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01 April 2010
Uighur Deportation Prompts U.S. to Deny Cambodia Military Surplus
Washington — The Cambodian government’s December 2009 decision to return 20 Uighur asylum seekers to China has prompted the United States to suspend donations of surplus defense items to Cambodia.
The State Department cited Cambodia’s failure to meet its international obligation to allow a credible process to determine the Uighurs’ refugee status before they were deported.
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley said April 1 that Cambodia’s December 19 decision to deport the Uighurs “contradicted earlier statements by the government that they would honor their international obligations by working with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees … to determine whether these individuals qualified as refugees.”
In a December 19 statement, the State Department had warned that the incident would “affect Cambodia’s relationship with the U.S. and its international standing.”
Crowley said the Obama administration informed the Cambodian government March 19 that it is suspending the delivery of approximately 200 vehicles and trailers that were to be given to Cambodia under the Excess Defense Articles program that allows for the export of surplus American military items.
The Uighurs are a Turkic-Muslim minority in western China. Chinese officials insist the Uighurs are part of a separatist movement that it accuses of carrying out terrorist actions in its Xinjiang province bordering Central Asia. The repatriations from Cambodia were reportedly done at the Chinese government’s request.
According to the most recent State Department Human Rights Report, the Uighur population has been subject to persecution at the hands of Chinese authorities with the goal of diluting their identity and preventing them from exercising freedom of expression and association. The United States has repeatedly expressed its concern over the welfare and human rights of the Uighurs.
Crowley said that in December 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other senior officials personally telephoned Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “to express our concern and the importance … we attach to this issue.”
However, the Cambodian authorities “failed to heed not only our call that they step up to their national obligations, but in fact … the specific obligations they have as a country” to credibly determine if the 20 asylum seekers qualified as refugees under international law.
