Unabhängigkeit, Freiheit und Demokratie für Osttürkistan !

A special report on violations of human rights of Uighurs in East Turkistan by the Chinese authorities

Table of Contents

Introduction

East Turkistan, a homeland of Uighurs, is located in the westernmost part of China and composes one sixth of China’s whole territory. The Chinese communist government gave East Turkistan its present official name “Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region”. The colonial epoch has already ended almost all over the world, and self-determination has become one of the basic principles of the modern international law, communist China still maintains its harsh illegal colonial rule in East Turkistan.

In the last 50 years, colonial policies of the communist Chinese authorities turned East Turkistan into one of the most backward regions in the world. Majority of Uighurs living in the East Turkistan are farmers engaged mostly in grain and cotton cropping based on primitive technologies. Their average annual income is less than 100 U.S. dollars.

The most serious problem that the Uighurs in East Turkistan face today is the racial cleansing conducted by the Chinese imperialists, that is, the problem of mere existence and survival of Uighurs as an ethnic people in the world. The Chinese government is determined to turn the Uighurs into a minority ethnic group on their own land and to finally assimilate them into the Chinese majority by the draconian birth control policy and intensifying population transfer of Chinese to East Turkistan.

 There is no respect for basic human rights in East Turkistan by the Chinese government. Hundreds of innocent Uighurs have been thrown in Chinese jails and labor camps for being religious or just expressing love towards East Turkistan and the Uighur people. Many have been executed for opposing the oppression by the government, and many have been subjected to torture and even killed in jails without proper trial.

The Chinese government practices death penalty to political prisoners exclusively in East Turkistan, which indicates how dramatic and dangerous the situation is for Uighurs to express opposition to the government policies. Despite numerous calls of Amnesty International and other human rights organizations in USA and Western Europe to stop violations of human rights in East Turkistan, the Chinese authorities not only refute such criticism, but, on the contrary, strengthen their crackdown on the Uighurs.

This document reveals some of the crimes against the Uighurs committed by the Chinese authorities during the period from March 2000 to the present. These crimes including mass arrests of innocent people, inhumane torture methods of prisoners in jails, persecution of religious people, and the birth control policy aimed at the assimilation of the Uighur people are revealed and supported by factual data.

Arbitrary detentions, imprisonments, and executions

Mass arrests and executions conducted by the Chinese authorities in East Turkistan, continued over the last half a year period under the slogans of "great cleansing" and "hard strike". Wang Lequan, the First Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, gave his blessing to power structures for repressions against the whole Uighur people by officially stating, "Arrest a thousand of people to detain a single separatist", and "This is a long time fight against national separatists, and we should destroy them and not allow to rise again".

According to the estimates of East Turkistan Information Center, during the period from March 2000 to August 2001, the number of Uighurs arrested for "national separatism" and “illegal religious activities” in the regions of Aksu, Hotan, Ili, and Kashgar, which are densely populated by Uighurs, has reached more than 10,000 people. During the same period, about 1,500 Uighurs died in Chinese prisons being executed or tortured to death and in the course of various demonstrations and clashes. These figures do not include those detained and killed by the authorities for other, non-political, reasons.

In late February 2001, following the murder of seven Hans, the Chinese authorities launched a political campaign of "great cleansing" held three months in Uch Turfan district and other six districts of Aksu Prefecture. A special campaign headquarter was established headed by Ismail Tilivaldi, the deputy-chairman of the committee on political affairs of the regional Chinese Communist Party organization. During this “cleansing” campaign, more than 600 Uighurs had been arrested and tortured in Uch Turfan district and more than 400 people in Bay district. The court that was held on March 10th and 11th sentenced 11 people including Mamut Tursun Sidiq, Memet Hapiz, and Memtimin Gazi to death and 18 people including Eysa Davut, Hesen Osman, and Bahar Avut to life imprisonment.

It was reported that one Uighur official asked Ismail Tilivaldi to delay executions because of the upcoming Muslim Kurban Eid Holiday and also reminded that, according to the Chinese criminal law, it is illegal to execute more than 10 people at once. However, Ismail Tilivaldi instructed that, "Fighting against separatists should not be confined by laws and regulations. We should not be scared of the people’s discontent. On the contrary, we should swiftly implement the court decisions".

In the result, the eleven Uighurs were executed at the same time, and their bodies were not returned to their relatives. Moreover, all bodies were buried in a mass grave dug by excavator. The authorities also took some measures to prevent the relatives from “stealing” the bodies from the grave. The soil of the area around the grave was turned over using excavator in order to make the identification of the grave impossible. Policemen and soldiers guarded the area from people during these works.

