Oct 06, 2009

East Turkestan: Exiled Uyghur Leader Kadeer Invited to New Zealand


Active ImageThe government of New Zealand is currently in deliberations about whether it will issue a visa to Uyghur activist, Rebiya Kadeer.

 

 

Below is an article published by AFP :

 

Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer has been invited to speak in New Zealand next week and the government will decide within days whether to issue her a visa, Prime Minister John Key said Monday [5 October].

Taiwanese officials last month banned Kadeer, whom Beijing accuses of leading a separatist terrorist movement, from visiting the island and China objected to her visit to Australia in August [2009].

Key told journalists he was not aware of any request from the Chinese government to stop New Zealand issuing a visa to Kadeer.

New Zealand's Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke said he would host Kadeer from October 12 to 15, when she will speak at two public meetings and meet legislators.

Locke said there was no reason Kadeer should not be given a visa.

"Her life is an open book. She advocates non-violent change and disassociates herself from violent change," he said.

"I think there would be quite an outcry from New Zealanders if she wasn't given a visa."

Beijing calls Kadeer's World Uighur Congress a separatist terrorist movement and accuses the group of directing July's [2009] deadly unrest in the Xinjiang regional capital Urumqi, which left at least 197 people dead.