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Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 62 16 October 1997 In this issue: (1) EXILED UIGHURS STEP UP FIGHT AGAINST BEIJING 10/14/97, RFE/RL, By Jeremy Bransten (2) OFFICIAL SAYS RELIGION GOING THROUGH 'GOLDEN PERIOD' 10/13/97, Beijing Xinhua, FBIS Transcribed Text (3) PLEA FOR MEASURES TO HALT DRYING-UP OF TARIM RIVER 10/10/97, China Daily (4) FRENCH OIL GROUP: COOPERATION WITH CHINA FUNDAMENTAL 10/08/97, Beijing Xinhua, FBIS Transcribed Text *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) EXILED UIGHURS STEP UP FIGHT AGAINST BEIJING 10/14/97, RFE/RL, By Jeremy Bransten Almaty, Kazakhstan -- The Chinese government calls him a terrorist. He says he is a freedom fighter. But when 77-year-old Yusupbek Mukhlisi walks into a room, smooths his rumpled gray suit, and extends his hands in a gesture of greeting, the initial impression is more that of a benevolent grandfather. "Salam Aleykum," he says, "Peace be with you, visitor. You do me a great honor with your visit." And Mukhlisi sits down, adjusting the embroidered skullcap that identifies him as a Uighur, the Turkic-Muslim people who inhabit China's westernmost Xinjiang Autonomous Region. But ask Mukhlisi about his homeland, and the kind eyes quickly harden and the rhetoric soon turns fiery. Mukhlisi is a Uighur by birth, but also by vocation. Having fled China for the Soviet Union back in 1960, he now heads the United National Revolutionary Front of East Turkestan. East Turkestan is how the Uighurs refer to their homeland, rather than Xinjiang, which means "New Dominion" in Chinese. Mukhlisi's organization, which operates in exile from its headquarters in neighboring Kazakhstan, has until this year advocated peaceful resistance to what it calls China's colonial rule. But no longer. This March, Mukhlisi and two other Kazakhstan-based Uighur groups issued a common declaration, saying they were taking up arms to fight against Chinese oppression. The declaration followed the execution by Chinese authorities of three alleged Uighur separatists in the city of Urumqi. The executions provoked an anti-Chinese riot in the western city of Kuldja, that was brutally put down by Chinese troops. Reports say at least 10 people were killed in the incident, and up to 190 people injured. Three more Uighurs were subsequently executed by the Chinese authorities and 27 others given long prison sentences for allegedly organizing the riot. The three Uighur groups claim that since then, over 60,000 alleged Uighurs separatists have been arrested by the Chinese and sent to labor camps. They say over 500 of them have died during internment or under interrogation. Mukhlisi says the Uighurs must now fight for survival, or face eventual extermination by the Chinese government. All means are legitimate, he says, against policies aimed at making the Uighurs a minority on their own territory and quashing all resistance to Beijing's rule. Given Beijing's clampdown on the region, it is impossible to confirm all of Mukhlisi's figures. But several trends are clear: over the past several years, China's central government has encouraged the mass migration of ethnic Chinese to Xinjiang, with the result that Han Chinese now roughly equal Uighurs in the region. When Beijing imposed direct rule in 1949, the ratio was 96 percent ethnic Uighurs to four percent Han Chinese. When it is completed in two years, a new railway line spanning the length of Xinjiang is expected to further encourage Chinese migration. This is coupled with strict enforcement of a two-child per family policy for "ethnic minorities." Sean Roberts, an American anthropologist who is a specialist on Xinjiang, says that to the agriculturalist Uighurs, who see large families as both a source of pride and economic necessity, this is tantamount to cultural genocide. The new Chinese immigrants are put to work in Xinjiang's rapidly-expanding industrial sector, helping to mine coal, uranium and precious minerals, which are then sent on to other parts of China or sold to fill Beijing's treasury. On the cultural front, the government this year unveiled a new campaign it labeled "strike hard," aimed at dislodging separatism and what it termed religious extremism. Travelers to the region, including Roberts, confirm an increasing Chinese military presence in the region and the closing of hundreds of mosques and cultural centers in recent months. Mukhlisi says each new Chinese repression wins new converts to his underground army, which he claims now numbers 30,000 young radicals. Mukhlisi's group claims credit for a series of bombs which exploded this spring in Xinjiang's largest city, Urumqi, as well as in Beijing itself. "Our targets are not civilian," he says, but he gleefully details how his men have already succeeded in raiding six major Chinese arms depots in the region. To supplement the raids, Mukhlisi says Chinese