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Dozens 'Disappeared' After China Riots

Rights group: Uighurs vanished after being detained by police

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 21, 2009 3:49 AM CDT

(Newser) – Dozens of Uighur men and boys rounded up in the wake of the riots that shook China's Xinjiang province over the summer are missing, according to a reports from a human rights group. Interviews with families in Urumqi found evidence that 43 people had vanished since being taken away by security forces, although that number is "likely just the tip of the iceberg," a director of Human Rights Watch told the BBC.

"Their families’ attempts to inquire about the relatives at local police stations or with other law-enforcement agencies proved futile,” the report states. “The authorities either said they had no knowledge of the arrests, or claimed an inquiry was still ongoing, or simply chased the families away.” The organization is urging China to release the details of everybody being held in detention.

[Images (5)]

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A man in Urumqi last month examines a list of suspects wanted in connection to deadly China riots in July. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Paramilitary police officers patrol in July as Uighur men walk by in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

Chinese security forces line up on the People's Square in Urumqi, China, in July. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)

A Uighur woman faces off with Chinese paramilitary police in Urumqi, China, in July. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A group of Uighurs protest in front of journalists visiting Urumqi, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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Disappearing people is not the behavior of countries aspiring to global leadership.
- Brad Adams, Asia director
at Human Rights Watch

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Dozens 'Disappeared' After China Riots