by Hibberd Kline
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Regional authorities have increased the death toll from Tuesday’s violence near the city of Kashgar in China’s western Xinjiang region to 20 up from an initial figure of 12 reported by China’s official Xinhau News Agency.

According to the regional government, the “attack” was instigated by knife-wielding “terrorists” who attacked passers-by on a busy shopping street. The authorities attribute 13 deaths to the alleged terrorist attack. State news agency Xinhua previously described the incident as a “riot.”

The official government report also increased the number of alleged terrorist assailants shot dead by police officers from the earlier reported 2 to 7.

According to Xinhua, the authorities are in pursuit of an unspecified number of additional suspects thought to have taken part in the alleged terrorist attacks.

Details are still not forthcoming about what may have set off the violence. However, the region has a long history of ethnic tension between the native, muslim, ethnic Uighur population and Han Chinese migrants. That history has often been punctuated by oubursts of violence, which are often portrayed officially as terrorist attacks.

Uighur activists groups claim that China oppresses their culture and religion and say that instances of violence, which the Chinese government claims to be the work of “mobs” or “terrorists” are actually anti-government riots or peaceful protests turned violent.

Foreign media access to the region is restricted. Therefore, China’s official accounts of violence in Xinjiang are generally difficult to independently confirm and are often the subject of dispute by human rights organizations. Following the attack, Chinese censors were quick to block internet searches including the name of either the county “Yecheng” or the town “Kashgar” in which the attack took place.

The Chinese Government is currently expanding its security footprint inside Xinjiang. Last month, authorities in Xinjiang announced plans to recruit 8,000 additional security officers to help maintain control in the region.

China sees Xinjiang with its vast oil, natural gas and mineral deposits as strategically vital to Chinese economic expansion. The Chinese Government has adopted a policy of intensive economic investment in the region coupled with a stifling security presence in order to reduce the potential for open unrest.

Following the attack in Xinjiang, a Chinese woman was shot to death in Peshawar, Pakistan. An element of the Pakistani Taliban took responsibility for the woman’s death. According to a Taliban spokesman, the killing was carried out as “revenge for the Chinese Government killing… [the Taliban’s] Muslim brothers” in Xinjiang.

China and Pakistan have long been close allies and recently staged joint anti-terrorism drills. The Chinese Government responded to the killing by demanding that Pakistan investigate the incident and take steps to protect Chinese nationals inside Pakistan. Pakistan’s ambassador to China has promised that Pakistan will hunt down the attackers.

China often asserts that alleged terrorist activity in Xinjiang, Tibet and other restive regions within China are encouraged and supported by foreigners.

For more information, please see:

Reuters — Pakistani Militants Say Chinese Woman Killed for Revenge — 01 March 2012

BBC News — China Violence: ’20 Dead’ in Kashgar City in Xinjiang — 29 February 2012

AP News — China Says at Least 12 Killed in Xinjiang Riot — 28 February 2012

The Telegraph — ‘Violent Mob’ Riots Leave 12 Dead — 29 February 2012

BBC News — China Violence: 12 Dead in Kashgar City in Xinjiang — 28 February 2012

The Guardian — China Unrest Kills at Least 12 — 28 February 2012

By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A Chinese court has sentenced an activist to eighteen months in a labor camp after he gave journalists information that led them to a “black jail” which is an unofficial detention facility kept by the Chinese government.

Zhao Zhenjia was recently sentenced after being detained by Beijing police on January 22.

Chinese authorities claim that Zhao was indicted for fraud based on alleged dealings with rural machinery workers.

According to Chinese activists, those who try to make against the local government are often detained in black jails where they are beaten and harassed by government authorities.

A former black jail detainee expressed their experience when they stated, “[the guards] entered without a word, grabbed me…kneed me in the chest and pounded my lower belly with their fists until I passed out. After it was over I was in pain, but they didn’t leave a mark on my body.”

Another former detainee stated that, “[t]here was no medical treatment [in the black jail]. I’m not very healthy and combined with the disgusting conditions inside [the facility], I was sick every day, but they wouldn’t give me medical treatment and wouldn’t let me go to see a doctor. [A guard] said, ‘You don’t want to die here because your life [to us] isn’t worth one cent. [If] I want you dead, you can die [here] as easily as an ant.’”

A 2009 Human Rights Watch report alleged that Chinese officials regularly take citizens and keep them in unlawful detention facilities maintained in state-owned hotels, nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals.

According to the report local officials create black jails to allow activists to be detained and punished in a way that will not cause these officials to be reprimanded under rules that impose penalties when a large portion of prisoners flow from their areas.

Those hired to guard the prison often subject prisoners to physical violence, theft, extortion, threats and deprivation of food, sleep and medical care.

Minors have not been spared black jail detention in China. Human Rights Watch interviewed a fifteen year old girl who reported that after being abducted and taken to the jail, she was detained for two months and subjected to severe beatings.

Black jails appeared following the government’s abolishment of laws allowing arbitrary detention of non-residents and according to Human Rights Watch the operators of black jails receive payment from the local governments for each person kept in the black jail.

Despite the recent change of government, few expect to see changes in the treatment of activists due to  the need of the new government to assert power and stability over the nation.

For more information, please see:

Radio Free Asia – Labor Camp for Petitioning Activist –  29 February 2012

Reuters – China “Black Jails” Prompt Fears of Wider Security Crackdown – 10 November 2011

Human Rights Watch – China: Secret “Black Jails” hide Severe Rights Abuses – 12 November 2009