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Special Report
about the Human Rights Situation in Eastern Turkistan
for the period of January-May 2002
After September 11 events the
Chinese government blamed the Uighurs of terrorism and
intensified its oppression of the Eastern Turkistan (Xinjiang
Uighur Autonomous region in the west of China) people.
Western democratic states under the leadership of the
USA, the United Nations, Amnesty International and
human rights organizations expressed serious concerns
about the Chinese violations of the Uighurs’ human
rights under the pretext of fighting terrorism after
September 11 events. The Chinese government ignored
such criticism and continued its oppressive actions
against the Uighurs.
Since the beginning of 2002 the Chinese regime not
only oppressed the Uighur independence and religious
activities, it also led an attack against the whole
national educational and cultural systems. The Chinese
authorities launched ‘an ideological campaign against
the ethnic nationalist separatists” in February 2002.
We have gathered and categorized in 6 parts as follows
the information regarding the human rights situation
in Eastern Turkistan in the period of January-April
2002:
1) The Chinese Regime continued blaming Uighurs of
“Terrorist Actions”
The Chinese political leadership used the tragic
September 11 events as an excuse for their brutal
oppression of Uighurs accusing them of “terrorist
activities”. The Chinese regime demanded support from
the world community for its unlawful policies. However,
the Western Alliance under the leadership of the USA
and the international human rights organizations
clearly expressed that the Eastern Turkistan problem
consisted of the human rights and democracy issues
thus refuting the demands of the official China.
Nevertheless, the Chinese government’s oppression of
Uighurs reached its peak in 2002.
Official China declared its new policies in the
official news agency’s report of January 21, 2002 that
“ Terrorist forces in Eastern Turkistan would not
escape punishment”. This article rejected existence of
a separate Eastern Turkistan. It rather stated,
“Xinjiang has always been an inseparable part of
China”. The political events in Eastern Turkistan over
last 10 years, namely mass protests, demonstrations
and some cases of the armed resistance all were
classified in the article as “terrorist activities”.
The Uighur national liberation movement was linked
falsely to Osama bin Laden and international terrorist
organizations. (1).
On January 24, 2002, Mr. Sun Yushi, Press Secretary of
the official Xinghua news agency, told the journalists:”
We hope that all countries would support the China’s
fight against the terrorist forces in Eastern
Turkistan”. (2)
The Xinghua agency announced on February1, 2002, that
“the number of illegal terrorist organizations in
Eastern Turkistan was over 50”. The report named all
the local and foreign Eastern Turkistan organizations
as “terrorist groups”. (3). Generally speaking, over
the last 4 months the Chinese government labeled the
Uighurs as “terrorists” tens of times in various
speeches, official reports, newspaper articles etc. We
will not list all the official statements on this
issue. However, it is quite important to mention that
after the Chinese government failed to gain support of
the Western Alliance including the USA in classifying
the Uighur national movement as the terrorist
conspiracy, the Chinese regime blamed the western
democracies of “supporting terrorism”. For example,
Mr. Wang Yi, Deputy Minister of the China’s Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, gave a speech at the Munich
Conference on Global Security on February 2, 2002
where he particularly mentioned, “the world community
should back up the efforts of the Chinese government
in fighting terrorists in Eastern Turkistan”. (4).
The Xinghua agency issued on January 21, 2002, the
release named “Terrorists in Eastern Turkistan would
not escape criminal charges” which stated that “China
resists policies of double standards regarding the
issue of fighting terrorism” (5) The Chinese
government not only lied about the nature of the
Uighur political organizations abroad, it has also did
everything possible to blacken the image of national
liberation movement in the Homeland as well. To that
end the Chinese regime organized a number of
exhibitions, conferences and meetings, which the local
people were forced to participate in.
On January 25, 2002, a conference of religious clerics
was organized in Urumchi, center of the so-called
Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The clerics were
told to read materials with all kind of calumny about
the “terrorist” Eastern Turkistan liberation activists,
and then they were forced to condemn them publicly.
