October 20, 2009
Leader of China’s Uighur minority builds a stage across the globe
by Andrew Jacobs
The New York Times
BEIJING -- In what has become a familiar vocal pas de deux, Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur leader, stepped off a plane in Tokyo on Tuesday and immediately began accusing the Chinese government of secretly executing members of the Uighur minority and illegally detaining hundreds of others.
"I wish the killing would stop," she said, her braided gray hair topped by a distinctive square hat. Her words, spoken in the Uighur language, were instantly picked up by international news agencies and broadcast by the Japanese media.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry immediately fired back, condemning Japan for granting Ms. Kadeer, 62, a visa for her weeklong visit, much of which will be devoted to giving speeches on what she says is China's suppression of the country's Uighurs, who make up the largest ethnic group in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
To China, she is a terrorist and the unseen hand behind rioting in Xinjiang last July between Uighurs and Han Chinese that killed 197 people -- most of them Han -- and injured 1,600.
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