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Human Rights Violations In East Turkistan In 1999
Chinese Communist Authorities
Are Strengthening The Policy Of Mass Arrests And Murders
Of The Uighurs
1 . Mass Arrests And Murders
2 . Torture And Murder Of The Political Prisoners
3 . Police And People’s Liberation Army Soldiers’
Violations
4 . Violation Of Religious Believes
Eastern Turkestan called officially by the Chinese Communist authorities "Uygur autonomous region" is the only part of the territory under the Chinese control where execution of the political prisoners is practiced. Since the events of the 4th June 1989 in Beijing no one political prisoner was executed in the inner parts of China as well as in Tibet and Inner Mongolia. This shows that the Chinese government carries out special policy of the tight oppression towards Uygurs. That is why in 1999 Amnesty International has prepared and distributed the 92 pages report describing the violation of the human rights in Eastern Turkestan and accusing the Chinese government in persecution of the Uygurs in Eastern Turkestan. Besides, the reports prepared by the State Department of the USA and the "Organization for protection of the peoples being under danger" located in Germany included the paragraphs devoted to the situation in China which strictly criticize the policy of the Chinese governmen
1. The Mass Arrests And Murders
1999 became the year when the mass arrests and murders of the Uygurs became most widespread. This policy was especially sinister in the regions of Hotan, Kashgar, Aksu and Ili. Last year early and especially in the mid of that year the Chinese authorities launched a policy of "strike hard" towards the Uygurs in Hotan, Ili and Kashgar and this campaign is being continued nowadays. According to the information collected b the "Eastern Turkestan Information Center" on the basis of the documents taken from the juridical organizations in Eastern Turkestan, during the initial three months period of the last year more than 10 thousand Uygurs have been arrested and thrown to prisons being falsely accused in the "separatist activities", being the "reactionary religious elements" and "terrorist", among them one thousand people were condemned by the courts and sentenced to execution, lively imprisonment and other forms of the severe punishments. The rest 9 thousand Uygurs are still being detained in jaier having been sentenced by courts or during the armed clashes and killed being tortured in the prisons since this year March is about 2,500 (this number covers only the political prisoners, but not the criminals). For instance, on 9 August 1999more than 10, 000 Uygurs organized a picket in front of the building of the court protesting against the refusal of the authorities to give the bodies of two young Uygurs executed back to their families, though in accordance with the Chinese laws in this case the bodies must be returned to their families. The incident was used by the Chinese authorities to announce martial law in the region starting by this a campaign against the national separatists and reactionary elements which continues till now. On August 25 using this pretext the Chinese authorities moved one division of soldiers to the Hotan region. As a document issued by the Security organs for internal use says, within the period of a month since August 9 till September 25, 1999, 1760 Uygurs were arrested bei annually about 50-60 Uygurs in the Hotan Prefecture. According to the information given by "Eastern Turkestan Information Center" on the basis of the "1999 year's Report of the Hotan Prefecture Party Committee ", by December 1999 only in the Hotan Prefecture 71 Uygurs died in the prisons because of the tortures, and their bodies were not returned to their families. But the official explanation of their death was that they were shot when tried to escape.
The policy of the mass murder has being carried out till nowadays. As it is well known to the world community the Chinese authorities have brutally suppressed the first peaceful demonstration against the Chinese authorities held on 5 February 1997 in Kulja city. At that time several hundreds Uygurs were killed just on the streets and several thousands Uygurs were arrested after the demonstration. Though the world community and the international organizations strongly criticized the Chinese authorities for the violation of human rights in Eastern Turkestan the Chinese government is intensifying the policy of mass murder of the Uygurs across the region. For example, according to the information of the "Eastern Turkestan Information Center" since July 1999 till the end of that year there were 47 open and closed trials held in Ili Prefecture, and the Chinese courts sentenced 873 Uygurs of being "national separatists" and "illegal religious elements", including 142 Uygurs who were executed. At the
2 . Torture And Murder Of The Political Prisoners
As Amnesty International told in its report on situation in Eastern Turkestan in 1999, there still wide-spread the cases in Eastern Turkestan when Uygur political prisoners are suffering from inhuman treatment in prisons including al forms of torture. Eastern Turkestan Information Center has received a letter of a young Uygur man who became a victim of the inhuman treatment practiced in Eastern Turkestan towards political prisoners. In accordance with this letter at present there are 145 prisons of different size, more than 30 labor camps with approximately 250,000 prisoners including about 150,000 political prisoners. From 20 to 30 persons are reported to be executed in big prisons annually, and 5-10 persons in small ones. Only the Urumchi prison the Chinese policemen kill about 20-30 young Uygurs, accused in "committing political crimes", using different methods like beating, starving and bury them, but the next day 8-10 policemen go to the houses of those killed persons and inform them thai to Liudawan prison, where he also was tortured a lot. He describes the conditions in which he was detained: " we were 10 persons put in one cell, it was 4 meters wide and 5 meters long, there were 60 such kid of cell in the prison, the criminals were given much food but the political prisoners had only a piece of bread in the morning and a cup of smelly soup in the evening". Then he tells about those who died because of the torture in the course of imprisonment: " I saw how a 24 years old young man whose name was Erkem Tursun and who was from Chimen village, of Qoi-bulung, Shahar County, was hardly beaten by policemen so that his body was blood-stained, 3 days later he was moved to the next-door cell, 2 days later at about 2 o’clock in the night we heard noise in that cell. The next day there was announced that "Erkem Tursun escaped". Who could believe that the man who could not even stand up on his broken feet, who could even say a word because his face swelled because of the strokes, while both arms were enis, so that he could not piss and his penis blood-strained. If I did not see all these horrors I hardly could believe they were real".