soldiers on patrol are often kidnapped and robbed or else paid off to surrender their weapons. All this puts Kazakhstan's government in a bind. Almaty wants to develop its economic relations with China, and feels awkward about hosting the leaders of an increasingly-radical Uighur diaspora. But at the same time, it doesn't want to be seen repressing the Kazakh's ethnic cousins. Yusupbek Mukhlisi remembers the short-lived, independent republic of Turkestan in the 1940s. He remembers an independent Tibet and he intends to keep fighting against Beijing. "It's simple," he says, "Either we fight, or we will disappear off the face of the Earth." (2) OFFICIAL SAYS RELIGION GOING THROUGH 'GOLDEN PERIOD' 10/13/97, Beijing Xinhua, FBIS Transcribed Text BEIJING, October 13 (Xinhua) -- The head of the State Council's Bureau of Religious Affairs said here today that because of the Chinese government's policy, various religions are alive and well and are going through what many believers call a "golden period". According to Ye Xiaowen, Taoism, Islam, and Christianity have 85,000 places of worship nationwide and some 3,000 religious groups. The country has 10 million Christians, compared with only 700,000 in 1949, he said. In the Tibet Autonomous Region, he noted, there are over 1,700 places of worship and 46,000 monks and nuns living in lamaseries and monasteries. In northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region alone, there are 23,000 mosques that are home to approximately 30,000 religious officials, and since the early 1980s, more than 40,000 people have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Ye went on to say that Chinese believers have all kinds of religious activities, chanting sutras, preaching, or being baptised, both at home or in sites of worship and they have religious festivals that are protected by Chinese laws. In Tibet, sutra halls and statues of Buddha can be found in almost every Buddhist's house and prayer flags are a common sight. Each year Lhasa, Tibet's capital, has a million pilgrims. Nevertheless, he said, some religious organizations have appeared in China since 1980s engaging in illegal activities under the pretext of carrying out religion, and although there are only a handful of people, they have done considerable harm. This is attributed to the fact that China is still at a primary stage of socialism when there are remnants of feudalism. They may mislead people when the country is undergoing great social changes and is opening to all kinds of intellectual and cultural influences, Ye said. The heads of these organizations are mostly pleasure seekers with no jobs, he added. They either distort religious doctrine, deceiving people and getting them to resist the law or cheat people out of their money and get them together for sexually promiscuous activities. "The general public, including religious believers, hate these people bitterly," said Ye, "No country in the world can tolerate criminal activities under the guise of religion, and China will not." He said that Chinese government has cracked down on some of these religious groups because of its obligation to protect the people's interests and safeguard the dignity of the law and that this is to better protect religious freedom and normal religious activities. The Communist Party, as the party in power in China, has been implementing an earnest policy of religious freedom, and although it consists of atheists, it has never stopped the people from believing in religion. "The Communist Party of China is in favor of abiding by the law on religious development and opposes suppressing religion with administrative power," he said. Although there are various religions among the 1.2 billion Chinese, he said, they have the fundamentally same interest in building a more powerful, more democratic, and more civilized country and in safeguarding national sovereignty and dignity. Moreover, with this common interest, the Chinese people should consider the difference between theists and atheists as a matter of secondary importance, and should not let it escalate into antagonism, he said. There should be mutual respect and mutual understanding in seeking common ground but preserving differences. China has a long history of religion mingled with Chinese culture, which has a central theme of forgiveness, peacefulness, and "not doing unto others what you would not have them do unto you." Religion has also contributed to the Chinese culture, and the Communist Party cherishes all traditional culture, including religious culture, he added. "Feudal rulers throughout the history viewed religion with lenience and respect, and unlike in Western countries, in the several thousand years of Chinese civilization there has never been any large-scale religious persecution or religious wars," he said. "Religions with different origins or doctrines can co-exist harmoniously and develop in a healthy way. This