Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights.
The Meaford-Thornbury area has a very active amnesty group who focus on letter-writing and fund-raising.
They meet twice a month and write letters to government officials around the world asking that they adhere to human rights treaties and agreements.
This Amnesty Group has taken on a special case - that of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen who lived with his wife and four children in Burlington, Ontario and is now in prison in China. He was sentenced by Chinese authorities to life in prison for “terrorism”, but it appears that in fact he is being persecuted for his human rights activism.
Huseyin Celil is a human rights activist (born March 1st, 1969), who while a student and later as a religious leader spoke out publicly in the early 1990s on behalf of the right of his people (the Uighur people of western China) to freely live according to their religion and culture.
He was arrested in 1994 by Chinese authorities, spent considerable time in jail and was beaten and tortured. He escaped from prison and subsequently fled from China through the mountains - traveling through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Iran before reaching Turkey in 1999, where he applied for and was granted United Nations Convention Refugee Status
He came to Canada in 2001 as a refugee, applied for and received Landed Immigrant status. He became a Canadian Citizen in 2005, and settled in Burlington with his family
In March 2006, he was detained and arrested on behalf of Chinese authorities while visiting his wife’s family in Uzbekistan. He was extradited to China, held there in secrecy without access to a lawyer, his family, or Canadian consular assistance, and was subjected to death threats unless he signed a “confession” for his “crimes”.
The local Amnesty group and three other Amnesty groups having been writing letters to Stephen Harper and to prison authorities in China and there have been recent changes for Celil.
In December 2009, Huseyin Celil was finally able to meet with family visitors. Instead of only 2 people, 6 family members were allowed to visit. Instead of having to talk with him through a plexi-glass screen, they were able to be in the same room with him and to embrace. His visitors were allowed to bring him food, and to take him to lunch at the prison cafeteria. It was a longer than normal visit.
The family was contacted by the prison director personally in advance of the visit, and told of the easing of restrictions for the visit.
Mr. Celil told his family that he is very bored. The only books accessible to him are big texts on Chinese criminal law. His birthday is on March 1 and the Amnesty Group will be sending some non-political, non-religious reading material.
Group 82, Amnesty International has been a recognized national AI group since 1982. They meet the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month. Call Karen at 519-922-2275 for more information.
