlington man accused of terrorism

2006-05-09T12:35:00.000-05:00

Family, friends deny charge
By Daniel NolanThe Hamilton Spectator(May 9, 2006)
The Uzbekistan government is accusing a Burlington father of six it is holding in jail of being a terrorist linked to two attacks in Central Asia six years ago.
But his lawyer and a friend say the story has been concocted by the government to back up their detention of Huseyincan Celil, 37, and to try and ease the heat it is facing for his imprisonment.
Celil's detention since March has drawn the attention of human rights groups across the globe, including Amnesty International. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretary, MP Jason Kenney, has also expressed concern about his fate and Ottawa has dispatched a consular officer from Moscow to keep tabs on the situation.
"We knew they had to come up with something to detain him," said Chris MacLeod, a Hamilton lawyer who is liaisoning between Celil's wife Kamila, and the Canadian government, over his imprisonment.
"It's absolutely not surprising. Whatever the currency of the day is ... if this was the early 1990s, it was the war on drugs. Now, you've got a war on terror. I fully expected them to make some sort of allegation."
Uzbek authorities alleged on the weekend they have proof Celil, a member of the minority Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province, is a Uyghur terrorist wanted by both China and the neighbouring nation of Kyrgyzstan. He came to Canada in 2001 and is now a Canadian citizen.
They say he is really Guler Dilaver, an Uyghur who had Turkish citizenship, and is wanted by Kyrgyzstan for the March 20, 2000, slaying of the head of the Uyghur Society in Kyrgyzstan. China wants him for a May 2000 attack on a state delegation in Xinjiang province.
MacLeod and Celil's friend Burhan Celik, of Ottawa, say the allegations are false because Celil was in Turkey at the time of the attacks, under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. They are compiling documents, including photos, to show he was in Turkey and plan to present them at a press conference in Ottawa today.
Celil fled Kyrgyzstan for Turkey in 1999. He sought shelter there in the mid-1990s from China, where he advocated for the rights of the Uyghur minority. There are fears he could face execution if extradited to China because of his political work within the Uyghur community.
Celil went to Uzbekistan with his wife and three sons. They visited her family and to see if he could get his other three children out of China, where he had to leave them.
MacLeod and Celik say Celil had a passport in the name of Guler Dilaver. Celik said his friend bought it for $1,000 US after he fled China, as protection if he was ever arrested, because there remains strong respect for a Turkish passport in Central Asia. Celil was arrested by Kyrgyzstan authorities in 1998, and released after admitting his real identity. But Celik said his friend never saw the fake passport again.
"They're just trying to make up a scenario," said Celik about the Uzbekistan's terrorist allegations. "I suggest they go with Stephen Spielberg. He's quite good with this type of movie. This is all made up. He has done nothing wrong."
MacLeod said, as far as anyone can determine, Celil remains in prison in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. He is suffering stomach pains, which MacLeod believes is linked to ulcers.
dnolan@thespec.com 905-526-3351

KEEP WRITING LETTERS TO FREE HUSEYIN CELIL

2006-05-05T14:01:00.000-05:00

KEEP WRITING LETTERS TO FREE HUSEYIN CELIL

(Ottawa, Canada - 05/04/06) - The Canadian Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-CAN) is reissuing its action alert calling for Canadian
Muslims to continue writing letters to help free Huseyin Celil, the Canadian
Muslim Imam detained in Uzbekistan.

“My children and I fear for Huseyin’s life everyday,” said Kamila
Telendibaeva, Mr. Celil’s wife, when she met with CAIR-CAN Executive
Director Karl Nickner. “My husband is a Canadian citizen and he should be
treated like a Canadian citizen. I believe the Canadian government has a
responsibility to do everything it can to protect his rights and bring him
home safely to Canada.”

Huseyin Celil, a Canadian Muslim who served as an Imam at a Hamilton,
Ontario mosque, was detained last month during a visit to Uzbekistan and is
facing deportation to China for possible execution. He is currently being
held under house arrest, and is in need of medical assistance for a stomach
problem. He has been denied access to a lawyer.

To read more about Mr. Celil’s case please see:
http://www.haltonsearch.com/hr/bp/story/3476326p-4016309c.html

CAIR-CAN has written to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and is also
one of the 12 organizations that have signed Amnesty International’s open
letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, requesting he work to free Mr.
Celil from imprisonment in Uzbekistan. That letter can be read here:
http://www.amnesty.ca/archives/open_letter_huseyin_celil2.php

The Canadian government has a responsibility to do everything it can to
protect the rights of all Canadians, even when traveling abroad.

Chris MacLeod, the lawyer for Mr. Celil's family, and opposition MPs have
called on the Prime Minister to personally intervene to help free Mr. Celil
and have him returned home safely to Canada. Please write to the Prime
Minister and urge him to do his utmost to free Mr. Celil.

ACTION REQUESTED:

1. WRITE to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. A draft letter has been provided
below.

2. FORWARD this message to your friends and family.

3. ANNOUNCE this action alert at Friday jumu'ah prayers to tell others in
your community to write letters. Please coordinate with your local mosques
for an announcement to be made.

Please send a copy of your letters to CAIR-CAN at canada@cair-net.org

The Right Honorable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario. K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca

DRAFT LETTER:

Dear Right Hon. Prime Minister Harper

RE: Huseyin CELIL; Canadian Citizen Imprisoned in Uzbekistan

I write to you today out of concern for Huseyin Celil, a Canadian Muslim
Imam who has been detained in Uzbekistan and is facing deportation to China
for possible execution. Mr. Celil is a Canadian citizen who had been
traveling on his Canadian passport when he was imprisoned.

