300 Chinese Uighurs captured by US forces while fighting with the Taliban remain in US custody, probably because of China’s human rights violations towards the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang province. In a recent report, Amnesty International claimed that China has increased repression and executions of Muslim Uighurs since September 11, while United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights Mary Robinson has also expressed concern over the increase in human rights abuses. The Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking people who had their own republic before the Communist takeover in 1949.
