China jails Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti for life - CNN.com

China jails Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti for life - CNN.com

International
attention

Tohti's fate has
attracted great international attention.

Western diplomats --
including representatives from the U.S. embassy in China -- and journalists
trying to attend the "open trial" last week were kept at bay, as
uniformed and plainclothes police flooded the area around the court.

The authorities
allowed in four Tohti family members -- his wife and three brothers -- who had
not seen him for nine months.

The U.S. government
has expressed deep concern over the scholar's case and called for his release
on several occasions.

"His arrest
silenced an important voice that peacefully promoted harmony and understanding
among China's ethnic groups,
particularly the Uyghurs," a spokesman for the U.S.
embassy in Beijing
told CNN after the trial. "We stress the importance of Chinese authorities
differentiating between peaceful dissent and violent extremism."

Tohti is known for his
research on Uyghur-Han relations and has been a vocal critic of the
government's ethnic policies in Xinjiang, a resource-rich region long inhabited
by the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs.

The arrival of waves
of Han, China's predominant ethnic group,
over the past decades has fueled ethnic tensions.

Some Uyghurs have
expressed resentment toward the Han majority in recent years over what they
describe as harsh treatment from Chinese security forces and loss of economic
opportunities to Han people in Xinjiang.

Amnesty International
has said Uyghurs face widespread discrimination in employment, housing and
education, as well as curtailed religious freedom. Other critics, including
exiled Uyghur activists, have attributed the rise of violence in Xinjiang to Beijing's increasingly
repressive rule there -- a claim the government vehemently denies.