In the northwest of China live the little known Uighur people. Amnesty International say they've suffered systematic human rights violations, but the Chinese Government call them terrorists and separatists. Current TV investigates the Uighur.

Reporter Laura Ling from Current TV's Vanguard show has visited the region – known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region – and filed this video report about the mainly Muslim ethnic minority Uighur. From the show's blurb:

" …Unlike their Hollywood friendly brethren, the Tibetans, the Uighurs of northwestern China, claim to be an oppressed minority group that no one has ever heard of. That is, unless the Chinese government publicizes an attack by Uighur insurgents, such as the one that killed 16 Chinese police officers on the eve of the Beijing Olympics.

" In this Vanguard report, Laura Ling travels to the wild-west frontier in China's Gobi Desert, an area the Chinese named Xinjiang, or New Land, but a place many Uighurs believe should be an independent Uighur nation … "

Current TV looks at the Uighur culture and lifestyle, China's claims and the tension between the government and the Uighur: they also talk to exiles in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

Serious rights violations

Amnesty International's latest report describes how China, which took over the area in 1949, has continued to use the US-led 'war on terror' to justify harsh repression of the Uighur, which has resulted in serious human rights violations.

The Uighur were the only known group in China to be executed for political crimes, such as "separatist activities".

Our research says the Uighur face severe restrictions on their religious freedom and their social and cultural rights. It describes how since the 1980s the Uighur have been the target of systematic human rights violations, including imprisonment, arbitrary and incommunicado detention, violence and killings.