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Terrorist
Actions of the Communist Chinese Regime in East
Turkistan in the Area of Mass Media Channels.
Ertughrul Atihan
(Full text of the interview with the long time
correspondent of the Information Center Mr. Erughrul
Atihan)
In the present fast changing world the role of the
mass media has grown drastically. The Red Communist
Chinese regime is doing everything possible to
restrict the Internet access in East Turkistan in
order to keep the Uyghur people off the feedback and
meaningful information about the real situation in the
world.
The Uyghurs, who also wanted to free themselves from
foreign domination, staged numerous uprisings against
Nationalist Chinese rule, particularly in recent years
the new ideas of democracy and national independent
has spread among the Uyghurs. The 30 million ethnic
groups have developed elaborated religious, cultural
and scientific concepts over this long period. The
Chinese are trying their best to smother their culture,
language and civilization. One of the strongest
attacks was led against the national press and news
agencies.
All present mass media channels in East Turkistan work
under the Chinese control with the aim of refuting
every national ideas, be it religious, cultural,
linguistic or educational ideas. The ultimate purpose
of these actions is to destroy the national culture.
We have had talked with our compatriot, Ertughrul
Atihan, who worked in the mass media system for many
years in East Turkistan:
Q: Is it true that you worked in the Homeland in the
Chinese East Turkistan press and news agency?
A: Yes.
Q: Why did you immigrate?
A: I could not stand the unfair policies in the
Homeland; I wanted to let the world know about the
terrorist Chinese policies directed against my people.
Q: What was exactly your job in East Turkistan?
A: Editorship.
Q: What do you mean by “unfair” policies?
A: The mass media is a means of distributing
information among people. My Motherland was occupied
by the fascist regime; however the Chinese invaders
try to deceive the world community about the nature of
its oppression. If they meant to provide genuine
conditions for Uyghurs they had to create all
necessary provisions for true independence and
self-government. This did not happen. The Chinese led
the policy of assimilation, in the economic field –
they depleted our natural resources. Under the pretext
of DECREASING POLLUTION IN THE WORLD the Chinese
brought in environment polluting facilities.
They conducted nuclear tests in this region, and
generally speaking, the Chinese regime did everything
possible to lower the living standard of our people to
the base degree by low budgeting doctors and medical
centers, by selling the human organs, by spreading
infectious diseases etc.
They hold control of primary education and upbringing
the children. The task of passing to secondary school
from primary school, to university after secondary
school etc. became very difficult for our children.
Farmers are constantly forced to work overtime with no
pay and do all kind of prohibited work to their
masters. The national literature, education, cultural
and other centers were closed in big numbers. Writers
and journalists have been imprisoned for just
expressing their views and beliefs. They were tortured,
murdered and brought to insanity. If this is not
unfairness then what is unfairness?
Q: We have heard that publishing books in the Uyghur
language is now completely prohibited. Is it true? In
reality they say there are many published books. How
do you explain this fact?
A: It is true that still there are many books
published in Uyghur language. However, 95% of these
books are of Communist nature. These books hail the
history of the Communist Chinese regime, eradication
of national culture and values, religious concepts,
democratic principles and so forth. Published books
glorify the Chinese language and culture, and aim at
cutting off the Uyghur civilization from the West and
other Turkic people.
We cannot publish books dedicated to the national
culture. All published materials undergo strict
preliminary Chinese censorship.
Q: How do they control published materials?
A: That’s quite easy. Previously the Chinese
Communists deceived us Uyghurs with the socialist
propaganda. Nowadays they bribe people so that they
send their children to Chinese schools. Students
undergo a thorough propaganda brainwashing. The Uyghur
collaborationists serve their Chinese masters with awe;
and inform them about anything going on among the
Uyghurs. These mean people do not hesitate even to
sell their relatives’ lives off the Chinese invaders.
Let me underline one thing: the Chinese society came
along through its political and philosophical
development. It is now searching new ways and look for
innovations. Some of their administrative workers do
their best for the sake of the Uyghur people, however,
most of them only cause harm on our nation.
They have no choice of acting otherwise since they
risk losing their precious positions. Let me give an
example: One day I brought a brilliant novel of the
young Uyghur writer to one of the censor agencies for
approval. The official told me: “The author is quite
young, if we publish his book with a picture of the 30
years of age, what would the people in their 50s and
60s think?” The Chinese block the young intellectuals’
chances of expressing themselves in public work. They
are simply envious of the young writers’ talents.