The letter contains information about another young Uygur Qadir from Kucha, who was imprisoned in the Urumchi City water-jail of Tirquduq. That young man described the conditions of the jail: " In the water-jail of Tirquduq there was a small subterranean cement-made cell of 4 meter high. There were 6 cells of this kind in the jail and all of them were filled with water up to 1 meter and 20-sentimeter high. Every cell keeps one prisoner. When I was jailed to this cell they tied my hands together taking one hand from backside and another between my legs, they put my legs in a fetter of 20-kilogram weight. Then they tied up my neck using the iron ring of 15 centimeter, which was bound with chain to the ceiling of the cell. I was tied with a soft rope and thrown to water. When I was in water the electric wire was connected with water, so they tortured me with electricity. If a prisoner is tortured in this way a whole day his body gets white and looks like dough. So, I was in the water-jail 3 days
So, situation when the police kills young Uygur men and announces that they "escaped" or ‘died because of illness" is getting common at present in Eastern Turkestan. According to the information gained by "Eastern Turkestan Information Center" directly from Eastern Turkestan, on April 1999 four young Uygurs Abduqadir Qari, Memet Tursun, Abdukerim Qarim, Tursun Qari, all of them from Hotan, were accused in "illegal reactionary religious activities" and sentenced to imprisonment. They were put to Qarahan Labor camp located in Keriya district of Hotan, but on June, 27 the police announced that those four young men "had been shot when they tried to escape from the jail"; their bodies were not returned to their families.
The number of the Uygurs who die under inhuman terrible tortures in prisons is increasing day by day. For instance, in accordance with the information of "Eastern Turkestan Information Center", on 18 July 1999 75 Uygur political prisoners were sent to the old coal mine located in Yarkend district. Because of absence of any security requirements the entry of the mine fell down and all political prisoners working inside were buried. The Chinese authorities instead of rescuing those Uygurs did not even try to pen the entry of the mine for a week, in the result 75 Uygur political prisoners died from suffocation.
The Chinese authorities even imprison and torture the children. For example, on August of last year the policemen in Hotan arrested four 14 years old Uygur teenagers accusing them in "learning by heart the verses from Koran". Those teenagers were interrogated and tortured in jail for about a month and released after having gained guarantees of their parents banning them to go out their houses. The teenagers being afraid of the police fled from their houses. Their parents then were caught and imprisoned for "helping their children to escape" and tortured in jail.
3 . Police And People’s Liberation Army Soldiers’
Violations
1/ Brief Accounts On The Military Forces In Eastern Turkestan
Eastern Turkestan serves as one of the biggest military regions of the Communist China and one of fourth parts of the People Liberation Army of China is located in Eastern Turkestan. Though some foreign experts consider that about 1 million Chinese soldiers are garrisoned in Eastern Turkestan, but according to the official information given in the "Xinjiang annual" published by the Chinese government, 39 divisions of the PLA camp in this area. These divisions are the following:
"36103", 2."36139", 3."36148", 4. "36148", 5. "36106", 6. "36179", 7. "36149", 8."36146", 9."36110", 10. "36178", 11. "36042", 12. "36007", 13."36141", 14."36220", 15. "36101", 16. "36012", 17."36921", 18. "36131", 19."36917", 20. "36106", 21. "36105", 22. "36107", 23. "36054", 24. "36173", 25. "36171", 26. "36229", 27."36229", 28. "36226", 29. "36918", 30. "36109", 31. "36110", 32."36032", 33. "36429", 34. "36211", 35. "36318", 36. "87141 (air forces)", 37. "23642", 38. "36224", 39. "8660".
