An electronic newsletter Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 43 7 June 1997 In this issue: 1) XINJIANG AND CENTRAL ASIA RFE/RL Newsline, No. 43, Part I, 2 June 1997 2) $42B OIL DEALS WITH IRAQ AND KAZAKHSTAN South China Morning Post, 6/6/97 3) CHINA'S XINJIANG SEEN FACING MORE UNREST Reuter, 6/6/97 4) DEMONSTRATION IN MUNICH AGAINST CHINESE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN EASTERN TURKISTAN Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7 June 1997 *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) RFE/RL Newsline, No. 43, Part I, 2 June 1997 XINJIANG AND CENTRAL ASIA by Paul Goble China's crackdown on Uyghur activism in Xinjiang is likely to cast a larger shadow on the countries of Central Asia than will the Afghan fighting that has attracted so much attention both in that region and beyond. And that is so despite the statements and reporting attending the arrival in Central Asia of Sadako Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. According to her aides, Ogata is there in anticipation of a flood of refugees from Afghanistan into Central Asia as the result of the Taliban advance into the northern part of that country. But the Taliban advance has stalled, and the fears that brought Ogata to Central Asia have somewhat ebbed for the time being, even though her press officer suggested last Tuesday that a refugee flood "could still happen." The Chinese crackdown, on the other hand, is very much in full swing. Its latest manifestation came on Thursday when the Chinese authorities in Urumqi executed eight and sentenced four others for a series of bus bombings there earlier this year. The authorities imposed these sentences less to punish specific actions than to send a message to the increasingly restive Uyghur minority that China will not tolerate any further separatist or Islamic activism. Over the past year, the Muslim Uyghurs have protested in various ways against Beijing's dispatch of ever more Han Chinese to the region, an influx that has reduced the Uyghur share of the region's population to only 47 percent. Beijing reported the latest executions not in the domestic Chinese press but only in news services directed at foreign audiences, the English-language China Daily and the Xinhua news service. By not distributing the news at home, the Beijing authorities appear to be hoping both to continue to present their own society as one without significant problems and also to contain the nationalism of the Han Chinese. The second of these may becoming a serious problem: Han Chinese officials in Xinjiang already sound more like Chinese nationalists than communist party stalwarts. And their attitudes may only exacerbate the feelings of Uyghurs and the Han Chinese there. And by distributing the news about the executions abroad, the Beijing authorities appear to be hoping to send a powerful signal to China's Central Asian neighbors that China will not tolerate any interference in what it defines as its own internal affairs. The governments of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have deferred to China on this point already. They have promised not to provide any support or sanctuary for the Uyghurs. And this latest report will give them yet another reason to continue that policy. But Beijing's message may have a very different and unintended impact on the peoples of these countries, whose populations include Uyghurs and other groups who see themselves as closely linked to the Islamic one just over the border in China. Many of these people are likely to be infuriated with the Chinese authorities for their new efforts to wipe out a movement that seeks no more than the Central Asians themselves have achieved. Even more important, at least some of these people are likely to be angry at their own governments for going along with the Chinese crackdown. While most of the Central Asian regimes are far from perfect democracies, their leaders may decide to defer to the anger of their own populations lest that anger power political movements against themselves.And to the extent that were to happen, it could trigger a fundamental shift in the geopolitics of inner Asia, a shift that might give the Uyghur national movement a greater chance than it has had at any time since the Chinese communists seized power. And that in turn would affect both the domestic development and foreign policy outlook of the Central Asian countries far more than would any likely refugee flow into the region from Afghanistan. Copyright (c) 1997 RFE/RL, Inc. ================================================================================ (2) $42B OIL DEALS WITH IRAQ AND KAZAKHSTAN June 6 1997 SHEEL KOHLI in London China has signed two key deals worth US$5.5 billion (HK$42.54 billion) aimed at tying up long-term supplies of oil to the mainland and easing growing demand on its own oil resources. In a move that took the oil market completely by surprise, it struck a US$1.2 billion agreement with Iraq, just as the United Nations agreed to extend further limited sales of Iraqi oil. The contract was sealed only hours after another pact, worth US$4.3 billion, had been signed with Kazakhstan for a 60 per cent stake in ist main oil company, and a pledge to build a 3,000-kilometre pipeline to Xinjiang Province. Together they represent Beijing's largest investment in foreign markets, and highlight the importance China is attaching to establishing ready sources of oil, needed to sustain the mainland's rapid economic growth. China has consistently failed to sufficiently develop its own fields, particularly in the west, where there have been some positive indications of oil reserves. China has also pinned hopes on establishing sovereignty over the disputed Spratly Islands, which are thought to have high oil resources, but has not managed to achieve recognition for its claim. The mainland