 During three months period from March to June, police arrested 11 Uighurs and interrogated 150 people in Shayar district. In the town of Aqsu more than 400 Uighurs have been arrested. Among them, eight were sentenced to death and 68 were imprisoned for different periods. In Unsu district (Aqsu Konishar), more than 300 Uighurs were arrested, 55 of them were accused as "illegal religious elements" and jailed for periods from 7 to 25 years. On May 3rd, Yasin Iskander and a young Uighur woman Ayniyaz Ibrahim from Unsu district, who were in search before, were arrested by Public Security officers and then sentenced to death with 2 years delay of the implementation.

All these people are only a small part of those suffered from the campaign of cleansing during the period from March to June, 2001. Chinese authorities accused them all in being "national separatists", "reactionary religious elements" and “terrorists plotting to split the country”. In fact, most of them did not commit any crime against the Chinese government. They just exercised their religious and ethnic rights, guaranteed by the Chinese constitution, and, in one way or another, protested against the oppressive policy of the Chinese government.

In April 2001, "hard strike", the Chinese national campaign to “fight against crime”, was launched in East Turkistan. Though the Chinese leaders declared that the campaign is aimed at fighting "different criminal groups", actually, it acquired fully political character in East Turkistan. According to Xinhua news agency report in April, the Chairman of “the government of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region” Ablet Abdureshit stated: "National separatists are the main criminal group in Xinjiang, therefore, Hard Strike must target this time mainly at national separatists". On April 13, during a visit to Xinjiang, Qi Haotian, the Chinese Defense Minister, appealed to the members of Bingtuan, semi-military construction and production corps: "Military troops and Bingtuan groups located in Xinjiang have to unite their efforts to fight national separatists". The Chinese Public Security Organization ordered all police and military organizations to strengthen the struggle against separatists and ordered courts of all levels to speed up trials and to issue verdicts without mercy.

Xinhua news agency informed that within the short from the 20th to the 30th of April, several thousands of Uighur “criminals” were detained in East Turkistan and more than 500 people were sentenced to imprisonment. Many of those people were sentenced to death without sufficient proof of guilt.

According to Xinhua report in May, Jiang Shuming, the Chairman of the Committee on Political and Legal Affairs of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and the Head of the Public Security Organization, called the participants of a special security meeting to intensify the second stage of "hard strike". He declared that, during the period April 10 – May 10, 3,701 “criminal” cases were solved, 3,518 suspected criminals were detained. According to the estimate of East Turkistan Information Center, the majority of these people were Uighurs arrested for various political reasons.

The following is information on some cases of Uighurs sentenced to death or given other severe punishments during that time.

In Kashgar Prefecture:

During the period April 20—29, more than 500 Uighurs were detained. Only the court held on April 26, sentenced 6 Uighurs, including Ablimit Memet and Ehmet Tursun, to death and 153 others to various other kinds of punishments.

In Ili Prefecture:

On April 21, the middle rank court of Ili Prefecture opened its session in the town of Ghulja (Yining) and found 13 Uighur youths, including Tudahun Turdi, Dilshatbek Tursun, and Azat Munar, guilty in "illegal religious activities" and "national separatism" and sentenced them to death. The sentenced people were shot on the same day. On April 28, four Uighurs, including Savutjan Ablimit, from the village of Yengi Yer near the city of Ghulja (Yining), were arrested for supporting "national separatists".

In Korla Prefecture:

On April 27, the open trial in the city of Korla sentenced six Uighurs to death for "national separatism" and "illegal religious activity". Among the executed were Tahir Avut and Enver Nasir.

In Hotan Prefecture:

After the "hard strike" campaign have been launched, within ten days period, the Chinese authorities organised special searches in many villages and small towns of Hotan Prefecture and arrested a large number Uighurs on the basis of having contacts with "national separatists". April 28, the court of the village of Bagche held its session and found 16 Uighurs, including Abdureshit Obulhesen, Ehetniya Metrozi, and Tursun Omer, guilty in "terrorism" and "illegal religious activities" and sentenced them to 4 to 20 years of imprisonment.

