EAST TURKISTAN

Ms SIMMONS (Morialta) (15:35): Last week South Australia and, in particular, the South Australian parliament, was pleased to receive a visit from Ms Rabiya Kadeer, Chair of the World Uyghur Congress, and other international Uyghur delegates from both the US and Germany. It was a great honour to hear such an amazing world leader (also a woman international leader) tell the story of her country of East Turkistan and her own family, and I feel very privileged to have been included in these meetings. In recent years, I have been pleased to get to know the East Turkistan community in South Australia, initially through their former president, Rachmat Damien, and current president, Mr Abdulghaur Momin, and other members.

They have been diligent in raising my awareness of the East Turkistan struggle for independence and human rights, and I have also been delighted to join them for East Turkistan National Day celebrations and Nawruz festivals, as well as attending functions at the Burke Islamic College in Gilles Plains which many of their children attend. East Turkistan has a long and distinctive history enhanced by its position along the Silk Road bridging mainland China and the ancient Arabic, Persian and European cultures to the west.

Today the population of approximately 19 million includes several Turkish speaking Muslim ethnic groups, of which the Uyghurs (numbering more than eight million) are the largest. Uyghurs have their own civilisation, culture, language, music and dance developed over thousands of years, but in 1949 East Turkistan came under Chinese rule and, since then, its people have struggled for their basic rights and their traditional values.

Reports from the country document a pattern of abuse, including political imprisonment, torture and disappearances. Uyghurs are subjected to executions for political and religious offences. Mosques are summarily closed and the Uyghur language is banned from use in schools. I can only suspect that China's desire to own East Turkistan and exterminate the indigenous people is because it possesses huge reserves of natural resources, including natural gas, oil, gold and uranium. It has more than 100 different kinds of natural minerals, as well as growing major agricultural products desired by China.

In South Australia, we too often take our democracy, freedoms and human rights for granted. We become aware of our complacency when we meet charismatic leaders such as Rabiya Kadeer, who remind us of the fragility of these rights. Ms Kadeer is the most prominent human rights defender and democratic leader of the Uyghur people. She was once praised by the Chinese government and appointed a member of China's National People's Congress, as well as to the Political Consultative Congress in 1992.

She was a member of the Chinese delegation to the UN's fourth conference on women in 1995. However, shortly afterwards, she was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing state secrets. A mother of 11 children, she was refused visits from outside prison. She was also refused books, paper and writing materials. Those outside China campaigned for her release and, in 2000, she was awarded the highest human rights award. She has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in both 2006 and 2007.

Although she has campaigned relentlessly for the human rights of the Uyghur people since her release, two of her own sons are imprisoned and other children are under house arrest in East Turkistan. I am proud to be part of a state and government that has provided a refuge for many migrants and refugees who have been denied their basic political, cultural and religious rights. I commend the World Uyghur Congress and their leader, Rabiya Kadeer, and the East Turkistan Association of South Australia to the house. I hope that independence and freedom in East Turkistan will come soon.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!