The religious clerics had no choice but submit to
these demands. (6)
The Women’s Association of the Uighur Autonomous
Region called a conference on April 3, 2002, which
released a report named “Terrorist groups in Eastern
Turkistan will not avoid punishment”. The conference
participants were demanded to name the Eastern
Turkistan national liberation movement forces as
“terrorist organizations”. (7)
Also, the Chinese regime organized exhibitions since
the beginning of this year in various cities like
Urumchi, Ghulja and others. The exhibitions were
dedicated to “proof of terrorist activities in Eastern
Turkistan”. Workers of various enterprises, government
offices, plants, religious clerics and students were
ordered to visit these exhibitions. This was
considered as an important political event. After
visiting exhibitions, the citizens were requested to
give speeches with accusations of Eastern Turkistan
independence and national liberation fighters of
“terrorist activities”.
On January 10, 2002, an exhibition was opened in
Uchturpan region with the aim of “fighting 3 types of
enemies” (ethnic separatists, dissident religious
leaders and terrorists). Around 15 thousand people
visited this exhibition. Citizens of the region,
namely army staff, farmers, workers, students were all
ordered to do so. (8). From January 4, 2002, the
security department of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
region organized an exhibition dedicated to “the fight
against separatists and terrorists in Xinjiang”. (9)
2) The Growing Number of Political Arrests and
Persecutions
During last 10 moths the Chinese regime intensified
its oppression of the Eastern Turkistan people. Many
innocent Uighurs were imprisoned on the pretext of
“defending the unity of the nation”, and “fighting
illegal religious activities”. Presently over 100
thousand innocent Uighurs suffer hardships and
tortures in the Chinese jails because of their
“political crimes”. Every year over 100 Uighurs get
the death sentences and executed in public.
The Chinese government launched a campaign of “a
strong attack against the national separatists”. This
campaign only grew more aggressive after the September
11 events. According to the Uighur Information
Center’s information, in the period from April 2001
until recently, the number of innocent Uighurs
arrested on “political charges” grew over 6000. 2000
people were given various prison terms. Last year more
than 130 Uighurs were shot dead in public.
The Information Center provided concrete and detailed
reports of such cases in September 2001 and January
2002. The Information Center submitted the reports to
the Amnesty International along with the detailed
24-page summary of the human rights issue in Eastern
Turkistan. We have reviewed all information in the
present report and we plan to submit the updated
report with the account of events from January to
April to the attention of the aforementioned
organization.
Our Information Center managed to get a copy of the
secret instruction spread by the Chinese authorities
among the secret police. It states that since 1995 149
secret political organizations were crashed on in
Eastern Turkistan. Now only in the Bajiahu and Shi She
prisons in Urumchi city 3,749 Uighur political
activists are detained. They all were not permitted to
meet their relatives. (10).
Recently our Information Center declared that Mr.
Hashim Haji, deputy secretary of the public security
department of the so-called Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
region, delivered a speech at a closed meeting in the
beginning of April where he said that
“From the beginning of 2002, 117 ethnic separatists
were arrested in the Uchturpan district of the Aqsu
province.”
The Chinese regime started in April 2002 the campaign
of “a strong attack against the ethnic separatists”.
On April 8 the political report was declared at the
meeting in Urumchi city. According to the report,
certain citizens Abbas, Emet Qasim, Muhtar and others
were involved in organizing political groups in the
Urumchi region and were “exterminated” during the
“strong attack” campaign. The party meeting
participants also declared that 48 political and
religious organizations were active in the region;
they distributed over 1200 political and religious
items – books, leaflets etc. Do Lianti, deputy officer
of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region’s public
security force, gave a reply to the question how his
department fought the “separatists”: “as the first
step, the fight with the separatism has intensified,
at the second stage we have led this political
campaign for the last 5 months.” (11). Besides, the
Information Center collected various materials from
its own correspondents. According to our sources
during the 4 moth period from January 2002 to April in
Kashgar and Hotan regions of Eastern Turkistan several
hundreds of Uighurs were arrested on political charges
and were given various prison terms.
In the last week of March 2002 in 7 districts of the
Hotan region more than 800 Uighurs were arrested on
charges of being members of the “Hizb-ut-Tahrir”
religious organization. In the Lop district, Yurungash
county only around 70 people were arrested. (12).