We tried for many years to help young writers to
publish their books. The Chinese regime does not give
any financial support to them. The official whom I
showed the manuscript to told me that it was full of
bourgeois ideology.
The Chinese regime calls the black as white and the
white as black.
Any literal work undergoes a 6 month long censorship
and is sent from one censor to another in order to be
labeled at the end as the separatist propaganda. The
idea of portraying Sawut Damolla would make one think
of the Uyghur national state, they say. The Chinese
oppression is even stronger in the radio and
television.
The government even restricts usage of the words such
as Uyghur, Turkish, national education, East Turkistan
etc. Every little Uyghur program undergoes big
scrutiny. If the Uyghurs mention in their films any
“wrong ideas” the film producers face serious
punishments.
Editors lose their jobs, and producers face all kinds
of allegations even weak image of party organs. The
mass media are only supposed to glorify the Chinese
Communist party. They serve as a tool of assimilation
and degrading the national culture and civilization.
Q: What is the role of Uyghur language materials
published in East Turkistan? How many magazines and
journals published per annum?
A: Not more than 10 items. In each regional district
there is one journal published included magazines in
Kirghiz and Kazakh languages, however, most
publications are in Chinese. This year around one
thousand books and magazines were published. About
30-40% of all Uyghur materials get rejected due to
censorship problems that I mentioned to you. Main mass
media organs have been taken over by the Chinese. In
the biggest publishing house there are nearly 500
employees where there are only 47 Uyghur associates.
It is easy to calculate the ratio of Uyghurs involved
in the process.
Q: What is the financial standing of the Uyghur
language press in East Turkistan? What kind of book
our people like?
A: The Uyghur language press is in dire straits. Over
the last years the Chinese regime has put the Uyghur
national press in extremely difficult situations. The
number of national Uyghur magazines has been cut. All
media organs fell under the Chinese control and
censorship.
In many magazines many articles were prohibited and
many topics were banned. The articles which mention
richness of natural resources, of national culture and
civilization are not permitted to be published. The
media organs cannot publish their literary works and
get sufficient financing.
When one journal asked the local government for
financial support, officials replied that they should
not bother them with such problems and should rather
use their savings more economically. It is actually a
dangerous signal to the learned man. This regime has
grown fat with robbing our natural resources and
exploiting our people, however, they happily spend
extra money supporting the national culture! Robbing
our natural resources is not enough for them – they
want to rob our national culture! Materials in Uyghur
language with true information do exist, it’s true.
However, good books have to be translated – this is
where problems arise. Our books in history, culture
and arts have been many times falsified and distorted.
Only then can they be published.
Q: We heard that the UN allocated a certain amount of
money for development of the Uyghur culture, it that
true? Were any books published from this money?
A: Yes, it’s true. But only a small part of the
allocated money was spent on publishing books and
materials. The rest disappeared. Generally, the
funding was of no use for the following reasons:
1) The Chinese regime conducted the program of
“renovation” the Uyghur textbooks. Old good textbooks
published in 80s were banned and destroyed, they were
replaced by the new textbooks, which glorify the
Chinese Communist party.
2) Money was spent on developing ideas of socialism,
communism, and “national unity” that is imperialism.
3) Money was spent not on literature for children but
rather on Russian, Chinese and Uyghur Communist
writers’ books with the ideas of “red rebel”, “steel
hardening”, “Le Pin soldier”, “Ludungyi”, and other
books of this sort.
4) This money is spent on bribing our brethren Uzbeks,
Kazakhs, Kyrgyz – to turn them against us and to gain
their support in oppressing our drive for independence.
5) Most of the finances allocated to the development
of national culture are spent on Chinese literature.
The Chinese regime publishes textbooks for us to
spread their ideas. Other ethnic groups like Kazakhs,
Mongols, Kyrgyz, Shive are used as a force against the
Uyghurs.
Q: What kind of books do our people like? Is the
number of published books sufficient to our people?
How do you value the Uyghurs’ interest in books?
A: Our rich and ancient culture did not get much
progress under the Chinese oppressive system.
The current ideological system of national education
and culture serves the principles of the Communist
regime. Teaching at schools, technical colleges,
universities and institutes do not meet contemporary
requirements.
Teaching such important subjects in social sciences
like history, art, literature and national
civilization is not carried out at adequate levels.