I appreciate the efforts to date of the Canadian government in trying to
free Mr. Celil, however I urge you to continue to do your utmost to protect
the rights of this Canadian citizen. Opposition MPs, such as Paul Szabo and
Dan McTeague, have suggested that you, Mr. Prime Minister, should personally
intervene in this case to secure Mr. Celil’s release. This has been done by
previous Prime Ministers and high ranking politicians for other Canadian
citizens in the past.

I urge you to uphold the responsibilities of your office and ask that you do
your utmost to ensure that the rights of all Canadians are protected, even
when abroad. Please help free Mr. Celil so that he can be returned home
safely to Canada.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

Uyghurs Hit By Autocratic States' Cooperation With Beijing

2006-05-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

Central Asia: Uyghurs Hit By Autocratic States' Cooperation With Beijing By Gulnoza Saidazimova
Uyghurs in China complain of severe repression and discrimination (file photo)
(epa)
An Uyghur political dissident from China, Huseyin Celil, remains in detention in Uzbekistan. Celil -- who is now a Canadian citizen -- was arrested in March in Tashkent at the request of Chinese authorities. Human rights groups fear that Celil might face torture and even death if extradited to China. Meanwhile, two more Uyghur men have been in detention in neighboring Kazakhstan. Observers say Uyghurs are victims of cooperation between the autocratic states in Central Asia and China.
PRAGUE, April 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Thirty-seven-year old Huseyin Celil, an ethnic Uyghur originally from northwestern China, was detained in Tashkent on March 27.
Celil was with his wife and three children visiting his in-laws in Tashkent. He was detained while applying for a renewal of his Uzbek visa.
Amnesty International says it has documented several cases of Uyghurs being sentenced to death and executed in the XUAR for alleged acts of separatism and terrorism in recent years.
Held Without Charges
Celil's wife, Komila Telindibaeva, returned to her home in Hamilton, eastern Canada, after several futile attempts to see her husband, who was held by the Uzbek Interior Ministry. She tells RFE/RL that no charges have been brought against Celil so far.
"They (Uzbek authorities) don't say anything, we heard nothing from them," Telindibaeva said. "They don't say what they will do. They haven't said anything to the [Canadian] consul when he phoned them."
Before obtaining a refugee status in Canada in 2001, Celil was a political activist and fought for the rights of Muslim Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where he was arrested and allegedly tortured. In 1996, he fled to Kyrgyzstan where he also spent nine months in jail at China's request, Telindibaeva says. After being acquitted, Celil fled to Turkey before reaching Canada.
Celil's wife says he has not been involved in any political activity since fleeing China.
Canadian Government Involved
Rights watchdog groups and 12 other nongovernmental organizations expressed concern over Celil's fate saying he is likely to face torture and execution if returned to China. They wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking him to intervene personally.
Beth Berton-Hunter, Amnesty International's information officer, spoke to RFE/RL from Toronto.
"That's very much our concern and that's why we've asked the Canadian government to intervene on his behalf as a Canadian citizen and to ensure that he is released and returned to Canada," she said.
Beth Richardson of the Canadian Embassy in Moscow told RFE/RL on April 27 that embassy officials have been in contact with Uzbek authorities about the case. The embassy official is in Tashkent where she met with Celil, Richardson said, but she refused to speak of Celil's current state. Neither did she elaborate on Ottawa's negotiations with Tashkent.
Canadian authorities say they are using all possible diplomatic avenues, including appeals to other countries, to press for the release of Celil from jail.
Prime Minister Harper assigned his parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, to personally deal with the case.
Speaking after Celil's wife, Telindibaeva, gave a press conference on April 26, Kenney said it was "outrageous" that the Uzbek authorities detained Celil without any clear explanation as to why or what their interest is in him.
He added that Ottawa is "preoccupied" with Celil's fate and is pressing the case "with full vigor."
Others Also Detained
Meanwhile, two more Uyghur men remain in detention in Kazakhstan.
Thirty-five-year old Yusuf Kadir Tohti and Abdukadir Sidik, aged 30, both originally from the XUAR, were detained in Kazakhstan last month.
Tohti has lived in Kazakhstan since 1996 and worked as a religious teacher. In China, he was accused of promoting separatism.
Sidik fled the XUAR in 1999 after publicly protesting against Beijing's policy on minorities, particularly the family planning policy, which limits the number of children families can have.
Amnesty International's Berton-Hunter says all three men were detained on an extradition request by China.
"There is certainly an arrangement between the different Central Asian countries and China," she says. "What has been confirmed is that they are sending people back to China. What the whole issue is, really, that it's Chinese-driven as far as we can see."
Chinese authorities have accused Uyghurs -- Turkic-speaking Muslims -- of violent Islamic separatism aimed at creating an independent state of East Turkestan in northwestern China.
Official Beijing has labeled separatism, terrorism, and extremism as "three evil forces" and, as many argue, used them as a pretext to crack down on dissent. Experts also say China has used the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to target dissidents.
Notably, the three arrests took place before the SCO defense minister gathering in Beijing on April 26, when the group -- which is comprised of Russia, China, and four Central Asian states, marked its 10th anniversary.
Dilshod Rashid, a Sweden-based spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, tells RFE/RL that Uyghurs have become victims of cooperation between Central Asian states and China.
"When the whole world put diplomatic, political pressure on Uzbekistan after the Andijon events, [Uzbek President] Islam Karimov was [embraced] in Beijing," Rashid said. "This was a demonstration of cooperation between two dictatorial states.
One of the aspects of this cooperation is that in Uzbekistan, Uyghurs and even pro-democratic Uzbeks have been oppressed and thrown in jail. Arrests of people fighting for East Turkestan's freedom and [possible] extradition of them to Beijing is also a result of this cooperation."
History Of Repression In China
Human rights groups say that if returned to China, the three men would be at serious risk, including torture or other ill-treatment, possibly even the death penalty.
Komila Telindibaeva also expressed fear for her husband's future if he would be extradited to China. "I am fearful of China," she said. "He didn't do anything wrong in Central Asia. He was detained only at the request of China."
Amnesty International says it has documented several cases of Uyghurs being sentenced to death and executed in the XUAR for alleged acts of separatism and terrorism in recent years.
The most recent case is Ismail Semed, an Uyghur human-rights activist, who was sentenced to death following deportation from Pakistan to China and was likely executed, the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project said earlier this month.

