China says activist Kadeer no 'mother of Uighurs'

BEIJING, Jan 8 (Reuters) A Communist party official in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang has criticised Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer and the prominence she has found abroad since going into exile, a local newspaper reported today.

Kadeer, a Muslim ethnic Uighur, was jailed for more than five years before being sent into exile in the United States in 2005, where her championing of her people's rights has led supporters to dub her the ''mother of the Uighur people''.

Nuer Baikeli, a deputy party secretary in Xinjiang, said using that title for Kadeer, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, was ''extremely preposterous'' and ''tarnishes the race'', the Beijing News reported.

China keeps a tight grip on oil-rich Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia and where Uighur activists have been agitating for greater autonomy and a loosening of restrictions on Muslim religious worship.

In November, one of Kadeer's sons was sentenced to seven years in prison for tax evasion, a punishment rights activists said was retribution for Kadeer's advocacy on behalf of Uighurs.

''She didn't even educate her own children well, how could she become mother to the 10 million Uighur people?,'' Baikeli said.

Kadeer, a mother of 11, said in September that Chinese police had beaten up two of her sons when they were detained last June, the whereabouts of a third son was unknown and a daughter was under house arrest.

Baikeli also criticised her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying she had tried to disrupt the peace and stability of Chinese society, actions that ''absolutely go against the intentions of the Nobel Peace Prize''.

Xinjiang is home to 8 million Uighurs, a Turkic, largely Islamic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with neighbouring Central Asia. Many resent the growing Han Chinese presence in Xinjiang, as well as government controls on religion and culture.

REUTERS PDM RAI0944