Turkey 'ready to accept' remaining Uighurs

The two ministers discussed the possibility of raising the level of cooperation between the two nations, especially the setting up of a joint commission on economics and technical cooperation in the near future, on the sidelines of the 48th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, which Turkey is attending as Asean’s dialogue partner. 

Thanking Thailand for having sent 108 Uighurs to his country’s care, Cavusoglu also urged Thailand to follow up on the condition of the 109 Uighurs who were sent back to China.

The two men agreed to speed up drafting the Thai-Turkey free trade agreement, the source said, while Thanasak accepted an invitation for Thailand to attend the Expo Antalya botanical festival next October.

Thanasak joined nine other Asean foreign ministers to meet the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Interface with Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). 

Thanasak proposed the establishment of an agency to back the AICHR’s work at the Asean Secretariat in order to boost efficiency and enable it to better protect human rights and boost interaction with the civil sectors and organisations in the region as well as the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the government of Xinjiang said yesterday that some of the 109 Uighurs who returned to China from Thailand last month had attacked Thai and Chinese police while being taken aboard a flight back to Xinjiang, as they believed they would be executed on their return.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Muslim Uighurs keen to escape unrest in China’s Xinjiang region, have travelled clandestinely via Southeast Asia to Turkey, home to a large Uighur diaspora. The return of the group from Thailand in July sparked anger in Turkey, and fed fears among rights groups and the United States about potential mistreatment.

In a report on its official website Tianshan Net, the Xinjiang government said the rumours that spread among the group waiting to be deported included one that they would be put to death.

 “Certain people used this to stir up some of those being deported to attack Thai and Chinese police as they were boarding,” the government said.

One man, named in the report in Chinese as Kudusi Tuohutiyusufu, suffered head injuries while being “subdued” at the airport, but he was “relaxed” on his return.

“The attitude of the police towards us is very good. They took me to see the doctor and now my wound is much better,” the report quoted him as saying. 

Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said no violence had occurred. “We checked with security regarding the 109, and we can say that no use of force happened,” spokesman Sek Wannamethee said.

Most of the group are being detained in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi, the government said.

World Uighur Congress spokes-man Dilxat Raxit said China had “monopolised” information about the returned Uighurs. “China uses bombastic propaganda to distract from the world’s worries about the plight of those sent back,” he said in an email.