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Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 48 15 July 1997 In this issue: (1) JULY BLOODY INCIDENT IN ILI REGION Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/13/97 (2) UYGHUR LEADERS MET WITH THE US STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/15/97 (3) REPORTS FROM "THE VOICE OF EASTERN TURKISTAN" NEWSPAPER Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/23/97 (4) UYGHUR STUDENT ASSOCIATION IS REGISTERED AS A NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/23/97 (5) NEW MEASURES BY THE CCP TO RESTRICT EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN EASTERN TURKISTAN AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/23/97 (6) CALL FOR PEOPLE'S WAR ON SEPARATISTS Reuter, 7/23/97 (South China Morning Post) (7) SEPARATISTS 'SHOULD BE WIPED OUT' Agence France-Presse, 7/3/97 (South China Morning Post) (8) CHINA IS LAUNCHING A NEW CAMPAIGN AGAINST MUSLIM SEPARATISTS The Washington Post, 7/17/97 (9) VICE PREMIER JIANG CHUNYUN WARNS OF "DISASTER YEAR" CND-Global, 7/21/97 (10) CHI HAOTIAN URGES CHINESE CITIZENS TO LOVE THE PLA CND-Global, 7/21/97 (11) NEW CUSTOM POST ON THE BORDER BETWEEN CHINA AND KYRGYZSTAN Turkistan-Newsletter, 07/21/97 (12) UZBEK-KYRGYZ-CHINESE HIGHWAY OPENS RFE/RL Newsline, 7/22/97 (13) JAPANESE DELEGATION VISITS KAZAKSTAN RFE/RL Newsline, 7/7/97 *=*=*==*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) JULY BLOODY INCIDENT IN ILI REGION Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/13/97 [ETIC, 7/131997] A confident source in Beijing reported that, at the beginning of this month, heavy armed clashes erupted between the Uyghur youth and the Chinese military resulted in many Uyghurs killed. The incident took place in the place of Eastern Turkistan's Ili region called Aktope located approximately between Ghulje City and the Ghulje county's border. Immediately after the incident, the Chinese military reenforced guarding of military ammunition depots, and conducted massive arrests detaining about 4 thousand people. The region was sealed and a strict curfew imposed preventing from any information leakage about the clashes. It was the most serious incident after bloody events in Ghulje on February of this year, when the Chinese military brutally suppressed Uyghur demonstrators demanding freedom. The source also informed that individuals of Uyghur nationality are being arbitrarily detained by the Chinese police all over China beginning this month. The arrests are usually made under a pretext of eliminating drug dealers. [Burkut] *=*=*==*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (2) UYGHUR LEADERS MET WITH THE US STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/15/97 [ETIC, 7/15/97] Leaders of two Uyghur organizations in Kazakstan visited the US last week. Yusupbek Muhlisi, the Chaiman of the United Eastern Turkistan National Front, and Kahriman Khojamberdi, the president of the Uyghur association in Kazakstan, met and had prolonged conversations with the US state department officials. The Uyghur leaders delivered to the US government plight of the people of Eastern Turkistan for freedom and ending of the Chinese colonialism in this Central Asian nation. They also discussed possibilities of establishing the Uyghur language broadcast from the American Free Asia radio station. Mr. Khojamberdi described the talks with the American officials as very positive and fruitful for both sides, and said that they had successfully accomplished their mission. Both leaders are members of the Uyghur political council which represents the union of three main Uyghur organizations in Kazakstan. The leader of the Uyghurstan Liberation Organization, Mr. Hashir Wahidi, could not join the two because of his current health condition. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (3) REPORTS FROM "THE VOICE OF EASTERN TURKISTAN" NEWSPAPER Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/23/97 [ETIC, 7/23/97] "The Voice of Eastern Turkistan" newspaper published in Russian by the United Eastern Turkistan National Front in Almaty reported that on July 14, the Chinese People's Armed Police units conducted a massive "Criminals Detention" operation in Kargalik city of Khotan province of Eastern Turkistan. The paramilitary police surrounded the local market and kept all the people in the area under detention for several hours. The people were checked out one-by-one and all the "suspicious elements" had been detained. According to the local people, the disguised secret police agents are selling fake or unfunctional guns and bombs in the markets of Eastern Turkistan trying to catch potential buyers. It is also reported by the newspaper that, according to the resolution of the Chinese authorities, some of the inter city Chinese truck drivers in Eastern Turkistan will be given guns for self protection. [Gulamettin Pahta, New York City] *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (4) UYGHUR STUDENT ASSOCIATION IS REGISTERED AS A NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/23/97 [ETIC, 7/23/97]] The Tangritagh Overseas Students and Scholar Association (TOSSA) was recently registered by the US authorities as a non profit organization. TOSSA is a non-political organization established