In Turfan Prefecture

On April 24, the Turfan City Court and the Turfan Prefecture Court held their joint session in the trial of Tohti Hebibulla and several other people. The courts found Tohti guilty in "illegal religious activity and terrorism" and sentenced him to death.  Other 13 persons, including Abdusemet Bekri, Veli Abdurahman, and Momin Qadir, were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.  Besides, on April 29, the court in Tohsun district sentenced 24 Uighurs, including Gheni Tursun and Osman Menglik, to various terms of imprisonment for the involvement in an "illegal religious activity". They were labeled as "reactionary religious elements".

  In Aksu Prefecture

On April 27, the middle level Court of Aksu district held a special open trial within the framework of the “hard strike” campaign and accused five Uighurs, including Abdukah Ghojek and Eysa Tohti, in "activities aimed at splitting the country" and "terrorism" and all five were sentenced to death. These Uighurs were guarded by hundreds of policemen and soldiers in numrous tracks that circled around the city in order to intimidate the Uighur population of the city. At the final stop, the Uighurs were executed, and the bodies were not returned to relatives and buried in a mass grave thrown in a pile.

Thus, during the short period from April 20 to April 29 in the wake of the "hard strike campaign" launched in East Turkistan, the Chinese authorities detained, imprisoned, and killed without proper judicial trials numerous innocent Uighurs. The authorities did not give the sentenced people the opportunity to appeal their death or imprisonment verdicts. Moreover, the authorities used public trials as a tool of intimidation of the local population. The families of the executed were denied an opportunity to properly bury the executed family members, and even the burial places of the executed were not revealed.

After April, the campaign of  arbitrary arrests and executions in East Turkistan entered its second phase under the title "to catch and punish those who escaped from the first net". On  May 20, the Ili district Court accused a young Uighur named Ablimit Abbas in "national separatism" and in  the "activity to split the county" and sentenced him to death. The death sentence was implemented immediately. On June 19, the Ghulja (Yining) City Court sentenced a young Uighur Abduqadir Hemit to death and other 35 Uighurs to different terms of imprisonment. Their crime was defined as "national separatism" and “illegal religious activities”. On June 25, the Urumchi City Court found two young Uighurs Osman Hemit and Memet Rahman guilty in "teaching national separatists how to use explosive materials". Both young men were executed on the same day.

According to the estimates of East Turkistan Information Center, during the period from April to June, the number of Uighurs arrested in East Turkistan for political reasons has reached several thousands, the number of those sentenced to different terms of imprisonment reached 500, and the number of those sentenced to death and executed is about 100 (see Table 1). 

Table 1 .  Numbers of Uighurs detained, imprisoned, and executed by the Chinese authorities in East Turkistan during the period April—June, 2001.

At present, the Chinese authorities are carrying out endless campaigns as "hard strike" and "great cleansing", during which they follow the principle saying that "children should be punished for parents, wife and children - for husband and farther". 

On February 3, 2001, the alleged “leader of the Hotan armed resistance forces” Abla Ebey was arrested by the Chinese Public Security. The Hotan City Court sentenced him for a life imprisonment and deprived forever his political rights. Abla Ebey’s arrest warrant was issued in June 1999, and before the arrest, his old parents, his wife, and his brother Tohti Ebey were put in jail for three months and tortured to extract information about him. Their property was confiscated. During two years period after Abla Ebey’s arrest, more than 400 people were detained being accused for having contacts with him, and property of some of these people was also confiscated. Twenty seven people, who, in one way or another, supported families of those arrested, were fined to amounts five times the amount of their donations.

 On July 7, 2000, the Chinese police arrested a Uighur trader Qeyum Yasin, a resident of Beijing, and, on July 15, Qeyum Yasin’s body was brought to his family without any explanations on the cause of his death.

People living in free societies might perceive the incidents described in this document took place in East Turkistan as episodes from the Middle Ages history. However, these are real facts and only a part of those facts, which became regular event of the Uighurs' life in China. 

On February 20, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen when two Uighurs walking on the street were stopped by police and heavily beaten up. When the Uighurs living in this city complained about the incident to the local authorities nobody considered their complaints.

In recent years, some political analysts and journalists had been reporting about the growth of the Han nationalism in the Chinese society encouraged by the Communist authorities. Deceived by the state propaganda, more and more Chinese perceive Uighurs as foreign elements in the Chinese nation. In the recent incident in the city of Xian, a small group of Uighur students at Changan University became targets of the Han nationalistic attack by Chinese students. The Chinese students demanded that Uighurs should not be allowed to study at the university and must leave the university. Several thousand Chinese students besieged and attacked the dorm of about one hundred Uighur students. In the result, many people from both sides were badly injured. In the course of the assault, some university officials openly encouraged the Chinese students to teach the Uighurs a lesson and beat them up. Only after repeated phone calls by the Uighurs, the police arrived to stop the attack and the mass fistfight. After this incident, the university administration accused only the Uighur students in initiating the brawl and expelled several Uighur students from the University.