On March 28, 2002 in Kashgar region 52 Uighur “ethnic
separatists and illegal religious activists” were
arrested on political charges. The same day the court
in Kashgar sentenced 14 Uighurs to various prison
terms on various political accusations. (13)
According to our sources, on April 2, 2002, the Hotan
city and Qariqash region courts found 9 Uighurs guilty
of “activities leading to the breaking the nation
unity, to mass protests against the government,
illegal religious activities” etc. They were given
various prison terms (from 7 to 20 years).
We give a detailed list of these victims of injustice:
Sulayman Eysa, 28 years old, Kashgar (20 yr prison
term)
Elham Memet, 23, Bayingholun Mongol Autonomous region
(19 yr prison term)
Metturdi Tursun, 22, Bayingholun Mongol Autonomous
region (11 yr prison term)
Ababekri Mehsut, 24, Hotan Qarikash region (10 yr
prison term)
Abliz Mettohti, 25, Hotan city (7 yr prison term)
Abdumejit Eziz, 29, Hotan city (7 yrs)
Memet Mettohti, 30, Chira region (7 yrs)
Memetjan Memet, 31, Chira region (7 yrs)
Abdul Hemit Eziz, 34, Hotan city( 7 yr prison term)
[14]
According to our sources, recently the Chinese
government led a campaign against the “hostile
religious movements (Wahhabism)”. Police conducted
mass arrests in Kashgar city, Chasa district,
Shamalbagh county on April 4 this year. The police
arrested for no reason many innocent Uighurs young
people accusing them of “Wahhabite activities”. [15].
Our correspondent reported from Qumul city that from
January until presently in Qumul region Ehmet Niyaz
was shot dead because of “his separatist activities”,
more than 60 Uighurs were arrested, a among them 20
were accused of being members of the “Et Oq ya party”.
[16].
From April 4 in Kashgar region Qoghan district in
Chasa street department Nezerbagh and Shamal bagh
districts the Chinese police led searches. Over
hundred Uighur youngsters were arrested on charges of
affiliation with Wahhabites. [17].
In Eastern Turkistan in the Chinese jails Uighur
political prisoners of conscience suffer tortures and
horrible sufferings. 26 political prisoners on April 4
were taken to the cemetery of the “revolutionist
victims” were they have to confess their “sins”.
Prisoners were humiliated in every possible way – not
only they had to sweep cemeteries, they also had to
give an oat of loyalty to “socialism, communism”.
[18].
Our correspondent in the Homeland recently visited
Qara Dowe district where he met Muhemmet, an Uighur
young activist who was imprisoned because of political
activities. Muhemmet told our reporter: “ The
authorities organize all sorts of campaigns like
“loyalty to the five star red banner”, “glorious
party” etc. We cannot worship and pray. Worshippers if
spotted by the guards, get severely beaten. Our guards
read us the political propagandist materials and
constantly demand us to swear loyalty to the communist
ideology”. [19].
3) Arrests of Tursunjan Emet and Ablikim Yasin
The right of the Uighurs in Eastern Turkistan for the
freedom of speech is seriously restricted.
Anyone who tries to express discontent with the
regime’s policies would be immediately accused of
“ethnic separatism” and “undermining government”. On
January 1, 2002, the party conference was held in the
People’s Palace in Urumchi city. Wang Lequen, Ablet
Abdurishid and other party officials took part in this
event. At this conference the Uighur poet Tursunjan
Emet read his poems from the stage. He expressed the
popular negative attitudes towards government policies
in a symbolic form. The Uighurs expressed their
support with big applauses whereas the Chinese
officials were clearly unhappy about this happening.
The following day the party officials gathered a
meeting where they accused the poet of “propagating in
a hidden form the hostile ideas and principles of
ethnic separatism which harms the national unity”. The
Chinese police arrested Tursunjan Emet after several
days of intensive searches. On January 11 the Party
meeting of the party cadres classified this case as
the “crime in the area of the ideological front
against the ethnic separatists”. [20].
The Chinese regime wages war not against the Uighur
adult population, but also against the teenagers.
Starting from February 2002, the political campaign
“of fighting the ethic separatism” and “re-education
in the proper way” in Eastern Turkistan has strongly
intensified. IN various meetings, conferences,
exhibitions, school presentations, etc these themes
told and retold to students hundreds of times. The
student of the school # 4 in Kashgar city, Ablikim
Yasin wrote an anonymous letter to the school
principal on March 17 where he demanded to stop
political campaigns and revert to teaching normal
educational materials and subjects.