in 1992 to enhance communication and information exchange between students and scholars from Eastern Turkistan. One of the priority activities of the TOSSA is to assist young people in Eastern Turkistan in coming to the USA for study and research. In the association's bi-monthly newsletter, the president of the TOSSA recently wrote that there is a great interest from the young students in the Uyghur Autonomous Region to receive a good education in the western countries, and especially in the US; but, financial and other problems make it virtually impossible for them to realize their dreams. He informed that the TOSSA council is regularly contacted by such students asking for help; unfortunately, because of the organization's low fund, the TOSSA is not capable to offer according assistance to those people. Currently, there are about 50 Uyghur students studying in the US universities. Only few of them, if any, are state funded. [Abdulrakhim Aitbayev, Denver] *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (5) NEW MEASURES BY THE CCP TO RESTRICT EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN EASTERN TURKISTAN AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES Eastern Turkistan Information Center, 7/23/97 [ETIC, 7/23/97]] In March 1996, the Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's Political Bureau adopted a resolution which was delivered by the party leader Jiang Zemin on new measures to "Maintain stability in Xinjiang". Among the other provisions, it requires form all the Xinjiang local party organizations to undertake several measures to restrict educational exchange between Xinjiang and foreign countries. In particular, it demands to strictly forbid high school student exchange programs between Xinjiang and foreign countries. According to the resolution, the foreign teachers must not be allowed to teach in the Xinjiang educational institutions. Local party organizations should establish a strict control over the process of sending Xinjiang minority college students and graduates for study in foreign countries. Only people who love motherland and follow party ideology guidelines could be allowed to study abroad. [Abdulrakhim Aitbayev,Denver] *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (6) CALL FOR PEOPLE'S WAR ON SEPARATISTS Reuter, 7/23/97 (South China Morning Post) Officials in the restive Muslim region of Xinjiang have called for a people's war against separatists and illegal religious activities. They contend that anti-Chinese sentiment has lingered after bloody riots this year. "We must maintain sharp vigilance," the Xinjiang Daily quoted Amudun Niyaz, chairman of the Xinjiang People's Congress, as telling officials in Yining, where at least nine people died in anti-Chinese riots in February. "We must motivate the masses to launch a people's war against separatists and illegal religious activities," he was quoted as saying. Although authorities had successfully suppressed the February riots, a handful of separatists had not resigned themselves to defeat, he told the officials in Yining, near the border with Kazakhstan. "We must maintain high vigilance and be profoundly aware that the main dangers threatening Xinjiang's stability are ethnic splittism and illegal religious activities," he said. The February riots, which began as a demonstration for Xinjiang's independence, left nine people dead and 198 injured, by official tally. Three people were executed and 27 sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven years to life after the riots. "Our struggle against national separatists is neither an ethnic nor a religious problem," the chairman said. "It is a political struggle between those who safeguard the motherland's unification and security and those who split the motherland. He accused foreign forces of providing support to the separatists in Xinjiang. "It is a complete waste of time for a small handful of ethnic separatists to think they can realise their dream with the support of foreign anti-Chinese powers. No power can separate Xinjiang from the motherland," he said. Militants of Xinjiang's Uygur ethnic group have said they want to set up an independent state of East Turkestan in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and three mostly Muslim Central Asian states. In May, eight people in Xinjiang were executed after being found guilty of involvement in crimes, including the planting of home-made bombs in the regional capital, Urumqi, that killed nine people. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (7) SEPARATISTS 'SHOULD BE WIPED OUT' Agence France-Presse, 7/3/97 (South China Morning Post) A top Xinjiang official has called on the population to "exterminate"what he called the scourge of separatism. Amudun Niyaz, chairman of the Xinjiang. People's Congress, said: "The struggle against separatism is an absolute must and we should carry it out in the way we deal with the cotton scourge." Mr Niyaz was referring to the cotton worms which destroyed crops in recent years in the province, China's principal cotton-supplier. "Men, women, the old and the young should join in this struggle to root out separatism, the scourge of the nation," he told cadres in Kashgar, a Muslim separatist stronghold. Mr Niyaz's comments were reported in the Xinjiang Daily. Xinjiang has been rocked by a series of violent clashes in recent months between its majority Muslim Uygur population and Han Chinese settlers, officials and security forces. In February, separatists planted several bombs in Urumqi and the border city of Yining, killing at least nine people. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (8) CHINA IS LAUNCHING A NEW CAMPAIGN AGAINST MUSLIM SEPARATISTS The Washington Post, 7/17/97 BEIJING, July 16-China is launching a new campaign against Muslim separatists in its restive northwestern region of Xinjiang after a string of pro-independence bombings and other violent incidents earlier this year. "We must soberly realize that enemy activities are still very serious," the official Xinjiang Daily quoted regional Communist Party secretary Wang Lequan as saying in its July 11edition, seen in Beijing today. Propaganda and education will be at the heart of the campaign to restore social order, which already has sent 17,000 officials to reinforce key villages, work units and military farms, Wang told a regional conference. Tough action against the separatists has achieved great success, he said, but the war on separatism will be long-term. Wang said every effort should be made to educate people about the villainy of those who want to split China. Regional media last month reported the firing of 260 grass-roots officials, many of whom worked in an area rocked by anti-Chinese riots in February that left nine people dead. State media have said in the past that some regional officials secretly sympathize with separatists, and Wang warned that commitment to national unity is a political prerequisite. The campaign is the latest of many aimed at softening anti-Beijing sentiment in the region and at crushing its small, armed independence movement. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (9) VICE PREMIER JIANG CHUNYUN WARNS OF "DISASTER YEAR" CND-Global, 7/21/97 [CND, 07/20/97] Vice Premier JIANG Chunyun warned on Thursday that "China may experience a year of disasters which are likely to occur simultaneously," AFP reports. According to the State Drought Prevention and Flood Control Office, a record 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of farmland have been hit by drought in the north, while 4.4 million hectares (11 million acres) have been flooded in the south. The autumn harvest accounts for 70 percent of China's annual grain yield, and ZHANG Xinmin, who heads a team from the bureau's rural social economy department, expected that there would be a decrease in grain production. (Ximin TANG, Guochen WAN) *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (10) CHI HAOTIAN URGES CHINESE CITIZENS TO LOVE THE PLA CND-Global, 7/21/97 [CND, 07/16/97] Chinese Defense Minister CHI Haotian urges Chinese citizens to love and respect the PLA, AFP reported, citing the Xinhua news agency. Chi was quoted as saying that a strong national defense system could only be possible when the entire society cherishes and supports the military. It is especially important for "the invigoration and reunification of the country". (WU Fang, Guochen WANG) *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (11) NEW CUSTOM POST ON THE BORDER BETWEEN CHINA AND KYRGYZSTAN Turkistan-Newsletter, 07/21/97 New custom post on the border between China and Kyrgyzstan was solemnly opened today near the Kyrgyz village of Erkechtam. Prime ministers of Kyrgyzstan (Apas Joumagulov) and Uzbekistan (Otkir Sultanov), Chinese ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Yao Peishen, representatives of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Xinjiang province of China took part in the event. New highway through Erkechtam will connect China with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (12) UZBEK-KYRGYZ-CHINESE HIGHWAY OPENS RFE/RL Newsline, 7/22/97 The prime ministers of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan met with Chinese officials on 21 July at the new Erkecham customs post on the Kyrgyz-Chinese border for the official opening of the Andijan-Osh-Kashgar highway, according to RFE/RL correspondents in Kyrgyzstan and ITAR-TASS. Uzbek Prime Minister Utkir Sultanov said the road will become the "transcontinental bridge between Europe and Asia." *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (13) JAPANESE DELEGATION VISITS KAZAKSTAN RFE/RL Newsline, 7/7/97 A Japanese delegation led by Keizo Obuchi, the head of the Economic Cooperation Committee of Japan's ruling Liberal-Democratic Party, pledged on 4 July to assist Kazakstan in its efforts to join the Asian-Pacific Cooperation Organization. Obuchi said Tokyo wants to participate in pipeline projects that will bring oil and gas from Kazakstan to China. He told journalists there are no obstacles to developing relations between Japan and Kazakstan and that Japan plans to increase investment in Kazakstan. Japan's Eximbank will finance 15projects in Kazakstan and has increased the funds to finance those ventures to $6 billion, he added. Meanwhile, the IMF has announced that, based on Kazakstan's progress toward reforms in 1996, it will allocate some $1.35 billion instead of $200 million. 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
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