The Chinese Communist authorities encourage the migration of Chinese into East Turkistan and, in many areas, give preference in employment opportunities to Chinese newcomers compared to local Uighurs. The government’s population transfer policy causes a wide spread and deep discontents from the local population.

The following incident, that took place in Keriya district of Hotan Prefecture on August 29, 2000, and resulted in a mass clash between Uighurs and Chinese, indicates to the presence of high-level tensions between the two groups. A Uighur woman entered a Chinese shop and accidentally stepped on a foot of a Chinese child. Despite her apologies, a Chinese man kept insulting her, moreover, he beat the poor woman up with a metal rod until she bled. Another Chinese stood nearby and verbally encouraged the assailant saying that he will not make a move even if the woman will be killed.

Local Uighurs learned very soon about the incident and gathered at the place of the incident. This led to a large-scale clash between local Uighurs and Chinese settlers resulting in many people being injured. The riot police resorted to tear gas and strong force to stop the fight and detained about two hundred Uighurs.  Later the authorities announced that national separatists and counter-revolutionaries provoked the incident. Investigations and arrests continued for several months.

On April 3, five Chinese migrants raped two Uighur girls of ages 11 and 13 years old, the daughters of Sadir Imin residing in a village in Fukang district. The head of the local police station said that he would investigate the case, but did not make any attempts during the next four days. Meanwhile, Sadir Imin captured himself one of the rapists and brought him to the police station. Public Security officers arrested Sadir Imin, accused in an unauthorized arrest of a person, and threatened with the imprisonment for five years for his “crime”.  Sidik Imin escaped from the jail and killed the head of the police station and one of the rapists of his daughters. On April 8, the elder of the girls Ainur died from bleeding. In the revenge, five local Uighurs heavily beat the four other men who raped the girls. The authorities called a hundred of policemen to arrest these Uighurs. One of the Uighurs named Ahmetjan was killed during the arrest, and the others were thrown to jail. These Uighurs are still imprisoned and the Chinese authorities do not let others to help their families saying that this will be considered as the “assistance to separatist elements”.

Repressions against Uighurs beyond China’s borders

Oppressive policies of the Chinese government towards Uighurs are no longer confined by the territory of China, but spills across the borders to territories of the neighboring countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan. The organization of "Shanghai Five" composed of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan was formed in April 1996 to resolve border disputes. The organization has steadily been transformed into an international body to fight against what they call "terrorism, extremism, and separatism" in Central Asia. At the present, the Chinese government revealed that its main priority is to liquidate the Uighur independence movement in Central Asia.

Agreements signed in the framework of Shanghai Five require strict restrictions on pro-independence political activities of Uighurs in all member countries. Following these agreements, the social security organs of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have been strengthening their control over political activities of Uighurs.

The member countries are obliged to extradite “criminals”. Under this provision, several Uighur refugees who asked political asylums in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were handed over to China. For instance, in January 1999, the Kazakhstani authorities deported to China three young Uighurs, including Hemit Mehmet, who sought political asylums in Kazakhstan. These Uighurs had been imprisoned in China for two years and, on March 15, 2001, the Chinese court found them guilty in "attempts to split the country" and "illegal crossing of the state border" and sentenced them to death.

In another case, four young Uighurs, including Esqer Tohti, were arrested in Kyrgyzstan under suspicion of having relations to the bus bombing in the Kyrgyz city of Osh. The Osh Regional Court did not recognize the verdicts issued by the City Court, and the accusations were regarded as "groundless". Nevertheless, in March 2001, the Osh City court held its session without presence of defense lawyers of the defendants and sentenced three of them to death and one of them to 25 years imprisonment. When a human rights organization based in Bishkek sent its representative in charge for Uighur affairs, Tursun Islam, to Osh for a fact finding mission, a Kyrgyz official mentioned in informal conversation that they had to do this under the strong Chinese pressure, and that these Uighurs in fact have nothing to do with the bus bombing in Osh.