Most books are of low level. Available materials do
not provide modern knowledge and ideas.
The Communist oppressors promote literature with
rusted ideology and outdated quotes. Official
literature lies a lot about Islam, Uyghur history,
history of East Turkistan revolution. There are few
good books in technical sciences, but good ones are
rarely available.
The Chinese oppressors have rather published many
books with lies about the Uyghur history. Many people
were forced to scratch money from their own low
incomes to buy these propagandist materials.
The government imposed a special “book tax” on
publishing houses. That’s how they make money!
The presses for youngsters promote Chinese and
Communist values, atheism and party documents. Let me
mention one strategy that happened in Kiriye Hotan.
The brother and his sister had to pay 20 yuan each for
their school expenses. Their parents, who worked
arduously from dawn to dusk all year round, could
offer only 20 yuan after paying off all kinds of fees
and fines. The 13-year-old brother gave the money to
his 10-year-old sister and said: ‘Study hard, my
sister, you take the money and buy your books.' After
sending his sister to the school, he went out of the
village. Later, in the evening, people found his body
hanging on a date tree. This is a real story published
in the magazine: “Xinjiang Civilization” 5, (2001) in
the article: “When the poet was suffering from the
illne”. I also wept when I heard this story – in our
potentially richest place in the world people live in
such poverty! "
This is what has happened to poor East Turkistan
people over the last 50 years. The Uyghurs’ natural
resources are stolen from them and they remain poor
and miserable.
These atrocities also take place in the 21st century.
How can these people afford money for reading books?
Their culture is destroyed, their wealth is stolen,
and their health is ruined by pollution, their lives
broken by oppression.
Q: Are books not yet published in your Homeland?
A: Over 6 thousand years the Uyghurs have developed a
rich culture and literature. We are proud of our
culture and national roots. However under the Chinese
ruling we cannot benefit from our ancestors’ rich
cultural heritage.
Books and art pieces get confiscated, banned, locked
in archives so our people get deprived of their
national roots. All old books were inspected and many
pages have been ripped off. The Chinese regime
intentionally wants the local people be retarded and
culturally backward. Our national culture might well
cease to exist if such policies continue. We have to
draw the world community’s attention to this fact. It
is a crime against the whole of humanity.
The Chinese have ruled over our nation for 2 centuries.
Our writers Nizari, Meshrep, Molla Musa Sayrami, Molla
Bilal and others wrote great books; Then also Tejelliy,
Qutluq SHewqi, Abduqadir Damolam, Abliz Mehsum,
Abduhaliq Uyguri, Memtili Ependi, Memtimin Bughra,
Quddus Hujam Yarof, Ziya semidi, Turghun Almas,
Abdushkur Memtimin, Murat Hemrayof, to mention a few
prominent writers.
Our writers suffer all kind of oppressions; many of
them have been put in jail. We will continue our fight
for national independence.
Q: How do you find the national officials who work in
the field of culture and education in East Turkistan?
A: Whether one is hero, or traitor, or a regular man,
any Uyghur has to submit to the rebels. There are
traitors among rebels and rebels among traitors. Some
part of Uyghur people is mean type of
collaborationists. However, 90% of Uyghurs who work
for the Chinese regime are in reality patriots who do
their best for their people. We cannot regard all
Uyghur workers in the Chinese service in the same way;
we have to draw the line between a minority of
traitors and majority of true patriots.
Patriots rejected the Chinese’s plan to eradicate our
national alphabet. They play an important role in
saving our culture and language. They do their best to
create objective conditions for developing the
national literature.
The Chinese invaders always treated these cadres with
suspicion and censored them. Now they also create
financial problems to them and their families. Uyghur
employees cannot sustain their families regardless of
how hard they work.
Now they lose their jobs. The government does not
allow them to publish good books. Writers have to
submit to government 85% of earnings otherwise they
would lose their jobs. The Chinese officials restrict
publishing materials in Uyghur language, lay off
national cadres, and force the publishing houses to
close.
Q: We constantly hear of great interest by our foreign
friends in our rich national culture especially in
relation to and overall to East Turkistan. Why not
publish books on various topics about East Turkistan
and improve the financial standing?
A: Good question. We wanted to do so. But we have no
right of using freely our ancestors’ heritage. Again,
the whole issue is tied to the question of national
education system. First, there is no systematic
teaching of our children of national values at schools.