is the historical basis under which the Party carries out the policy of religious freedom," Ye concluded. (3) PLEA FOR MEASURES TO HALT DRYING-UP OF TARIM RIVER 10/10/97, China Daily EDITOR'S Note: Our staff reporter Zhao Huanxin concluded a 12-day visit to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region early this month. The following is the first of his four reports from China's largest region, where people struggle to survive amid extensive deserts and scarce water resources. URUMQI -- It is imperative to strengthen management of the Tarim, China's longest inland river, to protect the fragile ecology of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said Yang Zhenhuai, a senior National People's Congress (NPC) official in the regional capital last Thursday. "We cannot wait until the entire Tarim River dries up. Laws and regulations on the distribution and utilization of water resources should be made by taking the whole river basin into consideration." Yang, formerly Minister of Water Resources and now co-chairman of the NPC Environmental and Resources Protection Committee, had just wound up a 12-day environment inspection round in the northwestern region, part of the China Century Tour for Environmental Protection. The 2,430-kilometre Tarim River, flowing east and southeast through the desolate Taklamakan desert -- the world's second-largest drifting desert -- is regarded as Xinjiang's lifeblood. More than 47 per cent of the region's population live in the river basin, which has a drainage area of 1.06 million square kilometres, one-ninth of China's total land area. However, since the late 1960s, the main stream of the river from Xiaojiake, the meeting point of the Tarim's tributaries, the Aksu, Hotan and Yarkant rivers, has come to a halt in Daxihaizi Reservoir, 340 kilometres away from Taitema Lake, the river's original mouth. Yang attributed the shrinkage of the flow to slack management of the river, particularly the profligate use of water resources in the river's upper and middle reaches, where overcultivation and the arbitrary opening of irrigation channels and ditches swallow up a large proportion of the scarce water. Xie Zhiqiang, vice-director of the region's Environmental Protection Bureau, said waste land reclaimers and enterprises had opened up 138 breaches along the 1,000-kilometre main stream of the Tarim River, each diverting at least 30 million cubic metres of water a year. However, less than 10 per cent of the breaches have controlling floodgates. This misuse of water has been ecologically disastrous in the long run, experts said. Evaporation of the irrigation water in the upper and middle reaches results in salt accumulation in the surface soil, eventually rendering it useless for crop production. "The key to the Tarim River problem is to enhance management based on the law," Yang told regional government officials. He urged swift action to promulgate a water resources law for the Tarim River to curb the short-sighted and reckless use of the river water. Yang suggested to the officials that a powerful Tarim River management committee, composed of leading regional and local government officials and directors of water-consuming enterprises, should co-ordinate the use of Tarim water. A unified method for charging for water use should be worked out in order to curb the proliferation of local water diversion schemes, Yang said. Pleading for more importance to be attached to the Tarim as it is one of the principal rivers in China, Tang Shuhong, director of Tarim River Basin Conservancy, asked the Ministry of Water Resources to provide technical and financial assistance to its conservancy. (4) FRENCH OIL GROUP: COOPERATION WITH CHINA FUNDAMENTAL 10/08/97, Beijing Xinhua, FBIS Transcribed Text Paris, October 8 (XINHUA) -- The French oil group Elf-Aquitaine considers its cooperation with China and other Asian countries "fundamental" for its future development, said Philippe Jaffre, president of Elf-Aquitaine. During a meeting with Paris-based Chinese journalists today at the Elf headquarters in Paris, Jaffre said that as a global reaching enterprise and with a 1 billion dollar investment plan in China, Elf wishes to fully establish itself in the Chinese market, which has a huge potential in the development of oil, chemical and health products. Jean Alliot, director of evaluation and programs of Elf, said that Elf plans to continue its programs of exploration of oil resources in China, and is now exploring the Tarim basin in Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. When Chinese Premier Li Peng visited France in April 1996, Elf and the Chinese group Sinochem renewed a crude oil supply contract which covers 1 million tons of crude oil over a two-year period. Prepared by: Abdulrakhim Aitbayev (rakhim@lochbrandy.mines.edu) and Bill Mitchell (turpan@ix.netcom.coms). 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 |