Several prominent Uighur political figures have mysteriously been killed in the last few years in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In May 2001, Dilbirim Samsakova, the Chairwoman of the charity foundation “Nazugum” which helps single mothers and families with many children was abducted and killed in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Nighmet Bosakov, the leader of the Uighur organization “Ittipak” in Kyrgyzstan, was shot and killed in front of his house in Bishkek in March 2000. Hashir Vahidi, the outstanding leader of the "Uighurstan Liberation Organisation" in Kazakhstan was attacked in his own apartment and received severe injuries that later led to his death. Abdushukur Tevpiq, a representative in Kazakhstan of a Uighur newspaper "Uchkun" published by East Turkistan Information Center, was killed in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 1999.

China has also exerted its pressure on the Pakistani authorities to limit activities of the Uighur community in Pakistan. In the beginning of December 2000, the Pakistani police arrived without warning to two guesthouses in Islamabad, "Kashgar Rabat" and "Hotan Rabat", run by the Uighur-Pakistani community to provide shelters to Uighurs arriving to Pakistan from China, and ordered to closed them down. The police informally explained their actions by the strong pressure of the Chinese authorities. The closures of the guesthouses followed by the mass expulsion of Uighur students studying at the Pakistani institutes. Also, five years ago in May 1996, the Pakistani authorities handed over 13 Uighur students to the Chinese authorities. Some of these Uighur were later executed.

Tortures and murders of political prisoners

According to the confidential information gained by East Turkistan Information Center, at present there are about 250 thousand prisoners in East Turkistan, of whom 150 thousand are Uighur political prisoners.

Prisoners in East Turkistan are kept in conditions unsuitable for humans.  They live under the constant threat of death. Refined forms of horrible tortures of prisoners have become a common practice in East Turkistan resulting, sometimes, in deaths. For example, Abduhelil Abdumijit, a leader of the "February 5th" demonstration in Ghulja (Yining) in 1997, died from tortures in the Chapchal prison on October 17, 2000. His death drew attention of many international human rights organizations. On October 21, Amnesty International issued a special report No. 203 devoted to the case of Abduhelil Abdumijit. The report informs about the bloody repression of Uighurs that followed the February 5 uprising in Ghulja when a group of Uighur youths went on a demonstration demanding from the Chinese authorities to free their detained brothers and friends and the freedom of religion. The report describes, focusing on the case of Abduhelil Abdumijit, some details of inhuman tortures that the Chinese police uses in order to extract confessions and to break people’s wills.

Mr. Abdushukur, a Uighur refugee seeking political asylum in Germany, informed that cases of deaths from tortures in Chinese jails in the Ghulja area sharply increased after the incident of  "February 5". For example, in July 1997, a young Uighur Abdusalam Qari, 27, was arrested by the Chinese police in a neighborhood of Doeng Mahalla of the city of Ghulja. After one-month, his body in blood with broken arms and legs was brought to his family. Abdusalam Qari was one of the organizers of a cultural movement in the city called Mashrap. He was arrested under the suspicion of organizing the Ghulja incident.

 Mr. Abdushukur also informed about a Uighur trader named Tay, 33, who was arrested when he arrived to Khorgos border pass on his way home from Kazakhstan where he was on a business trip. He was put in a jail run by Bigntuan, a Chinese production and construction corps, and, on the next day, Tay’s body was brought to his family. The police explained that he died from suffocation. However, family members found marks of strikes by a heavy object all over his body when preparing it to a burying ceremony. When the elder brother of Tay asked authorities for the explanation and the investigation of his death, the police threatened him and demanded to stop complaining. It became known later that police accused Tay in "making a financial donation to Uighur separatist organizations in Kazakhstan" and that police killed him torturing.

Killings of prisoners were reported not only in the Ili region but also all over East Turkistan. For instance, five Uighur political prisoners, Helim Qari, Abdullah Qadir, Ahmet Qari, Hemdul Inayet, and Tahir Qurban were kept in "Tarim" jail in Shayar district of East Turkistan. On April 12, 2000, they were killed by members of Bingtuan and Chinese guards right on the field where they were brought to work.

The Chinese authorities continue persecutions of Uighur political prisoners even after their release from jails. For example, a young Uighur Abdukerim Qarim from Payzavat district of East Turkistan was a talented young religious activist who was highly respected for his deep knowledge of Islam. In 1994, the Chinese authorities imprisoned him for 6 years for the "illegal religious activity". On August last year, he was released. After the long time imprisonment, Abdukerim was very ill, but the authorities would not allow him to have a medical treatment.

Persecution of religion

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China states in its article No. 36 that, "The citizens of the People's Republic of China have the freedom of religious faith. Governmental organs and individuals must not force anyone to believe in religion or be unreligious. No citizen must be mistreated on the religious basis. The state defends normal religious activities". The article No. 11 of “The law on national autonomies in China” repeats these statements. However, these articles as well as many others were written only to deceive Chinese citizens and to mislead the international community.