This incident was immediately reported by the school
management to the high officials as an extraordinary
case. The city party committee and secret police
officials immediately conducted an investigation at
the school. They conducted graphology studies.
Identity of the “criminal” was established and
13-year-old Ablikim was arrested. School principal
Perhat and Ablikim’s class supervisors were ordered to
cease their duties temporarily. Osman Dawut, deputy
director of the Kashgar city inspection office, was in
charge of this investigation. Deputy secretary of the
city part committee, Zhuo Jing Xi visited the
secondary school on March 24. [21].
The arrests of Tursunjan Emet and Ablikim Yasin
demonstrate vividly the scale of the brutal and
merciless the Chinese oppression of the Uighur people,
violation of their human rights.
4) Political Campaign “of ideological struggle with
ethnic separatism” and “re-education of the masses”.
As we mentioned above, on the New Year celebration the
Uighur poet Tursunjan Emet quoted his poems publicly
which resulted in the political scandal. The Chinese
regime used this case as a pretext for launching the
overall “campaign in the ideological front against the
ethnic separatism”.
On March 31, 2002, the Party committee of the
so-called Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region called up
a meeting dedicated to the issue of the ideological
fight against ethnic nationalist separatists. Party
secretary Wang Lequen gave a speech: “ The main
objective of the mass media channels in Xinjiang
including newspapers, radio, TV and book publishing
houses is to fight with the ethnic separatism in all
forms” [22].
On April, 2002, deputy Party Secretary Ismail
Tiliwaldi gave a speech at the meeting of the
ideological workers: “ We have to control all branches
of the ideological front such as schools, education
centers, we have to up bring the youth in the spirit
of loyalty to the government and the Communist party”
[23].
On February 8, 2002, he said at another meeting:
”we have led strong attack in almost all areas of
ideological front, but we did not pay sufficient
attention to the cultural area”. [24].
Wang Lequen paid though “sufficient attention” to the
national cultural affairs. In 1990 he criticized the
famous Uighur historian Turghun Almas because of
latter’s “support for ethnic nationalist separatists”
and ordered to watch closely Turghun. Also, Ehtem Omer
was criticized for publishing in the “Xinjiang Women”
magazine an article. The newspaper was fined for 50
thousand Yuan. Chief editor was dismissed from the
post. Also, Uighur Doctor Tohti Mozat wrote a book
about the Uighur culture and literature while he
studied in Japan. For this reason in summer 2001 he
was arrested by the Chinese authorities on his arrival
to Urumchi and later he was sentenced to the 11-year
prison term.
We can quote many examples like these ones.
This time with the launching of the campaign of
“fighting with ethnic separatists in the ideological
front” the Chinese regime also led an attack against
the Uighur national culture. Starting from February
everywhere in Eastern Turkistan the so-called
“campaign in the ideological front against the ethnic
nationalist separatists” started. Many meetings and
conferences were organized in the wake of the campaign,
which became priority #1.
Our correspondent reported that this time the
ideological campaign of “re-education of masses”
reached even secondary schools. In Kashgar city, Mush
district a certain schoolteacher Abdurahman was
dismissed from his job because of his “possession of
wrong books and religious activities” [25].
The Chinese central government proclaimed on March 25,
2002, the campaign of close inspection of books,
magazines and newspapers published in Eastern
Turkistan. This statement says: “Ethnic separatists
abroad spread hostile materials and thus undermine the
political stability of the nation. We urge all
official authorities and citizens to do everything
possible in order to halt spreading such materials.
Publishing of newspapers and magazines which propagate
hostile ideas should be stopped immediately.” 26
different newspapers and journals ceased to exist.
[26].
This time the authorities started the policy of
cleansing of all mass media channels on the pretext of
carrying out the policy of “setting order”. The
Kashgar Uighur publishing house published 10 years ago
the works of Mr. Turghun Almas, “Brief history of the
Huns” and “Ancient Uighur literature”. For this reason
the Chinese authorities inspected all publications
made over last 10 years. The Uighur chief editor was
forced to retire and a Chinese editor along with 20
Chinese employees were hired instead. [27].
