20 Uighurs Are Deported to China

[alp227]

Source: Seth Mydans, The New York Times

BANGKOK — Under pressure from China, and despite the objections of the United States and the United Nations, the Cambodian government on Saturday deported 20 members of the Uighur minority who had sought asylum after fleeing a government crackdown in China.

“They are going back to China,” said an Interior Ministry spokesman, Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak. He said the Uighurs had been put on a special plane sent from China that left the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on Saturday night.

The expulsion came one day before Vice President Xi Jinping of China was due to visit Cambodia. China, which is Cambodia’s biggest investor, had branded the Uighurs criminals and demanded their return.

Earlier, a Cambodian government spokesman, Koy Kuong, said the Uighurs were being expelled because they had entered the country illegally. He said two others who fled with them were missing. “The Cambodian government is implementing its immigration law,” he said. “They came illegally without any passports or visas, so we consider them illegal immigrants.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/world/asia/20uighur.html

[babylonsister]

1. That's sad. Possibly sent back to certain death. nt

[proteus_lives]

2. They're dead.

[Frank Booth]

3. The Cambodian government, still committing murder after all these years.