The articles on the religious freedom in the Chinese constitution have never been implemented. The Chinese authorities regard Islam, the religion of the Uighurs that helps them to preserve their ethnic identity, as a great obstacle in the implementation of the colonial policy of assimilation of the local people of East Turkistan. That is why the Chinese government is strengthening its oppressive and repressive policy towards Islam in China.

Declaring that "the main threats to stability in Xinjiang are national separatism and illegal religious activities", the authorities restrict almost any kind of religious activities. A great number of ordinary Uighurs practicing Islam have been arrested, accused in being involved in "illegal religious activities" and being "reactionary religious elements", thrown to jails, and tortured.

 A considerable part of the Uighurs arrested during the last decade consists of prisoners of conscience. The Chinese authorities strengthened even further the persecution against Islam over the last years. On their own discretion, the authorities can consider praying, fasting, and carrying out the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, the most sacred place of Muslims, as illegal activities.

For example, on October 6, 2000, 30 Uighurs were arrested in the village of Komushliq of Kona Shahar district and were accused in carrying out religious rites in an improper way referring to the fact that they were Wahabis, the followers of a trend in Islam popular in Saudi Arabia. In June 2000, in the village of Chumchaq of Bugur district of East Turkistan a young Uighur man Yasin Kiver was detained being suspected in "illegal religious activities".  Having been detained for three month, he was released and fined for 3000 yuans (approximately 350 US dollars). After returning home, Kiver was summoned to the office of local communist party secretary who forced him to drink alcohol, by doing this, insulting Kiver’s religious feelings. The communist official also threatened Kever that if he prays again he will be thrown to jail.

On the national level, teachers, students, and governmental employees are not specifically restricted in their religious rights according to the basic Chinese laws. Nevertheless, the Chinese authorities have issued numerous regulations and rules restricting religious activities of governmental employees (cadres), teachers, and students in areas densely populated by Uighurs. According to the regulations, such people are not permitted to pray in public, to fast, and even to attend religious ceremonies. Those who disobey are punished severely using disciplinary and financial actions.

The Chinese government strengthened its criminal actions against Islam during the month of Ramadan of the last year. Policemen watched over Uighur governmental employees with the goal to single out those who carry out the Islamic rituals. Several investigation campaigns had been launched on cases of Uighur teachers, students, and governmental employees who prayed during the month of Ramadan. During fasting, the employees were offered free lunches. Uighur teachers and students in the areas of Kashgar, Hotan, and Aksu, were officially prohibited to fast. Teachers were required to give written obligations to the school principals not to pray and fast during Ramadan. Students were required to submit similar letters to their teachers.

According to Mr. Tomur Choqa, a reporter of East Turkistan Information Center, the special surveillance action in the Hotan pedagogical College revealed 16 students who prayed and fasted during the Ramadan month. All these students were deprived of their two months period stipends. At some schools other schools in East Turkistan, even more serious punishments including arrests were reported. For example, 7 Uighur youths including Mr. Sattar Abliz from the Xinjiang Architectural Institute, Mr. Qudret Tomur from the Xinjiang University, and Ms. Heyrigul Turgun from the Institute of Art were accused in illegal praying and were expelled from the universities; some of them were jailed for 1 to 3 years.

In its fight against Islam in China, the Chinese government prohibited constructions of new mosques and had closed down many existing mosques. In August 2000, the Chinese authorities ordered to destroy 12 mosques in Qariqash district of Hotan Prefecture because “the mosques were negatively influencing on nearby schools and on the quality of education”. This year in January, Qazan Bulaq mosque of Uch-Turfan district was demolished because “the Ramadan Holyday service was held the day before, as in Arabic countries, and an unsanctioned public meeting of people took place in the mosque".

The communist authorities turned some mosques into propaganda stands for communist ideas and the governmental policy. The authorities force imams, Muslim priests, to propagate in mosques the communist ideology including "the international solidarity of working people" and the Marxist atheism. The authorities require from religious clerics to be faithful "patriotic religious leaders".

It is becoming a common practice in East Turkistan when imams, mosque clerics, are appointed and paid by the governmental organs and not elected by congregations. Such people are usually loyal and faithful to the Chinese government, but they are not necessarily good Muslims. The Communist authorities gather periodically those “patriotic religious activists” periodically for ideological and political workshops.

