Exiled Uighur activist in Australia for film screening says she is ‘woman of peace’

Exiled Uighur activist say she is ‘woman of peace’

MELBOURNE, Australia —An exiled Uighur activist whom Beijing blames for recent deadly riots in China said Saturday that she is a “woman of peace,” as she attended an Australian film festival for the screening of a documentary about her life.

Rebiya Kadeer, a U.S.-based activist who has denied instigating last month’s ethnic violence in western Xinjiang province, was escorted into the sold-out screening of “10 Conditions of Love” at the Melbourne International Film Festival through a back entrance as a small group of protesters demonstrated nearby.

“I’m a mother, I’m a woman of peace,” Kadeer told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio through an interpreter. “I have always been peacefully struggling for the freedom and human rights of the Uighur people. I will continue to do so peacefully, until the day when my people become free.”

China requested that Australia deny Kadeer a visa and asked the festival to drop her movie from the program. Seven Chinese-language films were withdrawn from the festival in protest.

China says the clashes last month between minority Muslim Uighurs and members of the dominant Han Chinese group left 197 people dead and more than 1,700 injured. Beijing blames Kadeer, 62, for instigating the unrest, a charge she denies.

The rioting in Xinjiang province’s capital of Urumqi was the worst ethnic violence in China in decades.

The documentary’s director, Australian Jeff Daniels, said the screening of the film was a victory for freedom of expression.

“(Festival executive director) Richard Moore could have easily bowed to pressure from the Chinese government,” he told the audience. “I congratulate you for standing up for the basic freedom of being heard.”

Kadeer lives in Virginia, while two of her children are in prison in China; one was convicted of tax evasion and the other of subversion. At a question-and-answer session after the film, Kadeer was asked how she could sleep at night knowing her children were in jail.

“I know the price to pay is heavy and it’s costly,” she replied. “It’s a tough, tough choice but I had to choose my people over my family in their peaceful struggle for freedom.”