A protest by Muslim Uighurs in China's Urumqi erupted into violence in July, leaving at least 197 people deadPHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodia said Saturday it would expel 20 Muslim Uighurs who sought refuge after unrest in China's Xinjiang region, despite protests from the United States and rights activists.
The Cambodian interior ministry said the group would be sent "back to where they came from", but declined to confirm whether the group would go back to China where exile groups say they could face torture.
"Currently they are still in Cambodia, but they will be sent out of the country within seven days," said spokesman Khieu Sopheak, adding that it "could be China".
Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said the group must be expelled in accordance with domestic law, but rights experts argued the deportation would breach an international convention on refugees.
"They are illegal immigrants and according to Cambodian immigration law they should be expelled from the country. So we must expel them," Koy Kuong said.
The group arrived at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office after clashes between Xinjiang's Uighurs and China's majority Han ethnic group in July left nearly 200 dead and 1,600 injured, according to official tolls.
Violence erupted when Uighurs -- a Muslim minority that has long complained of repression under Chinese rule -- attacked members of China's Han ethnic majority. In subsequent days, mobs of Han roamed the streets seeking revenge.
Last month, nine people were executed for their roles in the violence.
The Uighurs' presence in Phnom Penh was made public two weeks ago as they sought UN refugee status in Cambodia, saying they risked torture in China.
But two of the original group of 22 Uighurs have disappeared since their arrival and Cambodia Saturday insisted the UN agency take responsibility for them.
"UNHCR must take responsibility for the two Uighurs who fled while they were in their care. They disappeared and we demand that UNHCR find and bring the two Uighurs back," he said.
UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey told AFP that as signatories to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, Cambodia should not force the Uighurs to return to China and said the agency could not take responsibility for the missing persons.
"We have definitely conveyed a message to the Cambodian government to refrain from deporting them," said McKinsey.
"UNHCR has no knowledge of the whereabouts of these two individual Uighur asylum seekers, just as we have no official knowledge of the whereabouts of the other 20 Uighurs," she later added.
A US-based Uighur rights organization said Friday the group had already been taken to Phnom Penh airport to be put on a plane to Shanghai.
Henryk Szadziewski of the Uighur Human Rights Project in Washington said local sources in Cambodia informed him that "there is a plane ready to take them away."
US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said Cambodia should "honour its commitment under international law."
"We are deeply disturbed by reports the Cambodian government might forcibly return this group of Uighurs without the benefit of a credible refugee status determination process," Duguid told reporters.
Cambodia's decision comes as Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping is expected to visit the country for a three-day visit beginning on Sunday.
China and Cambodia have long kept close relations, with China giving large amounts of aid to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
China warned Tuesday that UN refugee programs "should not be a haven for criminals" and said the Uighurs, earlier said to number 22 including three children, were involved in criminal activity.
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