Clerics who do not follow the communist party guidelines are persecuted. For example, an Uighur language newspaper "Hotan geziti" from October 2, 1999, informed that the imam of Oybagh mosque of the First village of Qaraqash district was “fired” from his position, fined, and later arrested for not supporting the policy of the communist party and for his "illegal religious activity". 

The Chinese authorities have closed down all nongovernmental religious schools in East Turkistan in order to prevent Muslims from receiving independent religious education. In the result, some believers had to attend private underground religious classes. The Chinese government started to persecute such people regardless of their age. On July 27, 2001, two Uighur boys were arrested for secretly attending religious classes. The Chinese police tortured these two boys to extract from them information about other students. In the result, 18 more people were later detained including seven years old children. All these religious students were fined for amounts from 300 to 500 yuans, while their teacher was detained for one month with the confiscation of his property.

Eziz Somen, a religious activist in Hotan, was arrested in June 2001 in Urumchi. People in Hotan respected him greatly for his deep knowledge of Islam. He had established a religious underground school where he was giving religious education to many students. In 1994, police indented to arrest him for “illegal teaching of religious students and spreading national separatism”, but he escaped and was on the run for six years.

The Xinjiang Islamic Institute is the only higher education religious institution set up by the Chinese government in East Turkistan. Nowadays, the institute is under the danger of being shut down. Several professors and students of the institute had been arrested for the alleged "illegal religious activities". The students of this religious institution are taught atheism and the communist ideology offering courses like the official Chinese version of “The history of Xinjiang”,  "Marxism against religion", and "The works of Deng Xiaoping". In the result, the Islamic Institute, a religious educational establishment, was turned into a propaganda tool of the communist and Chinese nationalistic ideology.

Professors who opposed the curriculum of the institute were persecuted. Two authoritative teachers and Islamic scholars, Muhammad Abdulla Haji and Yusup Haji, were arrested in October 2000, and another well-known religious scholar Muhammad Salih Damolla was forced to retire. In the result, the instruction level of the Institute went down becoming less and less popular among the people who want to receive a religious education.

Forced "Birth Control" policy

Since 1988, the Chinese government has been carrying out the notorious "birth control" policy towards the Uighurs motivating this by the excessive population in China. Depriving the Uighurs the access to the wealth generated by exploiting natural resources of East Turkistan and opportunities for prosperity, the Chinese authorities “fight” the poverty among Uighurs by reducing the size of the Uighur people, which is officially regarded a minority nationality.

The policy is supposed to increase the per capita wealth in the region by reducing the size of the population. But, in fact, the strict inhuman “birth control” measures towards the Uighurs are combined with the massive population transfer into East Turkistan from China’s inner provinces. Taking into account that the population of China is 1.3 billion people and that the Uighurs account only for its 0.006 %, this means that East Turkistan will continue to have a low per capita wealth regardless the effects of birth control towards the Uighurs. Therefore, the Chinese authorities have different reasons for imposing the birth control onto Uighurs.

The "birth control" in East Turkistan does not aim at improving the living standards of the Uighurs. It is a Chinese form of ethnic cleansing of the territory of East Turkistan from the Uighurs to create the “living space” for Chinese migrants. The forced implementation of the "birth control" policy towards the Uighurs is a very serious crime against the Uighur people, Islamic religion, and human rights.

 East Turkistan Information Center obtained the full text of the document issued by the Hotan Communist Party Committee “On further strengthening of the birth control policy”.  The Hotan Prefecture is the poorest area in East Turkistan densely populated by Uighurs. Uighurs comprise 95% of its population 90% of which is peasantry. Therefore, the document can be viewed as the outline of the demographic policy of the Chinese communist party towards the Uighur population in general.

The first section of the document, under the title “Real strengthening of the leadership over the birth control”, explains the importance of the leadership’s role in improving the implementation of the birth control policy. According to the document, the top leadership must consider the birth control policy as one of their main tasks, the first and second rank leadership is responsible for the implementation, and cadres of the lower three levels, those of districts, towns and villages, must actively participate in birth control actions. Thus, although there are special offices and workers responsible for the implementation of the birth control policy, the communist party requires that “all cadres were involved in this campaign”.

