In December, members of the ethnic Uighur community...

In December, members of the ethnic Uighur community in the Kyrgyzstan called upon China to end "human rights violations" in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region of the PRC. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. President Bill Clinton, the presidents of Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and the Prime Minister of India urged China to end immediately the death penalty for political prisoners. According to the Uighur community, the Ili (in western China) closed court sentenced to death two teachers, Abdushukur Nurulvo, 33, and Parkhat Mulakhun, 35, on January 16, 1999.