Huseyin Celil has been moved out of prison to house-arrest. We thank Jason Kenney for his support.

2006-04-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

Huseyin Celil has been moved out of the regular solitary confinement to house-arrest in Tashkent. It is controlled by the Uzbeki apparatus. Canadian Consular staff and his mother-in-law met with him. He looked fine physically but he needed medicine for his ulcer.
April 29, 2006
Kyrgyzstan for the very first time, requested his extradition on bogus allegations. He was alleged to commit crimes at a time he was not even in the Continental Asia. We are hopeful that he will exonerate by means of alibi. If you think you have known Mr. Celil in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan or Turkey, please give us a call or write to us.

Celil's family, friends appeal to PM

2006-04-26T11:40:00.000-05:00

OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government says it is using "all possible diplomatic avenues," including appeals to other countries, to press for the release of Canadian Islamic religious leader Huseyin Celil from jail in Uzbekistan.
Celil, a political dissident who fled his homeland in the mid-1990s before coming to Canada as a refugee and getting citizenship, faces deportation to China and possible execution.
"It is outrageous that the Uzbeki authorities have detained Mr. Celil without any clear explanation as to why or what their interest is in him," the prime minister's parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, said Wednesday.
"It is totally unacceptable to the government that it took some three weeks after his initial detention for Uzbeki authorities to permit access by Canadian consular officials.
"We publicly call upon the Uzbekistani government to co-operate fully with Canadian consular officials, which is their international legal obligation."
The statement came after Celil's pregnant wife, Kamila Telendibaeva, held an emotional news conference along with Amnesty International at Parliament Hill on Wednesday, where she read a statement pleading for help.
"We came to Canada (because) we wanted peace and a home to raise our family," she said, stopping repeatedly to fight back tears. "In Canada, we thought that we could speak freely and express our fears.
"Now my husband is facing extradition to the very country he fled from. I ask you, please, don't let them return him to China. . . . I don't want my unborn child or my two boys to ask who their father was or why he can't come home."
The human rights group and 12 other non-governmental organizations have written Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking him to intervene personally to help Celil, who has championed the cause of the Uygur people, an ethnic Muslim minority in China's Xinjiang province.
Kenney said Ottawa is "preoccupied" with Celil's release and has dedicated a full-time consular official out of Moscow to press the case in Uzbekistan "with full vigour."
"We are looking at and using all possible diplomatic avenues to press for his release," Kenney said.
"We have been and will be engaging other countries to assist us in this matter because, quite frankly, Canada has a very modest official presence in the central Asian region. We don't have an embassy or even a consulate in Uzbekistan or in neighbouring countries."
The issue is close to Kenney's heart. He made a controversial departure from a Canadian trade mission in China last year to visit the family of a dissident. He said Wednesday that weaker people suffer continuing, systematic persecution in China, "which is precisely why Canada granted convention refugee status to Mr. Celil in the first place."
Supporters want Canada to ensure legal counsel for Celil.
Celil was arrested in Uzbekistan on March 27 when he tried to renew his visa while the couple and their children were visiting Telendibaeva's family. No charges have been laid.
Telendibaeva returned to Canada last weekend after she was repeatedly denied visits to see her husband in jail. He was apparently arrested on a warrant from China and a ruling ordering his execution.
Amnesty International fears Celil, who escaped prison in China once, will be sent back because of close ties between the two countries and mutual extradition treaties.

