Nine months after a police officer shot to death an unarmed Uyghur man in northwest China’s restive Xinjiang region, local authorities have said that the suspect never committed a crime against the government, although he was accused of being a “troublemaker.”
Memet Abdurehim, 26, was arrested on July 27 at his home in Aksu (in Chinese, Akesu) prefecture’s Shayar (Shaya) county by local policemen who detained him on suspicion that he was planning an attack against the government based on negative comments he posted on social media about the socioeconomic situation in his Shaya township.
But Eziz Toxti, chief of the county’s legal-political committee, told RFA’s Uyghur Service recently that Abdurehim had not been involved in any violent incidents or planned attacks on the local government.
“Our agents just found signs that he had thoughts about doing something against the government,” he said.
Abdurehim was captured without resistance after a police team surrounded his home, and had no weapons on his person when he was taken to the police station for interrogation, Toxti said.
“But all of a sudden he attempted to escape when they passed the town center, and the police thought he had done something wrong and became fearful,” he said. “They believed he might be considering doing something before he was jailed. That is why the police took extra action” and shot him dead.
Yet, despite an acknowledgement that Abdurehim had committed no crime, local authorities did not reverse a decision to promote the officer involved in the shooting or issue an apology or financial compensation to the victim’s family, sources said.
Eight days after Uyghur officer Turghun Mamut shot Abdurehim, he was promoted to deputy chief of his police station and received a 10,000-yuan (U.S. $1,600) award, while his Han Chinese partner Song Guannan received 7,000 yuan (U.S. $1,130), according to a report on the China News website on Aug. 5, 2014.
The article said Abdurehim threw objects at the police when he tried to escape, but Osman Tursun, chief of Yengibazar village of Shayar town where Abdurehim lived, said officers at the scene had checked his clothing and body when they had apprehended him.
Involved officers
When RFA contacted Mamut at the Shayar township police station, he confirmed that he had shot Abdurehim.
“But I have received an order from a higher authority about not giving interviews about the incident,” he said.”
When asked if he had received an order from higher up to shoot Abdurehim, Mamut said he had not.
“But we have many policies that demand and encourage us to take decisive action in response to suspects concerning political matters,” he said. “So, I didn’t wait for an order to shoot him.”
He then referred RFA to the county’s propaganda department for more details about the incident.
When RFA tried to reach Song Guannan, another officer at the Shayar police station said Song had been transferred to the station in Alar (in Chinese, Alaer), which is under the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, an economic and semi-military governmental organization in the region.
He said authorities had transferred Song either under the professional rank of police officer or police chief out of concern for his safety.
Osman Tursun, Yengibazar village chief, said Abdurehim had no any disputes with anyone, but he believes that he may have attended some meetings with his friends or spoke out against some issue in the village or township.
“But it is impossible that he made any statement or plan against the government,” Tursan told RFA.
No compensation for family
Authorities have also failed to compensate Abdurehim’s family or launch an investigation into his shooting death, despite confirming he had not committed a crime and that his attempt to escape did not constitute a threat to the safety of the police or the public, Tursan said.
The decision to promote Mamut was supposed to have been made after the conclusion of the case, he added.
“But I believe that the authorities were a little rushed when they did it,” he said. “That is way they couldn’t back away from the decision after they learned of Memet Abdurehim’s innocence.”
One local resident, who declined to be named, told RFA that Mamut was a “spineless man” who engaged in “heroic” actions against the suspect just because he knew the authorities were behind him.
He also said the authorities knew that Mamut did not have the ability to lead a police station, but they promoted him anyway “to encourage other Uyghur policemen to kill Uyghurs without hesitation.”
A Uyghur police officer told RFA that in the past two years Uyghur police officers had been hesitant or reluctant to use their guns because they knew that suspects could be their former classmates, neighbors or friends.
“That is why the authorities rewarded and promoted Turghun Mamut very quickly in six days without any investigation of the shooting,” he said. “Their goal was to attract and encourage Uyghur police officers to kill Uyghurs.”
Oppressive policies
The millions of mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs in Xinjiang say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness, blaming the problems on Chinese officials who set policy in the region and the influx of Han Chinese into the area.
Authorities have enforced security measures during the last couple of years in Xinjiang by cracking down on Uyghurs whom they accuse of terrorism and separatism.
Uyghurs in Xinjiang and international Uyghur rights groups say Chinese authorities dictate heavy-handed rule in the region by curbing Islamic practices and the culture and language of the Uyghur people, as well as arbitrarily using lethal force against them.
Reported by Shohret Hoshur of RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Shohret Hoshur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.