Second, we don’t have a sufficient number of national
scientists. Thirdly, we lack national cadres. Fourthly,
researche conducted by our scientists has been
strictly controlled by the Chinese regime. Fifthly,
many books and art pieces were not returned to
Homeland from foreign libraries and museums. Sixth,
the Chinese simply steal our national values. One
example is when I was in Turpan in 1998 on a business
trip. The regional government was selling the
historical valuables to gain some finances.
We went to the Donghuang (“Thousand Houses”)
historical site, but we were not permitted to the site
by an official. We joined a group of foreigners. This
time we were cordially greeted with false smiles.
Our guide who spoke English with a strong accent
revised the Uyghur history 180 degrees around. He
stated that these historical values were created by
the Chinese in ancient times. These “examples of the
rich Chinese civilization” were supposed to be
“destroyed by the barbarians”. I was really upset and
felt sorry for wasted money. At the end of the
excursion I went to the other side – this place had a
sign “No entrance” in English and Chinese languages. I
went inside the site anyway. I saw a Chinese worker
who was scratching with a scoop the paint from the
ceiling. I looked more carefully and I saw that he was
scratching an ancient painting from the ceiling. I
shouted at him in Chinese:» what are you doing?” The
guy was scared and looked with suspicion at a
“foreigner” who spoke Chinese, and then he replied
unwillingly “we are doing restoration work”. I told
him “This is the way of doing things. I came here from
Urumchi, I worked in the press, and I’ll publish an
article about what’s going in here. The worker
immediately realized that I was Uyghur and replied
with no fear this time” OK, go and write! » I had no
choice but to leave this place. I was humiliated like
an animal.
I could not tell this story to anyone because I was
afraid that it would reach the Chinese bosses. I told
this story to one Uyghur scientist who said: “This
happens all the time. They bring Chinese articles and
bury them in East Turkistan. Then Chinese historians
announce about “sensational findings”. They provide
proof in this way that the Chinese lived in this
region 2 thousand years ago.
In Aqsu they conducted this plot in order to claim
that Aqsu always was a Chinese territory. If you wrote
about this the government would simply annihilate you.”
Talking about our subject. The Chinese do want the
Uyghurs to conduct historical research and to learn
about their culture. They make use out of the general
interest to the history of this region and got rich by
selling invaluable pieces of our religious, scientific,
poetic, historical, literature treasury. And the true
possessors get only poverty and oppression.
The false propaganda books are published on glossy
paper with color pictures. The amount of money spent
on this trash literature is so big that Uyghurs could
have bought instead the books published in Europe. If
the government spent the money allocated by UN on
publishing national literature, the great work of
safekeeping the national culture and literature would
be done to some extent.
Here is the list of some masterpieces: two thousand
years old “Maytiri samit”, “Golden light”, “Avesta”, “Shahname”,
“Dictionary of Turkic languages”, “Kudatgu bilik”,
300-500 year old “Hemse”, “Tarihi Reshid"; "Ezizane
Kashigar", "Tarihi Hemidiye"; "Qisesul Enbiya” and
other great works. These works were the basis of
literature of Turks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and other 20
nationalities.
Al Farabi, Yusup Has Hajib, Mahmut Kashgari, Alisher
Navoiy, Akhmad Yassavi and other renowned writers,
poets, philosophers, linguists brought fame to our
Motherland and our people. The Communist Chinese
regime is working at the outset of 21st century to
destroy this old and rich culture.
We have suffered all kinds of injustices. This will
not last forever. The oppressors will ripe what they
planted. Our sacred Book says: “I will fulfill my
promise so that you will know”. We are not people that
can easily be eradicated regardless of what the
Chinese might think. We are entitled to the history
and civilization not less rich than that of China. We
will have a chance to get liberated.
Q: Do you know of any worthy books under process of
publishing? Do you think the Chinese might abolish our
alphabet? Will this really take us out of the world
history scene?
A: Scientist Abdushukur Memtimin published “History of
Turan” (ancient Central Asia), “Uyghur mukam treasure”,
“Kudatgu bilik treasure”, “Overview of the Uyghur
philosophy”, “Farabi and his philosophical system”,
“Uyghur metallurgical art”, “Uyghur medicine and
pharmacology”. Scientist Turghun Almas published,
“Brief history of the Huns”, “History of the Uyghur
classical literature”, “Uyghurs” and other books.