Wife of man arrested in Uzbekistan returns alone

2006-04-26T11:38:00.000-05:00

Burlington man could be facing death`Canada needs to be very vocal': Lawyer
Apr. 24, 2006. 01:00 AM
NAOMI CARNIOL
STAFF REPORTER
Huseyincan Celil's Burlington townhouse is full of voices. The voices of friends, children and his wife. One voice is missing. His.
After the Canadian citizen's arrest in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent on March 27, his wife, Kamila Telendibaeva, visited Uzbeki authorities begging for his release before she returned to Canada on Friday evening.
Celil, a Burlington imam, was once imprisoned in China and Kyrgyzstan for working on behalf of the minority Uyghur population in China's northwest Xinjiang province.
His family fears he will be sent to China and killed.
China and Uzbekistan have strong ties. Both belong to the Shanghai Co-operation Organization and the leaders of both countries take a hard stance against political opposition.
The Uzbeki authorities were waiting to see if Celil's fingerprints matched those on file in China and Kyrgyzstan before deporting him. The prints have been matched, Telendibaeva said.
As far as she knows, her husband is still in Tashkent. She knows which detention centre he's being held at.
But the authorities wouldn't let her visit him. "I was allowed to send a letter," she said in Turkish through a translator.
She misses her husband. "We've been married for six and a half years and never had a major argument," she said.
The couple's recent trip was supposed to be a vacation. Telendibaeva hadn't seen her parents, who live in Uzbekistan, in more than six years.
The Celils and their three young children flew to Kyrgyzstan in February to see an ill relative of Telendibaeva's before heading to Uzbekistan. After a month in Tashkent, the family decided to extend their trip.
On March 23, Celil visited Uzbeki authorities to renew the family's visitors' visas. He was told to come back in five days.
On March 27, Celil left for the visa office with Telendibaeva's father and brother at noon. At 10 p.m., Telendibaeva's father and brother returned without Celil.
China re-activated Celil's file in 2002, the family's lawyer, Chris MacLeod said. By that time, Celil had already been living in Canada for a year.
He often led prayers at the Ebu Bekir Islamic Centre in Hamilton. He also gave lectures on religious topics. But he rarely spoke publicly about the struggles of the Uyghur people, his family and friends say.
Three of his children from an earlier marriage remain in China. He was worried if he spoke out they would be punished, MacLeod says.
From time to time, Celil spoke on the radio. Once he attended a conference in Ottawa. That seemed to be enough for China to re-open his file. "The risk of harm he faces in China ... is a direct result of exercising freedom of expression," MacLeod says. Canada needs to be very vocal to the Uzbeki authorities, he says.
Telendibaeva just wants her husband where he belongs, she says. In Burlington. On the chair next to her.

Brother Celil's Wife Returned

2006-04-22T11:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday around 06.30 pm, Mrs. Kamila Telendibaeva arrived in Toronto International Airport. A Group of her friends, Celil's family lawyer, and media were there to support Mr. Celil's Wife and her children.
As we understood, from her comments, that Brother Celil's situation remains same condition and the help of those who speak and claims for his safe return have not been showing up.

Canadian Government and Officials are being slow at this moment and media’s interests for this subject are not serious.

We pray for Brother Husyincan Celil for his safe return…

One of the regular Letter from President's Office yet...

2006-04-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

Dear S.M. Tora:

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which fallswithin the portfolio of the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister ofForeign Affairs. The Prime Minister always appreciates receiving mail on subjects of importance to Canadians.

Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail toMinister MacKay so that he too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will give your views every consideration. For more information on the Government's initiatives, you may wish tovisit the Prime Minister's Web site, at www.pm.gc.ca.

L.A. LavellExecutive Correspondence Officerfor the Prime Minister's OfficeAgent de correspondancede la haute directionpour le Cabinet du Premier ministre

Huseyin Celil's fingerprints matched

2006-04-19T19:44:00.000-05:00

April 17, 2006
We have communicated with Mrs. Celil in Tashkent. She is on her way to Toronto, most probably will arrive on April 21. She could not get sufficient assistance from Canadian officials in Tashkent and she has indicated that Canadian diplomats change so often, neither she nor Consular affairs staff becomes familiar with each other or the case.We sincerely thank Amnesty International's kind efforts for the case. AI Canada brought the issue in front of the Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as other pertinent officials and institutions.We have received telephone calls from supporters from many locations across Canada. Despite the divergent locations we have received telephone calls, they most often converge on an issue as to whether there are levels of Canadian Citizenship -depending on race, ethnicity, place of birth or naturalized/citizen by birth. As advocates of the case, we thought it may be prudent to raise this question on our website. Because we do not really know if there are tiers of citizenship and different denotations. We have conducted a research on the citizenship issue on the Parliament website. It may help you better understand the concept. There are different accounts for the concept. The discussants could not deny existence of different tiers of citizenship. Mr. Lorne Waldman, an expert lawyer on immigration and citizenship has stated"I just want to say that the major concern I have about the legislation in general is what I see as a significant erosion in the rights of certain categories of citizens. We're going to create in Canada two classes of citizens: those who acquire citizenship by birth, either because they are born in Canada or they are born of Canadian parents, in which case they are immune from the revocation proceedings, and those who are naturalized."
April 19, 2006
We communicated with Mrs. Celil in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She stated that the fingerprints were matched with Kyrgyzstan and China. Further to that, she was informed that both China and Kyrgyzstan have requested Mr. Huseyin Celil be extradited to them. As we know, Uzbekistan requested an Interpol clearance on Huseyin Celil and China and Kyrgyzstan responded positively to the request.She said she was given some of the personal items such as her purse, credit cards and ID's for the children. The Consular staff in Tashkent helped her to get them back.
RFA Correspondent Kamil Tursun conveyed Rabeeya Kadeer's speech to us. She urged the Government of the United States to act immediately to save Huseyin Celil and other human rights activists. She also reiterated that China pressures even most democratic western societies to hand over political dissidents to China as in the case of Ismail Samad and possible Huseyin Celil. She emphasized that despite UNHCR's clear-cut guidelines and regulations, Uzbekistan does not follows the rules and bows to Chinese pressures. This also indicates that it is time to globally caution Uzbekistan for their non-UN-compliant activities and possible referral to UN Security Council where China also holds a permanent seat.
Morteza Jafarpour, SISO's Executive Director, emphasized their commitment to refugee and immigration issues as well as human rights activism. Therefore, he stated that they will help Mrs. Celil as much as possible such as translation services and transportation in Hamilton-Burlington area. He also stated that they are in close contact with Chris MacLeod.