Another paragraph of the document, called “A special double checking of all children born between the beginning of 1998 to April 2000”, warns the ranking officials of strict punishments for a failure in implementing the birth control policy. If a child born after 2000 and beyond the plan is revealed, the work of the first leaders will be inspected and the necessary punishment will be determined. If one “extra” child is revealed in a village, the head of the village will be deprived of his ten days salary. If several children are revealed, the officials will be dismissed from their positions for hiding the facts, and the police may investigate their cases. Thus, the Chinese Communist Party puts a strong pressure on local authorities in the implementation of the birth control policy.

Each administrative unit is given a births quota. Birth control workers forcibly take all women who became pregnant beyond the quota to a doctor to have an abortion. There were cases when babies were taken off their mothers’ wombs just a few days before their due dates. Forcible abortions of women very often cause permanent psychological and physical damages and make the women unable to bear children in the future.

The following incident of a brutal treatment of a pregnant woman took place in the city of Turfan.  A Uighur woman Hayrinisahan aged 32 married Ahmetjan aged 36. For both of them, it was a second marriage and each of them had a child from the previous marriage who lived with the parents. Hayrinisahan and Ahmetjan decided to have a common child believing that they are allowed to have another child since this is their second marriage.

When Hayrinisahan was five months pregnant, the birth control workers found out about her pregnancy and demanded from Hayrinisahan to have an abortion since her pregnancy was beyond the plan. A birth control official began to visit their family every day with his demands. Ahmetjan received a warning from his employer that he will be expelled if they do not “get rid” of a child.

The poor family decided to have a fictitious divorce in order to keep both the child and the husband’s job. They divorced officially, and Hayrinisahan went secretly to Pichan district to have a delivery there. However, in a month, birth control workers detected her and forced to return to Turfan for the abortion.

Then, she went secretly to Tohsun district, but was found again after two and half month period. Hayrinisahan escaped to a remote mountainous part of Karashahar district located 300 kilometers from Turfan. When she was about to give a birth to a child, a birth control official arrived with two policemen, and they accompanied her to Turfan as if she were a criminal.  She was taken to a hospital where she delivered a child. The baby ended up dead. The poor woman went mad after all, and she can be met as a madwoman in the streets of Turfan.

Section 6 of the document instructs that, in order to prevent unplanned pregnancies among Uighur women, officials of the birth control office must visit once a month all families in a village and keep a list of all pregnant women. They also have to watch women in case someone tries to get rid of a contraceptive spiral without the proper authorization. If a woman needs to have the spiral taken off, this must be done only in the district’s birth control office. Any doctor beyond the birth control office who assists a woman to remove the spiral must be fired and imposed the penalty of ten thousand yuans.

The document also requires that all women with three children must be sterilized.  These regulations show that the Chinese authorities use inhuman immoral uncivilized measures to reduce the Uighur population. Nowadays, Uighur women in East Turkistan are treated as animals. Private lives of the women can be intervened every moment by birth control officers, and their bodies can be violated by forced abortions and sterilizations.

Moreover, the Chinese authorities do not deny that birth control offices lack modern medical equipment and that the birth control officers often do not have a proper training. The chances of being mistreated in the Chinese birth control offices are very high. Nevertheless, the women must either comply with the authorities or be considered as a violator of the state law.

According to official “Hotan geziti” (the Hotan newspaper) from September 1, long-term birth control measures had been taken towards 30,400 Uighur women in Hotan district only, where the total number of women in the district was about 45,000. One can see how aggressively and quickly the birth control instructions of the government are being implemented. 

On June 20, 1999, 28 Uighur women from various places of Payzavat district, aged from 25 to 34, were forced to undergo abortions because their pregnancies were out of the birth control plan. During these mass operations, several Uighur women died including Qemberhan and Mukerremhan. According to the information provided by a doctor who is seeking a political asylum in Germany and wants to remain anonymous, the death rate during abortions among Uighur women is extremely high. Besides, because of the poverty of the Uighur people in countryside and the lack of proper health care system, even the women who had successful abortions have a great chance to have medical complications in the future.

Conclusion

The facts provided in this document, demonstrate that the communist Chinese authorities violate all basic human rights of Uighurs in East Turkistan. Moreover, it violates the rights of Uighurs as a “minority people”. The actions of the government can be characterized no less as the ethnic cleansing of East Turkistan from Uighurs.  The oppression causes resistance.  If repressions against Uighurs continue, the world might witness a major ethic conflict in East Turkistan. The silence of the world community in such situation is equivalent to a tacit approval of the actions of the Chinese government. The civilized democratic world should have the moral obligation to protect the poor oppressed Uighur people from the despotism of the totalitarian Chinese regime.

© Uygur.Org  29/10/2001 13:25 A.Karakash