According to the official figures given in "Xinjiang annual", every year the People Liberation Army admits about 13-15 thousands of recruits, 16 % of which are the ethnic minorities including the less than one percent of the Uygurs. The Liberation Army divisions in Eastern Turkestan are under the command of the Lanzhou military region.
Besides, the divisions of the People Liberation army mentioned above, there is also the "Xinjaing contingent of the armed Chinese police forces", and these police forces consist of the "headquarter of the production construction military regiments of Xinjiang under the armed police forces", "the main contingent of the border-guard forces of Xinjiang armed police', the communication contingent #2 under armed police forces". To our estimates, their number is about 100, 000. The number of the soldiers under the People Army, who are the Han Chinese, is also about 100,000. In addition to the divisions cited above, 11 divisions of the production construction military corps are garrisoned across Eastern Turkestan with 2 million 250 thousand soldiers (cf."Xinjiang annual").
So the Chinese armed forces located in Eastern Turkestan, including the People Liberation army forces, Armed police forces, People soldiers, "Production construction corps", totally have more than 3 million soldiers (except policemen). According to the "Xinjiang annual" there are more than 7 million 800 thousand Uygurs in Eastern Turkestan, this means that there are 2 soldiers per 5 Uygurs - a situation that could never be met across the world!
2/ Chinese Soldiers’ And Policemen's Violence
The enormous armed forces of the Chinese concentrated in Eastern Turkestan aim at suppression of the peaceful protests held by the Uygur people against the oppression of the Chinese Communist regime, as well as bringing extreme disasters to the local peoples through the fascist violent treatment. For example, according to the reports received on 26 February 1999 by the Information Center from its underground correspondent, on 2 February 1999 at 7.00 p.m. two Chinese policemen who were guarding the building of the police station in the neighborhood of Yumulaq in Kashgar have caught two young Uygur girls passing by on their way home: Aminem, 14 years old, and her sister Arzigul of 12 years old, and have taken them to the guard-room brutally raped them. After that incident a farther of the girls came to the police with complaints, but was detained and thrown to jail being accused in "assaulting the police station with weapons". When his relatives and neighbors came to protest against the injusti
According to another report from eastern Turkestan got by the Information Center on December3, 1999 and the report of our correspondent Abdulla Pamir, two Uygur workers of the "golden mines" inn Tuzaqchi village of the Saybagh county, Hoten Prefecture, Karakash district, have been arrested by the police inspectors being falsely suspected to steal gold. After having been arrested they were beaten s4everly so that they died right at the square. N One of those workers was Abdulla Heit, from Yumulaq village, Saybagh County, Karakash district, another one was Hadji Abdulla Tohti from Oy-erik village, Qoza County, Karakash district.
The Information Center gained another report on 25 February 1999, which tells about the incident taken place on 7 January 1999 at Beijing airport. That day Tursun Kerim and his 25 years old wife Arzigul from Taghachi village in Yarkend district were passing custom control to go abroad. Under the pretext of checking privately young woman was taken to the special room where she was ordered to undress, when she refused to undress she was forcibly stripped and raped by the policemen by turn.
On August 8, 1999 in the county of the Lop district of Hotan a Chinese policeman bought 3 melons from a Uygur farmer but paid only for one melon. When that farmer was demanding to pay for others the policemen right at the market place harshly beat him. The people around did not tolerate this injustice and surrounded the policemen, but were broken up by the soldiers arrived soon. That Uygur farmer was accused in "gathering the people to cause troubles" and thrown to prison.
On August 1999 the Chinese authorities moved a division of policemen to Hotan under the pretext to " suppress the Hotan uprising", these soldiers "to pursue the ethnic splittists" checked every house causing trouble to the local population, and by shooting without reason killed and injured many innocent farmers and pillaged many of them. For example, it was reported that on September the Chinese soldiers made a search in Karakash district of Hotan under the pretext of "catching ethnic separatists". During the search they suspected that the separatists were hiding in the cornfield and forced more than 2000 Uygur farmers to works at the field without rest in the hottest summer time, causing them huge economic damage.
On 26 October 1999 the Chinese soldiers garrisoned in Hotan district surrounded and attacked one of the houses in the village of Seghiz-kul suspecting that the separatists were hiding there. As result of this action during the chaotic shootings 3 Uygurs including Abdukadir Mamtimin from Karakash were killed (one of the persons was a woman) and 4 Uygurs were wounded. The incident was described in detailed at that time in the local Chinese "Hotan newspaper".