We hope the same result for our Brother Huseyincan Celil

2006-04-18T15:35:00.000-05:00

Canadians win freedom for Chinese dissident

After years of punishment for defacing Mao portrait, Lu 'grateful' to be here

ROD MICKLEBURGH

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER — Lu Decheng, who spent nine years in a Chinese jail for splotching the famous portrait of Chairman Mao in Tiananmen Square, is safe and sound in Canada after Canadian authorities secured his release from a Thai detention centre.

The 43-year-old former bus driver, smiling broadly, was greeted upon his arrival at Vancouver International Airport yesterday by a relieved group of pro-democracy activists who had been at the forefront of efforts to bring him to Canada.

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr. Lu said he was exhilarated to be in a country "with a civil society where I can breathe the air of freedom. I am very grateful."

Activists credited behind-the-scenes diplomacy by the federal Conservative government for winning Mr. Lu's freedom, after Thai officials, acting on pressure from China, kept him locked up despite the fact that he had a valid immigrant's visa to Canada.

"The government got involved and that was probably the reason he was released in such a short time," said Cheuk Kwan, chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.

"It's a refreshing change [from the Liberals] to have a government putting emphasis on human rights over pure trade and business. They did a good job."

Mr. Lu was one of three boyhood friends who travelled from Hunan province to the mass student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The trio decided to make their own protest by hurling egg shells filled with coloured dye at Chairman Mao's huge portrait. But students quickly corralled the three young men and turned them over to police.

All were treated far more severely than any of the student protesters, receiving prison sentences from 16 years to life for "counter-revolutionary" activities.

Yu Dongyue, the last of the three to be released, was not freed until Feb. 22 this year. Family members have said he is now like a child, driven mad by years of solitary confinement and beatings.

Although he was paroled in 1998, Mr. Lu said Chinese authorities continued to hound him, making it impossible for him to earn a living.

He slipped out of China in late 2004, he explained yesterday, seeking to escape Chinese harassment and to publicize the prison plight of Mr. Yu.

"One of us had to get out and tell the world how the Communist regime treated us in prison," Mr. Lu said.

But when Chinese authorities learned that Canada had granted Mr. Lu refugee status earlier this year, they put pressure on Thailand to keep him in custody while seeking his return to China.

"China . . . does not have any so-called 'political refugees,' " a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry declared. "Lu Decheng left China in violation of Chinese laws."

Mr. Lu already had a March 14 plane ticket to Vancouver when the Chinese intervened and the date passed.

Now, he is free, on his way to Calgary to finally begin his new life in Canada.

The case was considered an early test of the Conservatives' pre-election pledge to place a greater emphasis on human rights in China than past Liberal governments have done.

Kim Girtel, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, shed few details on how Mr. Lu's release was arranged.

"We did see reports alleging that Mr. Lu was having difficulty exiting Thailand, and we communicated our concern to Thai authorities," she said, declining further comment.

Citing weariness from 22 hours of travel, Mr. Lu declined to go into a lot of detail about his youthful, anti-Maoist escapade. "It's a very long story, and my mind is kind of muddy right now."

But at one point, he smiled at the recollection of putting the oil-based dye into the egg shells.

"The worst thing was that it was not the Chinese police who caught us. It was the students who took us to the police," Mr. Lu said. "Of course, it was a very regretful incident."

Nearly 2000 Petition Letter to the President signed yet we need more...

2006-04-16T23:32:00.000-05:00

Started by Friday with the help of our community, we have claimed that our concern on the issue is a prior. We have urged our brothers to sign a petition letter to the President. Our brothers who contributed in the distribution and organization have set an example of a strong character of our community, which has to be strong and dynamic. From Mississauga, Anatolia Islamic Centre to ISNA, Halton Mosque in Burlington, Downtown and Mountain Mosque, Ebu Bekir Islamic, Omar Mosque Centers in Hamilton petition letters were distributed.

However, we need more support from our community for our brother Celil. We have to take this issue seriously with a sincere concern.

Please try to urge and organize your community or friends to make this petition stronger.

Writing and sending a letter to the President is easiest and effortless thing with no cost-no need to stamp-.

You can find an example letter below or contact us we can send you a copy of the letter.

Beijing tightens control on Uyghurs

2006-04-16T15:58:00.000-05:00

Analysis Diplomats fear Ontario man could be deported to China and executed.