There also bright works in the writing process. These
work cover issues of great importance. The high style
of authors confuses the Chinese censors who cannot
understand many things. Authors use Greek, Russian,
Arab and Chinese sources. They use archeological
findings to prove their concepts.
It is not easy to destroy the collectivist spirit of
our people. The Chinese try to destroy this spirit but
to no avail. Our intellectuals have great
responsibility upon their shoulders. They face all
kind of hardships in using mass media organs for
informing the public about their ideas. They can
pretend to be working for the oppressors but they do
an important job in maintaining our cultural values.
There are few good books published in China available
to Uyghur readers. However, generally it is hard to
publish books because it should get approval from: 1)
chief editor, 2) administrative manager, 3) department
manager. Then the meeting of managers is called which
lasts for several days with big disputes about whether
or not to publish the book. The books get “amended and
corrected” seriously. Some get cut in the waiting
list. The Chinese supervisors write their comments
about the contents of the books.
New “corrections” are made continuously. At the end
the last version is prepared. Books get translated
into Chinese and sent to publishing houses. The books
are held on waiting list for several months.
This is not yet official process of publishing. There
are 2 following steps: 1) it undergoes strong
censorship of chief editor, 2) overall censorship of
the office, 3) a competent employee reads this book,
4) sometimes the censors’ bosses read the books, 5)
publishing house’s editor reads and comments on the
book, 6) a trusted government person reads the book
and comments on it, 7) the book goes to the secret
police for “inspection”, 8) the book returns to the
publishing house in the dead status, 9) after the
editor signs his approval, the book goes to the
factory for publishing, 10) political supervisors
watch very closely the process of typing and
publishing books. Then the book goes to the factory.
After the book is published this is what happens
during the next 1-3 months: following government
offices checks 1) ministry of Xinjiang, 2) secret
police of Xinjiang, 3) local agents, 4) literature
office, 5) Academy of Social Sciences, 6) public
security organs. If any problem arises the publishing
and distributing of the book immediately stops.
Responsible officials get executed. Instructions are
published in thousands of pages and sent to all
government workers who speak Uyghur language.
These instructions warn of possible political mistakes
and have a very detailed list of required terms and
phrases. They are disseminated among high-ranking
party officials, security officers, chiefs of mass
media, and government offices. They all watch closely
for any published materials. The whole idea here is to
weaken our national values to eventually assimilate
us. Our society is turned into the prison beneath the
open skies. From outside things seem to be going well,
however, there is a mass human rights violation going
on in China. We have prepared a report to the United
Nations, European Union, and international
organizations with a detailed count of all violations
and abuses from the Chinese side.
The Chinese government lies about its actions. This is
what the great and fascist Chinese regime is doing. In
my opinion they want to deprive us of our rich
culture, philosophy, history, literature and art.
The Chinese have restricted publishing good books of
Uyghur authors. Now they are trying to deprive us of
our national alphabet. They are really irritating a
dangerous and angry wolf by doing so. Eastern
Turkistan people have faced over 50 years of hardship
that they do not intend to minimize. Intensified
oppression only leads to stronger resistance.
If the Chinese continue their policies of replacing
Uyghur language with the Chinese tongue, our people
will not be able to educate their children in the
national spirit. They will simply not educate their
children. The reasons for this: 1) our people do not
want their children to grow up into the Chinese, 2)
our people are so poor they will not be able to afford
sending their children to higher schools, 3) even if
part of our children grow up amongst the Chinese they
will have a moral trauma in their hearts which they
will pass to their children, 4) our civilization beats
the values and concepts expressed in the Chinese
language. That is why the Chinese have bad thoughts of
“outstripping in 5 years UK or US”.
They made up plans of assimilation the Hotan Uyghurs.
So they opened mixed Chinese-Uyghur schools where
Chinese now this time tried to “get Uyghurs”.
Why have the Chinese not accepted the Russians’
experience? What happened to the Russians policies of
Russification of West Turkistan at the end? Wrong
policies lead to failures. The Chinese regime chose
wrong policies and caused themselves great troubles.
Their strategy always loses great battles. The Chinese
regime’s anti-Uyghur terrorist policies and actions
will eventually lead to its great failure.
They will pay a great price for all their atrocities
made against our nation and our people. They will face
international tribunals. There is no time limitation
for calling for responsibility for grave crimes. The
world community and our nation for their crime and
brutality will hold them.
18/05/2002
Germany
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