Another example: one of the reports delivered to the Information Center tells that on November 2, 1999 the Chinese policemen assaulted the house of the Uygur farmer Alim Kurban in Qarakir village of Keriya district and brutally massacred all his family including himself, his wife Arzigul, his 14 years old son Abduletip, his 8 years old daughter. The report gives the following details of the massacre.
On September 3 Uygur students who were detained being falsely accused in the "illegal religious activities" escaped prison in Qarihan of Keriya district (the prison belongs to the Hotan Prefecture ministry justice). The students were Ehmet Karim, of 22 age, from Haneriq village of Hotan district, Nurmuhammed from Yawa of Karakash district. The Chinese police made a search in all villages and towns to "catch the criminals". On November 2, five Chinese policemen participating in search assaulted the house of a farmer Alim Qurban in Qaraqir village of Keriya district and caught one of the escaped students Nurmuhammed. The Chinese policemen have tied the landlord of the house and tortured him putting his head into extremely cold water so that he could not breathe. The wife of the landlord Arzigul seeing her husband's suffering tried to stop that policeman torturing him, but was also tied and undressed and after that was killed by putting her head into cold water. At that time her son took an axe
30-40 farmers having known about that tragedy took the pitchforks and surrounded the house . At that time the policemen started shooting and killed 4 farmers and then run away. The next day 100 Chinese soldiers were brought to the village and after investigation 14 innocent farmers were killed. Those farmers are still being detained in jail.
According to the report got by the newspaper "Uchkun" on January 9, 2000, 14 young Muslim students from Karasay village of Karakash district to avoid being punished by the Chinese authorities went to worship to the remote desert place located at 18 kilometers from the village. But they were watched by police who sent 7 armed policemen to catch them and arrest. After having been arrested by those policemen they were accompanied and went back to the village, but on the way back the students suddenly attacked the policemen and could unarm them. 2 policemen could run away, the policemen took the rest to the desert. The special cars were ordered to overtake them but they failed. The policemen informed the headquarter of the Hotan armed police forces, which gave 2 vertical flying planes to make a search of the escaped-convicts in the desert. The students were attacked from the planes and could not resist because they did not know how to use weapons. In the cause of the attack 8 students and 2 polic
According to the information 3 of those 6 students died in the course of the investigation. The rest are still being detained.
Besides, just before the Ramadan holiday the Hotan district cadres were gathered in the Hall of Hotan TV station building where a documentary film devoted to the fight against the separatists was shown. The film had an episode describing how 4 young Uygurs were shot when they surrender and went out the house with hands up.
The violent crimes of the Chinese policemen in Eastern Turkestan became widespread across the region. The local people that protest against the violence of the Chinese government are accused in "splitting the solidarity between the army and people" and are being severely punished. So the Chinese army is creating a situation when the Uygurs can be easily discriminated.
4. Violation Of Freedom Of Religion
One of the main features of the Communist Chinese regime is not keeping on words, denying itself, contradiction between the words and deeds. These features of the Chinese Communist regime are well known in China and all over the world, that is why it has lost its face in inside the country as well as in the world. So at present, when many peoples in the world being under the alien’s yoke are struggling for the autonomy, the people of Eastern Turkestan, which have been granted this "Autonomy" more than 40 years ago, are still struggling for their national independence. This is an evidance of that the people of Eastern Turkestan do not trust the promises and words of the Chinese Communist Government. Though the word "autonomy" used in China is the same that the term used all over the world, but the Chinese use it in absolutely different meaning than the rest world does. Though the "Law on the National Territorial autonomy in the People’s Republic of China" declared extensive rights for the indi
If we just look at the contradictory harmful policy of the Communist China towards the religion in Eastern Turkestan, we can clearly see how the Chinese rule is unreliable, false and mean, as well as how it violates its own Constitution. For instance, clause #36 of the "Constitution of the People’s Republic of China" says: "The citizens of People’s Republic of China has freedom of religious faith. No one governmental organ, social organization or individual must be forced to believe or not, and all citizens regardless of their attitude to religion, must be treated equally. The State protects the religion". Article #11 of the "Law of the national territorial autonomy of the People’s Republic of China" repeats the article of the Constitution cited above, so both of these Laws guarantee the freedom of faith to the citizens. Actually this clause of the principal laws of China have never been implemented, it was written to bluff the world only. Though the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Cuslims in Eastern Turkestan, and proclaimed the campaign of "Cleaning", i.e. dismissing the patriot Muslim priests of the mosques under different pretexts, and appointing instead those Muslim priests who keep loyalty to the Chinese regime. The anti-religion measures have been strengthened by passing the "Regulations on the religious activities in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region" of 33 clause passed on June 16, 1994 by The Permanent Committee of the People Congress of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The secret "Document #7" of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted in 1996 was the records of the meeting of the Permanent Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party held in Beijing in 1996 and devoted to the situation in Eastern Turkestan.