produces around three million barrels of oil a day, but between January and April this year imports rose by 44.4 per cent against the same period last year, to reach 9.91 million tonnes of crude oil. China's imports of around 400,000 barrels per day are expected to increase by up to five times by 2010. Under the Iraq deal, China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) has secured a supply from the million-barrel-a-day Ahdab oil field in southern Iraq. Spread over 22 years, CNPC will help develop the field at an investment cost of US$660 million, with operational costs estimated at US$600 million. "Strategically this is a very sound move," said Peter Gignoux, of brokerage company Smith Barney. CNPC is understood to have competed with Texaco and Amoco of the US, and Yuzhny Most of Russia, to win the Kazakhstan deal. CNPC will invest US$4.3 billion in the Kazakh Aktyubinsk oil enterprise over the next 20 years, with US$585 million being paid between 1998 and 2003, to give it a 60 per cent stake. Western Kazakhstan has oil reserves of around 483 million tonnes and its output of 44,000 barrels per day is expected to double by the year 2000. Copyright 1997 South China Morning Post ================================================================================= 09:06 a.m. Jun 06, 1997 Eastern (3 ) China's Xinjiang seen facing more unrest By William Kazer BEIJING, June 6 (Reuter) - China's Moslem region of Xinjiang, rocked by sporadic pro-separatist unrest in recent months, appears to be posing an increasingly serious challenge to Beijing rule, a British specialist said on Friday. Bombings and other acts of violence, aimed at creating an independent East Turkestan, were becoming more regular and showing signs of organisation, said Michael Dillon, a senior lecturer at the University of Durham. ``We are beginning to see a number of serious pro-independence organisations,'' he told businessmen. ``In the past (separatist groups) were treated as being on the fringe but in the next few years they may prove to be of great significance,'' he said. The vast region of Xinjiang, which borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and three mainly Moslem Central Asian states, is home to a number of Turkic-speaking groups, such as the Uighur ethnic minority. Dillon, a noted scholar on Xinjiang's Moslems, said Beijing had used its ``strike hard'' campaign, a nationwide crackdown on crime launched last year to crush militant opposition to its rule in the far northwestern region. China executed eight men last week for their roles in a series of bus bombings that rocked the regional capital of Urumqi on February 25. In April, it executed three men and jailed 27 for their part in an anti-Chinese riot in the border town of Yining. The Urumqi attacks, a series of five separate time bombs, killed nine people and wounded 58. The bombings coincided with the funeral rites for China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in the nation's capital of Beijing. Deng died in February aged 92. Three others were sentenced to long jail terms for roles in the Urumqi attacks while one man who had confessed his crimes and implicated others was given a death sentence suspended for two years. That often means a reduction to life in jail if a prisoner cooperates. The group had also bought guns and ammunition, the official media have said. A commentary in the Xinjiang Daily lashed out at separatist groups, vowing they would be crushed and likening them to ``ants trying to shake a tree, or a mantis trying to stop a chariot.'' The official media have also reported assassination attempts against officials seen as pro-Beijing over the past year. Dillon described a long list of what he called ``small incidents that build up to a fairly serious situation.'' Opposition groups were still divided but there was a been a change from the clan or family-led groups to those with loyalties to a trans-national Islam, he said. (4) DEMONSTRATION IN MUNICH AGAINST CHINESE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN EASTERN TURKISTAN Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7 June 1997 [ETIC, 6/7/97] About 400 people demonstrated against human rights violations in Eastern Turkistan and in China at the center of Munich on June 7. The Demonstration was organized by the East Turkistan Union in Europe and Amnesty International, and continued for about 4 hours. The participants hold and chanted the following slogans: FREEDOM FOR ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN EASTERN TURKISTAN ! STOP MASSACRE OF THE UYGHURS ! SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE UYGHURS! STOP CHINESE MIGRATION TO EASTERN TURKISTAN ! STOP FORCED ABORTIONS ! STOP NUCLEAR TESTS IN LOPNOR ! After the demonstration, the Uyghurs prayed for the victims who lost their lifes in fighting against the communist Chinese state's colonialism and despotism. [Abduljelil Karkash,Munich] Prepared by: Abdulrakhim Aitbayev (rakhim@lochbrandy.mines.edu) WUNN newsletter index*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= The World Uyghur Network News electronic newsletter is produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center (ETIC) in cooperation with the Taklamakan Uighur Human Rights Association (USA), and is devoted to the current political, cultural and economic developments in Eastern Turkistan and to the Uyghur people related issues. Eastern Turkistan (Sherqiy Turkistan in Uyghur) is a name used by the indigenous people of the region for their motherland located in what is at present the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic China. The World Uyghur Network News brings information on situation in Eastern Turkistan from the Uyghur and other sources to the attention of the international community. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= EASTERN TURKISTAN INFORMATION CENTER |