Government authorities in Xinjiang, an ethnically mixed and mainly Muslim region of China, have detained and imprisoned political dissidents and others who protested against curbs on their religious activities. Based on reports from unofficial sources in Xinjiang, internal documents of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and official press reports, this document reports AI’s concerns about: detention without trial and long prison sentences for Uighurs, Kazakhs and members of other ethnic groups; long prison terms after unfair trials, e.g. those handed down to Uighur prisoners after the demonstrations in Baren county in April 1990; reported extrajudicial killings and detentions after the Baren incident; and the extensive use of the death penalty in Xinjiang.