The Chinese government recently built a radio station
in the eastern part of Kashgar, Arslanbagh district in
order to block the transmissions of Western radio
programs. IN the western part of Eastern Turkistan
people now cannot listen to the foreign Uighur
language radio programs. [28]
This year on April 7 the Kashgar city municipality
issued an order prohibiting any citizen having
contacts with foreign correspondents and journalists.
[29]. Our correspondent informed us that on March 28
on the Dongshen garbage collection point the Chinese
authorities organized burning of books, magazines and
journals. On April 10 in the Kashgar region about 10
thousand volumes were gathered by the authorities on
the pretext of “eradicating hostile and illegal
materials”. [30].
The campaign “of fighting ethnic separatists in the
ideological front” also involved struggle of the
Communist regime with the Internet. This was
demonstrated watching closely the Internet cafes
opened and operated by the Uighur entrepreneurs. At
the end of March in Kashgar city 6 young Uighurs were
arrested and interrogated for several days for reading
“prohibited or dubious” websites. [31]
Also, at the end of March the Chinese authorities
brought a specialist from China who installed “station
650” which basically restricts the access to Internet
in Eastern Turkistan. According to our sources, the
number of sites in Uighur and English languages aimed
for the Eastern Turkistan population has been over
200; almost all of them fall in the prohibited sites
list (in the Chinese terminology “undesirable and
false sites”) [32]
5) Chinese government forces religious clerics to turn
mosques into the political interrogation and
information gathering centers
The Chinese government always paid close attention to
the religious activities in eastern Turkistan. After
September 11 events the oppression of the religious
activities has intensified in this region.
The fact that Uighurs are a Muslim people gave a good
excuse to the Chinese for such oppression.
From the beginning of this year, during the campaign
of the “ideological fight with the nationalist ethnic
separatists”, the control over the religious clerics
grew much stronger than in the past. Certain
ideological campaigns like “patriotic upbringing and
re-education”, and others were organized during this
period of time. On March 1 the Urumchi city government
called a meeting of the officials where the question
of close control of all religious activities was
raised. Deputy Party Secretary He Yiming said,
“Religious clerics have to teach their parishes the
importance of fighting the nationalist ethnic
separatists, to teach them patriotic ideas”. [33].
On March 4 in Kashgar city the conference dedicated to
the ideological struggle with the ethnic separatists
the Deputy Party Secretary Jiang Jien gave a speech:
“those who teach schoolchildren and students religious
ideas shall be severely punished. If students get
involves in offering prayers and other religious
activities, their parents and teachers shall be
punished”. [34]
At the end of January a conference of the “3 level
cadres” opened in Kashgar city. Deputy Party secretary
of the City Party committee Zhang Jian gave a speech
regarding religious activities: “party officials
should build up steady and continuous relations with
mosques and religious clerics, the ideological
propaganda in this direction should strengthen and the
overall control of the religious activities should be
intensified. Religious leaders should urge the
believers to participate in building socialism.” [35].
According to our sources 213 religious leaders were
taken to the conference of “political re-education” in
Urumchi city. They returned from this party event on
March 23. At meeting which marked the completion of
this political training course the party official of
the Uighur Autonomous region, Zhong Yujong, said that
religious clerics will now contribute to the
government policies of educating Uighurs in the right
spirit, in the “exploring the West» policies and in
fighting the ideology of nationalist ethnic
separatists. [36].
The Chinese government has banned carrying out by
believers’ regular religious rituals and practicing
norms such as worshipping, fasting etc. When Muslims
celebrated the most important religious holiday,
Kurban Heyt, in Kashgar city the Chinese authorities
forced over 300 students to attend offices so that
they could not celebrate the holiday. [37].
At the end of February, in the Kashgar region, in the
Fayzabad region, Shaptul district 12 students were
punished for involvement in “religious activities”.
Their fellow students faced various forms of
discrimination. [38].
