July 12, 2006 -- An international human rights group says the son of exiled Muslim rights activist Rabiya Kadir has been tortured and forced to confess to attempts to separate the Uyghur Muslim Xinjiang region from China.
Amnesty International said today that Alim Abdiriyim confessed under torture on July 1.
Uyghur Muslims have been struggling to reestablish their own homeland on territory that became an autonomous region of China in 1955.
Kadir was a successful businesswoman whom authorities have accused of possessing separatist propaganda. She lost her seat on a parliamentary advisory body after she refused to condemn her husband, whom Beijing accuses of supporting Xinjiang independence. Kadir now resides in the United States.
Chinese officials have made it a priority to stamp out Uyghur and other separatist movements.
(AFP)