Apr. 16, 2006. OLIVIA WARDFEATURE WRITER

China's spectacular northwestern region of Xinjiang is burgeoning. Its population has increased by 9 per cent in the past five years, and every month brings the announcement of another industrial mega-project.
But, experts say, Xinjiang's success conceals — and also contributes to — the underlying tensions between China and its population of Muslim Uyghurs, who have been denounced as dissidents, rebels and even terrorists.
Huseyincan Celil, a Burlington Muslim religious leader arrested March 26 in Uzbekistan after working for the rights of Xinjiang Uyghurs, is feared to be in danger of deportation to China, where he might face execution.
According to human rights groups, more than 190 Uyghurs (pronounced wee-girrs) have received the death penalty since 1995, and the total could be far higher. Celil has already been sentenced to death in absentia by a Chinese court for founding a political party that works for Uyghur rights.
New York-based Human Rights Watch says extensive research has revealed "a multi-tiered system of surveillance, control and suppression of religious activity aimed at Xinjiang's Uyghurs. At its most extreme, peaceful activists who practise their religion in a manner deemed unacceptable by state authorities or Chinese Communist party officials are arrested, tortured and at times executed."
Beijing has denied repressing the Uyghurs, and it insists that their rights and religion are respected. But since 1990, when a major Muslim uprising took place in Baren, northwest of Kashgar, China has tightened its control over the frontier territory. Tensions escalated again in 1997, when a peaceful protest near the Kazakhstan border was brutally suppressed and thousands of Uyghurs were arrested.
For years, the Chinese government kept ethnic problems quiet, in the face of Western criticism. But it reversed that policy dramatically after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States by Muslim extremists. A "strike hard" campaign to root out suspected separatists is ongoing, and China has announced that 1,000 Uyghurs were trained by Al Qaeda in a bid to link the 7 million-strong community with international terrorism.
Beijing also has denounced the "three evil forces" of separatist, terrorist and religious extremism" in Xinjiang and declared the East Turkestan Islamic Movement — named for the Uyghurs' title for their homeland, Eastern Turkestan — as a terrorist organization. Western analysts have pointed to "pockets of militancy" in the region, but most have concluded that these groups have little strength or influence.
Although Islam is one of the major religions officially permitted in China, human rights groups say a thicket of regulations and intrusive scrutiny by the Chinese authorities has made it difficult for Uyghurs to practise their faith, most often a moderate Sunni brand of Islam.
"China genuinely believes the Uyghurs are in league with Islamist groups," says a European businessman who has worked with Beijing for more than 10 years. "It is also convinced that countries like the United States are trying to undermine its economy by funding extremists. The government feels that an outbreak of terrorist attacks would put an end to new investments in Xinjiang."
Suspicions escalated after Washington established military bases in Central Asia to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, writes Joshua Kurlantzick in the journal Foreign Affairs. "Xinjiang suddenly found itself at the centre of a battle between China, Russia and the United States for control of Central Asia."
China is well aware of the economic element of the struggle.
In spite of its jagged mountains, deserts and punishing climate, Xinjiang is potentially one of the wealthiest parts of China, which formally integrated it in 1884 — an event the Uyghurs never accepted.
But with its vast land mass, oil and gas deposits and mineral riches, China has kept Xinjiang from seceding with an iron hand.
Now, notes Christian Tyler in Wild West China: The Untold Story of a Frontier Land, Xinjiang is also a valuable prize for China's flagging Communist Party.
"Only too conscious of what happened in Soviet Russia, the Party will go to any lengths to maintain its control, and especially to control the natural resources of Xinjiang."
With the development of natural resources has come environmental devastation, along with the migration of millions of Han Chinese. They now officially represent 40 per cent of Xinjiang's population — but have been reported to outnumber the Uyghurs.
Writes Tyler: "The Han have the pick of the high-paid jobs; they can readily get the permits which allow them to run private businesses; they are treated preferentially when it comes to raising a bank loan; and they can obtain a city residency permit, while a Uyghur who may have lived in the city for years is refused."
Furthermore, says researcher Ben Carrdus of the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, "there are signs every day of consolidation of Chinese control. Huge amounts of money have gone into the extractive industries, and they haven't got it back yet. The idea is to fill Xinjiang with people and build a big tax base. But the Uyghurs get much less than their fair share of the benefits."
Since 2001, he says, China has also been strengthening its ties with neighbouring Central Asia under the umbrella of the Shanghai Co-Operation Organization — including despotic countries such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan that ruthlessly crack down on minorities and political dissidents.
Carrdus says Canadian fears that Celil may be removed to China are well founded: under the SCO charter, calling for "a new security concept anchored on mutual trust, disarmament and mutual security," Central Asian countries have allowed Beijing officials to remove suspects, without lengthy review procedures.
Pakistan, too, has co-operated with China by deporting suspected separatists and terrorists. According to Amnesty International, Ismail Semed, an ethnic Uyghur who was deported from Pakistan in 2003, "is at risk of imminent execution" after being sentenced to death on political charges.
Even before 2001, however, Pakistan bowed to Chinese pressure by expelling young Uyghurs studying at Pakistani colleges. Some were reportedly executed.
China has also asked the U.S. to turn over more than 20 Uyghur Chinese citizens held in Guantanamo Bay, but found to have "no intelligence value." The men were in legal limbo after Washington said it would not repatriate them, but other countries would not step forward to give them asylum. China has named them "East Turkestan terrorists" and continues to ask for them back.
Meanwhile, the fate of others in custody, like Canadian Celil, hangs in the balance.