According to the information gathered by the
Information center from Hotan city, on march 19 in
Hotan region, Islamabad district, in one quarter a 50
old woman was conducting a prayer (namaz). Her fellows,
who joined her in offering a prayer, did it in close
proximity to the primary school. Although nothing
really happened and public order was not disturbed,
the local authorities accused a group of worshippers
of “illegal religious activities”. The Hotan city
authorities conducted inspections and searches and
penalized the participants of the religious gathering.
Jelil Mehsum was fined for 2,500 Yuan, Eziz Mehsum –
for 2,000 Yuan, other 23 worshippers – for 200 Yuan
each. Also in the Islam Awat district all religious
clerics were forced to attend the 10-day conference of
“religious re-education” on April 18. Administrative
workers of the Islam Awat district were also punished
to various degrees. [39].
Also, the Chinese government has restricted in recent
years building of mosques in Eastern Turkistan. The
existing mosques were closed on various pretexts. For
example, within 2 weeks staring April 15, in the Hotan
region, Yengi bagh district 3 mosques were closed
because of its “proximity to schools”[40].
6) Chinese regime speeds up the policy of assimilation
the Uighur education system
On March 9 2002 in the so-called Xinjiang Uighur
Autonomous region’ Party committee’s secretary Wang
Lequen announced that from that date on in all Uighur
school all teaching of all subjects would be conducted
solely in the Chinese language from the 3rd grade
onwards. Communist Wang said: “The Uighur language is
not fit to the modern requirements of science and
technology, teaching in Uighur language results in
inferiority of the education level of Uighur schools”.
[41]. This statement of Wang Lequen not only violates
the right of the Uighur people for sustaining and
developing its mother tongue; it does violate the
principles of the National Autonomous region’s
constitution and the Law of Language and National
Script.
Recently the UNICEF published a list of “ceasing
languages”. The Uighur tongue is mentioned among 3000
languages, which are steadily disappearing from the
overall 6000 world languages
Generally speaking, the Chinese government is
violating the human rights of Uighur population of
Eastern Turkistan in all possible ways. The Chinese
regime also does its best to deceive the world
community about the nature of its oppressive actions.
The Uighur organizations abroad appeals on behalf of
all Uighurs to the democratic nations under the
leadership of the USA to pay close attention to the
situation with human rights in Eastern Turkistan and
to help Uighurs resist Chinese Communist oppression.
We urge the democratic nations to push more pressure
on the Chinese government in order to force it to
respect human rights of its citizens.
2002, 1 May
Sources:
(1) Xinghua news agency, 2002, 21
January
(2) Xinghua news agency, 2002, 24 February
(3)The Xinghua agency announced on February1, 2002
(4) Xinghua, 2002, 6 February
(5) Xinghua, 2002, 6 February
(6) Xinjiang news agency, 2002, 28 January
(7) Xinjiang news agency, 2002, 4 February
(8) Xinghua news agency, 2002, 15 January
(9) Xinghua news agency, 2002, 22 February
(10) World Uighur Network News (WUNN) news 2002, 29
March
(11) WUNN 2002, 9 April
(12) WUNN 2002, 1 April
(13) WUNN 2002, 11 April
(14) WUNN, 2002,15 April
(15) WUNN 2002, 23 April
(16) WUNN 2002,30 April
(17) WUNN, 2002,15 April
(18) WUNN, 2002,15 April
(19) WUNN 2002, 30 April
(20) “Xinjiang newspaper” 2002 13 January, WUNN 2002
15 January
(21) WUNN, 2002 1 April
(22) Xinjiang newspaper 2002 1 February
(23) Xinjiang Economic newspaper 2002, 5 February
(24) Xinjiang Economic newspaper, 2002, 9 February
(25) WUNN 2002, 9 April
(26) WUNN 2002, 28 March
(27) WUNN 2002, 5 April
(28) WUNN 2002, 11 April
(29) WUNN 2002, 11 April
(30) WUNN 2002, 11 April
(31) WUNN 2002, 20 March
(32) WUNN 2002, 5 April
(33) WUNN 2002, 4 March
(34) WUNN 2002, 13 March
(35) WUNN archive
(36) WUNN 2002, 3 April
(37) WUNN 2002, 20 March
(38) WUNN 2002, 20 March
(39) WUNN 2002, 25 April
(40) WUNN 2002, 26 April
(41) WUNN 2002,24 March
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