Everybody knows that all Chinese leaders used everywhere the expression "the national separatism is the main danger for Xinjiang ". As far as I know, this was a "creation" of the bloody executioner Wang Enmao. The Central Chinese Government has enriched this expression in the "document #7" by clarifying "At present the main dangers for Stability in Xinjiang are national separatism and unlawful religious activities". By this it makes clear that the goal of the Chinese rule is open striking on sacred Muslim religion and its final liquidation. On December 2 of the same year the "Party Committee of the Autonomous Region" together with the "Committee on Nations’ religious issues of the Autonomous Region" has announced the joint document called "On the restrictions of unlawful religious activities". Afetr this document has been declared the police intensified and widened the mass arrests of the religious figures, beating and killing them. Having formed the special "Offices of centralization and reg
Another example is the document #25 for internal use distributed by the Urumchi cable television station in 1996. It stated: "all employees are strictly banned to worship and participate in religious activities, otherwise they will be discharged". All this shows that the Chinese government is openly propagating the atheism among the poplulation and has strictly restricted the freedom of religion in Eastern Turkestan. Such situation is common for all Eastern Turkestan. It is obvious that this contradicts the Constitution and the "Law on National Territorial Autonomy". If before the Communist regime controlled only the members of the Communist Party on the religious matter, now it started striking on the religious belief of the whole population by organizing the special groups of 10
families in the villages and forcing them to watch each other and control every family. The most pitiful point is that even the words of the Constitution that "all citizens have freedom of religious faith" became the "crime" for the Government. For example, when Abdu Jelil Emet, a young religious activist, who is now a member of the executive committee of the "European Unity of Eastern Turkestanians", living in Eastern Turkestan appealed to the Chinese government demanding of respect the freedom of religion granted by the Constitution of China, he has been arrested, put to prison and tortured.
All this show how Chinese rule has been violating freedom of religious believes of the ighurs in Eastern Turkestan and that at present the Uighurs meet the danger of being deprived of their right of religious belief. The chinese authorities are concentrating the polcy of repressive and forcible methods in the sphere of religion , and at the moment the anti-Chinese actions in Eastern Turkestan especially the armed ones are continuing in the religious sphere and these actions are the base of the entire national movement across the Eastern Turekestan. The Chinese policy of violation conducted in Eastern Turkestan becomes a source of the ethnic conflict and clashes in Eastern Turkestan, so that the
Anti-Chinese actions are rapidly extending in all districts of Eastern Turkestan. Especially over last years many young people have to hide and arm themselves to avoid being unfairly arrested and by doing this they have to fight the Chinese policemen and soldiers. Such armed resistence is very intensive in the areas when the Uighurs densily live like Hotan, Kashgar, Aksu and Ili. It is very important to remember that the Chinese authorities deascribe the armed actions of the Uighurs against the colonist Chinese rule as "the fundamentalism" and "terrorism" to divert the world community’s attention from the real events taking place in Eastern Turkestan. They prefer to emphasize infrequent events like the incidents with bus explosions, which can not be represent the anti-Chinese activities of the Uighurs (only 3-4 cases of more than 500 explosions taken place in Eastern Turkestan over last years were the bus explosions, while all others were undertaken against the military, police objects), in o
Though the events taking place in Eastern Turkestan are pretty similar to those in Kosovo and Chechnia, but because of the absence of the true information strictly controlled by the Chinese authorities the world community does not know the real tragedy of the Uighurs in Eastern Turkestan and those international organizations which have access to such information are still not able to influence on China. If this situation preserves further on the Chinese authorities will strengthen their opressive policy towards the Uighurs. That is why we demand the international organizations like the Human Rights Comission under the United Nations Organization to pay attention to the political situation in Eastern Turkestan and to oppose the opressive policy of the Chinese authorities against the local people of the Eastern Turkestan and to send the special representatives to this region to investigate the human rights violations in Eastern Turkestan and force the Chinese leadership to stop imidiately the policy of in Ea
Abduljelil Qaraqash,
Director of the "Eastern Turkestan Information Center"
(Note: this report was composed by Editor-in-Chief of the "Uchqun" newspaper Mr. Perhat Muhammidi) |