Consul's brief visit raises faint hope for jailed imam

2006-04-14T15:59:00.000-05:00

Canadian in Uzbekistan still faces deportationBig hurdles to save him from execution in China
Apr. 14, 2006. 01:00 AM

NAOMI CARNIOL
STAFF REPORTER

A Toronto-area Islamic religious leader whose arrest last month in Uzbekistan has caught the attention of international media and human rights groups is still languishing in a Tashkent prison, his wife said yesterday.
Huseyincan Celil, a Canadian citizen, has not yet been deported to China as feared, wife Kamila Celil said from Tashkent yesterday, after being briefed by the Canadian consular official. The imam faces a death sentence in China for his political activities on behalf of the minority Uighur population.
"They spoke for 20 minutes. After 20 days, they just allowed 20 minutes for the consul," a clearly distraught Kamila told the Toronto Star about what she believes was the first Canadian official to contact her husband.
Kamila said she was relieved to hear for the first time that her husband had not been sent to China, which is pressing for his return.
But she remains fearful her husband will be a political pawn between Uzbekistan and its powerful neighbour unless Canadian officials can intervene.
"I just want to get my husband out of here," she said. "I'm very sad and afraid for him."
Kamila said she still hasn't been allowed to speak to her husband. "They didn't give me access."
Moments later, the phone line went dead.
Kamila has been staying with relatives in Tashkent. Last week, their phone stopped making outgoing calls. Now it no longer takes incoming calls.
Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Kim Girtel confirmed that a consular official visited the detained Canadian, but said privacy concerns prevented her from giving details, despite pressing international concerns for his safety.
What will happen next is unclear, given the close relations between China and Uzbekistan.
Celil, a human rights activist, was once imprisoned in China for working on behalf of the Muslim Uighur community in China's northwest Xinjiang province. After escaping in 1998, he fled to Uzbekistan and later Turkey.
Celil and his family arrived in Canada as refugees in 2001, and settled in Hamilton before moving to Burlington last year.
Celil, who became a citizen last year, worried about the two sons and daughter he had to leave behind in China. So he went to Tashkent with his wife and three other children to try to reunite the family.
Uzbek police have not disclosed the charges against Celil, said Chris MacLeod, the family's lawyer in Canada.
Celil's name may have appeared on an Interpol arrest warrant, but an opposition MP worries that the imam is paying a heavy price for his political and religious beliefs.
"Where that arrest warrant is based on political dissidence, it's not the same thing as being convicted of a crime. It should not be respected," said Liberal MP Paul Szabo (Mississauga South), who raised the matter with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay in the House of Commons.
Canada doesn't even have an official embassy in the country, said Michael Lynk, an assistant law professor at the University of Western Ontario. And Uzbekistan recently closed down the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees there.
"I wouldn't want to be too discouraging, but the odds are considerable against him," Lynk said.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have asked Canadian officials to act quickly to secure Celil's release. His Canadian friends have launched a website to publicize his plight and to raise donations to hire a lawyer overseas.
And the Uyghur American Association has spoken with officials in the U.S. State Department to encourage their government to get involved, said the association's president, Nury Turkel.
Meanwhile, Kamila is trying to return to Canada "as soon as possible."
Five months pregnant and with three children younger than 7, "it's too hard" to travel alone, she said.
Canada has offered to issue her mother a temporary visa so that she can visit Canada, family friend Burhan Celik said from Ottawa.
But the mother needs an exit visa from Uzbekistan, and that hasn't come through, Celik said.

Friday Service Handout and A Letter to the Prime Minister Hon. Stephen Harper

2006-04-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

We are trying to set up an action for this coming Friday Service (Jumah)...
There will be prepared letters for you to sign and print your name to send to the Prime Minister of Canada. We also included the letter's message below...
If anybody wants to help in distribution or printing for your local mosque or community centre you can contact us

The Letter

April 14, 2006

To: The Honourable Stephen Harper
House of Commons
Office of the Prime Minister80 Wellington StreetOttawa K1A 0A2pm@pm.gc.ca or harper.s@parl.gc.caFax: 613-941-6900 or 613-995-5176

Re: Mr. Huseyincan Celil
(A Canadian Citizen who is in detention in Tashkent, Uzbekistan since March 26, 2006)

Dear Mr. Harper,

As you know, a Canadian citizen, Huseyincan Celil, is still in detention in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He is in danger of deportation to China where he will be most likely to be imprisoned, tortured, or eventually executed. We cannot let Uzbekistan or China to abuse, torture, or endanger the life of a Canadian citizen. We would not trust the justice system in these countries as they have a long record of Human Rights violations.

Canada is recognized as a peace loving country and a symbol of hope. We would like Mr. Huseyincan Celil to be freed, reunited with his family, and live peacefully again in Canada.

We urge your government to consider this matter as a priority and expedite a favorable resolution. We trust your government would deem this situation on the alert.

We look forward to hear from you soon

Yours sincerely,

__________________________

__________________________

Celil's handicapped son is in need of intensive care

2006-04-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

His friends at Ebu Bekir Islamic Centre are worrying about his son who is in need of intensive care. His son, Muhammad, can not walk, talk and able to appricite his needs at all. There must be always an assistance required. In Canada Theese problems were much lesser with the help of social assitances. Below there is a letter from his friends at Ebu Bekir Islamic Centre that shows thier concern about this disregarded point, which is a touchy aspect of Huseyincan Celil's life.

The Letter;

Last Ramadan everyday in the Ramadan Nigt Prayings, I heard Husyincan(our imam in the salat) cry and ask Allah the healness and recover for our patient. I realized he has a very close and lovely one sick. Then, after I talked to him I understood what was behind his prayings and his cry all Ramadan.

In Burlington city there is a school that his child attends with two teachers taking care of him a half of a day, the rest of the day one of his parent must watch him so he needs help 24 hour in a day, he can't eat or raise his hand or go to washroom by himself he is almost totally paralyzed from doing anything by himself ( even he fails to control his saliva from his mouth), if you look at him you can't hold your tears.
I met him twice, I felt my heart broke, I astonished how his parents handled him all these years. He uses special medications continuously. His problems started from his birth, from that time he gave his parent (may all help them) extremely hard time. It is a test from Allah to their patient. They are really patient and sacrificed a lot. We worried about his mother, how she can handle this child alone, how can she cover very expensive medications for his handicapped child in addition to the responsibility of her other children, may Allah help her.

