H.E. Hu Jintao
President
Office of the President
Zhonganahai
Beijing 100017
People’s Republic of China
Fax: (011.86.10.6) 512-5810
Your Excellency:
In the strongest possible terms we object to the continued detention of Abdulghani Memetemin.
Only recently has the world learned that Memetemin — a journalist and scholar from Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region — has been detained since 2002 on charges of “sending secret state information out of the country.” Since his arrest two years ago Memetemin has had no contact with his wife or children, a silence symbolic of the current suppression of dissenting voices in Xinjiang.
According to our colleagues at the Committee to Protect Journalists, Memetemin was arrested in Kashgar on July 26, 2002. A full year later, he was convicted of “violating state secrets and sending them outside the country.” Documents provided by Radio Free Asia list 18 specific counts against Memetemin, including translating state news articles into Chinese from Uighur and forwarding official speeches to the East Turkistan Information Center (ETIC), a news outlet advocating independence for the Uighur ethnic group. Memetemin was also “accused” of doing original journalism for ETIC and hiring additional reporters for the center. Denied legal representation at his trial, Memetemin was sentenced to nine years in prison, plus an additional three years of suspended political rights.
The Overseas Press Club of America takes no position on the content of Abdulghani Memetemin’s work. But we draw attention to the explicit protection of free expression of political views afforded by the Chinese Constitution to citizens in all regions. Our colleague was exercising that right when he was arrested two years ago
Your Excellency, we urge you to demonstrate commitment to modern democratic freedoms in China — specifically the necessary work of journalists like our colleague, Abdulghani Memetemin.
Respectfully yours,
Kevin McDermott Norman A. Schorr
Co-chairmen, Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
Wen Jiabao
State Council
Office of the Premier
Zhonganahai
Beijing 100077
People’s Republic of China
Fax: (011.86.10.6) 512-5810
Yang Jiechi
Ambassador of P.R.O.C. to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 588-0032
Ambassador Wang Guangya
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China
to the United Nations
350 East 35th Street
New York, NY 10016
Fax: (212) 634-7626
Clark T. Randt, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to P.R.O.C.
Embassy of the Untied States of America
No. 3 Xiu Shui Bei Jie
Beijing 100600
China
Fax: (011.86.10.6) 532-6929