Hong Kong on Saturday "strongly condemned" Amnesty International for announcing that a Uighur disappeared after arriving from abroad at the territory's airport. The human rights NGO said in a statement the day before that Abuduwaili Abudureheman, born in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China, had left South Korea on May 10 to visit a friend and had not been heard from since.
His last message was a short text message sent to his friend who was waiting for him at the Hong Kong airport: "The Chinese police are asking me questions," reads the text message that Amnesty has seen to AFP. In a statement issued Saturday night, the Hong Kong authorities described as "unfounded" the claims of the NGO which include "slander on the human rights situation" in this former British colony.
China accused of detaining more than a million Uighurs
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Hong Kong government records show that this person did not enter or was denied entry through Hong Kong," an official spokesperson said, demanding that Amnesty International apologize. Amnesty told AFP it remained "concerned for the safety" of Abuduwaili Abudureheman and that his friend was still unable to contact him. The latter, who requested anonymity, told AFP on Saturday that Abuduwaili Abudureheman had indeed decided to go to Hong Kong.
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He miscalculated (...), he did not understand the serious consequences" of such a move, he added. In the text message attributed to Abuduwaili Abudureheman - AFP could not independently verify its authenticity - it is written to his friend to leave without him. "I am being checked, the Chinese police are asking me questions and it may take time before I come out," the message reads.
Abuduwaili Abudureheman, who last year earned a PhD at Seoul's Kookmin University, was on a Chinese authorities' "watch list" because of his trips abroad, Amnesty International said. China is accused of detaining more than a million Uighurs and members of other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
Washington and parliaments in other Western countries have spoken of this as "genocide". Beijing rejects the accusations, citing the fight against terrorism. The Chinese authorities are increasingly pressuring Uighurs outside China's borders and have, in some cases, forcibly repatriated them, according to Amnesty International.