Urge Walmart to Pressure China

2006-04-11T12:19:00.000-05:00

By Theresa Moore, HamiltonThe Hamilton Spectator(Apr 11, 2006)
Re: 'Extradition fight' (April 8)
Since it seems inevitable that Huseyincan Celil will face extradition to China, the most logical step is to request those with influence to bear upon the Chinese government for his freedom.
Wal-Mart is China's fifth largest trading partner. An e-mail, phone call and letter campaign to Wal-Mart executives requesting their intervention in this human rights case may be as effective as anything else.

Ebu Bekir Islamic Center is trying to help Huseyincan Celil

2006-04-10T13:13:00.000-05:00

Ebu Bekir Islamic Center in East Hamilton where Huseyincan Celil used to be teach and obliged by his enormous effort. Plese visit there and provide your contribution

FREE HUSEYINCAN CELIL ORGANIZATION, HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA

2nd Year In Chinese Prison And His Whereabouts is unknown

Tortured Abroad? Forgotten At Home?

In surprise move, China lets Celil meet sister

Imprisoned Canadian complained of lack of medical attention, Uighur-Canadian group leader says

Help Canadians detained abroad

DEATH FOR CELIL IN PRISON

FOREIGN MINISTER GOES TO CHINA

APRIL 1st The First Year In Detention - Protesting Chinese Injustice

New Lawyer in China is on -We Thank to Our Community for their support

Supporters seeking new lawyer for Celil

Engaging China requires a balance of values and interests

Senator blasts Harper's stand on China

Resolve dual-citizenship row with China, MPs urged

300,000 Canadian passport holders at risk because of Beijing's policy, experts warn

Another Canadian held by Chinese

Canadians Assess Action on Huseyin Celil Case

Who is Huseyin Celil?

Caught in the grip of Beijing

He is a very stubborn man, a pious imam and a proud Uighur. He's drawn the wrath of China's authorities who brand him a terrorist. Huseyin Celil is also a Canadian, jailed in an unknown prison in western China. And his case is straining relations between the two nations

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070217.CELIL17/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/?pageRequested=all

Celil Needs Your Help!

Terrifying parallels

Man executed in China belonged to same minority group as Burlington detainee

Celil Won't Face Death Penalty in China: MacKay

Harper warns China on human-rights trade threat

Canada-China row intensifies over terrorism charges

China Executes Uighur Activist ISMAIL SAMED

Canadian 'anger' at China trial

China rejects concerns about Muslim activist

Detainee alive, tortured in jail, wife learns

Family claims Chinese-Canadian tortured in China

Celil's desperate family had given up hope

China says agreement with Canada doesn't apply to Celil case

Audra Ang, Canadian Press

Protest marks Xinjiang 'massacre'

Harper Angry Diplomats Missed Start of Trial for Canadian

Canadian Finance Minister in China

PM irked as diplomats miss activist's hearing

Government says Canadian diplomats in Beijing and consular officials in Ottawa fumbled the ball

Harper wants action on Burlington man in Chinese prison

Story of Celil

Celil at the Chinese Court

Photos of the Last Protest

Map of Chinese Consulate in Toronto

A RALLY FOR HUSEYINCAN CELIL AND ALL OTHER ABUSED PEOPLE BY CHINA ON THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY DECEMBER 10

Thousands of Canadians write to protect human rights with no exceptions in Amnesty International’s global Write-a-thon

We Thank All The Contributers On Recent Petition

Touching Off Our China Crisis

Mr. Harper Finally Acts And Defends Huseyincan Celil

PM's push on Celil cheers family

Top of the World

Do not forget Our Brother Huseyincan Celil in your Du'as.

Have you seen this site?

China jails Burlington man 15 years - Unconfirmed News

Harper's parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, has long been an outspoken critic of China's human rights record. He is also trying to get action on t

Chamber of Commerce urges government to engage more with China

Detainee in China isn't aware of his new son

Detainee in China isn't aware of his new son

China denies imminent execution of Uighur-Canadian

China to execute Burlington man who championed Muslim state

China to execute Canadian: human rights group

China to kill Canuck?

We Pray For These Suspicious News Are Incorrect

China: Husein Dzhelil

(known as Huseyin Celil) aged 37, Canadian citizen

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

TAKE ACTION:

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Missing in China-Still no word from Canadian human rights activist facing death penalty in China

Canadian's detention in China sparks furor

Critics rally outside consulate in Toronto, as secrecy envelops Huseyin Celil

One Weak Rally For Brother Huseyincan Celil that was a shame

NDP calls for diplomatic delegation to secure Celil's release from China

China mum on fate of detained Canadian

Demands for legal consular access denied more than three weeks into disappearance

TUESDAY'S RALLY IS CANCELLED HOWEVER COMING THURSDAY THE 20TH REMAINS

A RALLY FOR BROTHER HUSYINCAN CELIL PROTESTING IN FRONT OF THE CHINESE CONSULATE IN TORONTO

Passport status a mystery

(known as Huseyin Celil)
aged 37, Canadian citizen

TUESDAY'S RALLY IS CANCELLED HOWEVER COMING THURSDAY THE 20TH REMAINS