Hong Kong: “The police are asking me questions”, last text message from a missing Uyghur

Hong Kong “strongly condemned” Amnesty International on Saturday for announcing that a Uyghur had disappeared after arriving from abroad at the airport in this territory.

Last worrying message

The human rights NGO had said in a statement the day before that Abuduwaili Abudureheman, born in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China, had left South Korea on May 10 to visit a friend and hadn’t heard from him 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”, can we read in this text message which Amnesty made known to the AFP.

In a statement released on Saturday evening, 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. “Hong Kong government records show that this person either did not enter or was denied entry by Hong Kong,” an official spokesperson said, demanding that Amnesty International apologize. Amnesty for its part told AFP that it remained “concerned for the safety” of Abuduwaili Abudureheman and that his friend was still unable to contact him.

“He miscalculated”

The latter, who requested anonymity, told AFP on Saturday that Abuduwaili Abudureheman had indeed decided to go to Hong Kong. “He miscalculated (…), he did not understand the serious consequences” of such a trip, 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’m being checked, the Chinese police are asking me questions and it may take some time before I get out,” the message read. Abuduwaili Abudureheman, who last year earned a doctorate from Kookmin University in Seoul, was on a “watch list” by Chinese authorities because of his trips abroad, Amnesty International said.

China is accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Washington and the parliaments of other Western countries have spoken of this as “genocide”. Beijing rejects these accusations, citing the fight against terrorism. Chinese authorities are increasingly pressuring Uyghurs outside China’s borders and have, in some cases, forcibly repatriated them, according to Amnesty International.

(AFP)