Agence France Presse

Beijing, August 4

Three children of exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer appeared on Chinese TV to denounce her today, but it was not possible to confirm if they were speaking of their own free will, with one shown in jail.

“The road my mother has chosen leads to a bottomless hole,” said one of her sons, 33-year-old Alim, shown speaking on state television from prison where he is serving a sentence for tax evasion. “That’s because... with such a strong country, she will not succeed in her separatist endeavours.” Kadeer, who lives in exile in the US, has been accused by the Chinese government of fomenting unrest on July 5 that led to the deaths of at least 197 in the Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang in northwest China. She denies this.

Kadeer’s relatives were speaking a day after Chinese state media published open letters critical of her alleged involvement in the unrest. Chinese state media said the letters were written by members of her family.

Roxingul, a daughter of Kadeer, said today on television that

the letters were genuine. “I wrote them

after consulting with my brother and my uncle,” she said.

Coercion, says Kadeer

SYDNEY: The exiled Uighur activist Beijing blames for inciting recent ethnic violence in China accused the Chinese governm-ent on Tuesday of forcing her imprisoned children to say she was responsible for the unrest. China released a letter on Monday it says was penned by close relatives of Rebiya Kadeer — including two of her children — blaming her for last month’s deadly riots by minority Uighur Muslims in her native Xinjiang. — AP