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Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 76 29 March 1998 In this issue (1) UYGHURS CLASHED WITH POLICE IN GHULJE
[ETIC, 04/24/98] According to the reports of local people, on April 20-21, Uyghur pro-independence fighters clashed with the Chinese paramilitary police in the city of Ghulje of Eastern Turkistan/Uyghuristan. A Chinese police squad run into a fierce armed resistance during its attempt to arrest a group of Uyghurs suspected in separatist activities. In two days of standoff, 7 Uyghurs and 30-40 Chinese paramilitary servicemen have been killed. [Abdullah Pamir] (2) THE UNITED NATIONAL FRONT OF EASTERN TURKSITAN ISSUED A STATEMENT
RFE/RL correspondents report from Almaty that an Uyghur organization in Kazakhstan called The United National Front of Eastern Turkistan has issued a special statement accusing "Chinese communists in oppression of the Uyghur nation in their own homeland, Eastern Turkistan". The leaders of Vatan Uchquni staff in Almaty told RFE/RL correspondents about the contents of the statement issued yesterday. It was said in the statement that, on April 8, Uyghur muslims of Khotan province in Eastern Turkistan were surrounded in a mosque by the Chinese army units and paramilitary police during a pray. Some of the surrounded Uyghurs were reportedly arrested for being "Islamic fundamentalists". The statement also says that three leaders of the Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan: Abdulhakim Haji, Abylqasym Qari, Qojahmet Haji, have been detained by the Kyrgyz National Security Service the same day in Bishkek. A leader of the Uyghurs in Uzbekistan, Eminjan Ospanov, was arrested earlier this month in the city of Tashkent. The statement says that several Uyghurs are under trial in the Russian city of Chita. The Uyghurs have been accused in trespassing the Russian-Chinese border. The information in the statement has not been confirmed from the independent sources. (3) TWO CHIEF POLICE OFFICERS KILLED IN KASHGAR 24 April 1998, Eastern Turkistan Information Center [ETIC, 04/24/98] On April 23, between 11 a.m. and noon, two police cars exploded in the city of Kashgar in Eastern Turkistan killing a chief of the Kashgar city police department and the city's chief of the paramilitary police. The explosions also killed about 8 passers-by. The Kazakhstani-Chinese border passing point at Qorghas is reported to be closed by the Chinese side for the last 3 days. [Abdullah Pamir] The World Uyghur Network News =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) STRONG QUAKE ROCKS NORTHWEST CHINA March 29, The Associated Press An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale has rocked remote northwest China, damaging a number of homes but causing no casualties (2) STRONG EARTHQUAKE HITS XINJIANG, NO CAUSALITIES REPORTED March 20, CND-GLOBAL EDITORS There were no reports of human casualties, even though the quake destroyed approximately 400 houses, resulting in an estimated 121 million yuan ($14.6 million) loss. (3) US SOFTENS STANCE ON TIAN'ANMEN-RELATED HUMAN RIGHTS SANCTIONS March 20,CND-GLOBAL EDITORS Speaking at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, senior administration official Sandra Kristoff said that the United States may be willing to scale down human rights sanctions against China (4) CLINTON ADMINISTRATION GIVES CHINA CARTE BLANCHE March 16, PRNEWSWIRE The Clinton administration announced it would not support a resolution criticizing China's human rights record at a United Nations human rights conference (5) BEIJING APPRECIATES US DECISION ON HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION March 18,CND-Global China expressed warm appreciation of the US decision not to table a resolution critical of China's human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (6) CHINA NOMADS SETTLE DOWN March 18, UPI China's rural nomads are casting aside centuries of tradition to settle down under a government program aimed at wiping out the nomadic lifestyle by the year 2000. (7) XINJIANG CRACKDOWN March 13, Voice of America, by Roger Wilkison Leaders of china's westernmost region, heavily muslim Xinjiang, say a year-old police crackdown has succeeded in Restoring stability to the troubled province. But, as v-o-a Correspondent Roger Wilkison reports, the region's governor and Communist party chief are refusing to provide details on how many people have been arrested and how many have been put to death. (8) OFFICIALS DENY REPORT OF MASS KILLINGS OF UYGUR SEPARATISTS December 30, 1997, HONG KONG STANDARD, By Pamela Pun Volume 97:1-121 A government spokesman in the restive Xinjiang region on Monday denied a report which said Chinese soldiers have killed 186 Uygur separatists and alleged criminals and arrested 2,100 others in recent two months. ... A spokesman of the United National Revolutionary Front said on Saturday that the Chinese army has killed 186 Uygurs and arrested 2,100 in the restive region over the past two months. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) STRONG QUAKE ROCKS NORTHWEST CHINA March 29, The Associated Press An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale has rocked remote northwest China, damaging a number of homes but causing no casualties BEIJING (March 20, 1998 00:54 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- A powerful earthquake toppled houses around remote sheep pastures and shook nearby cities in China's far northwest, government seismologists reported Friday. No casualties were reported from the quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 and was centered in the Artux city area in the Xinjiang region at around 9:50 p.m. Thursday. Artux's mayor and the local prefecture's governor traveled to the hardest hit areas Friday, said an expert with the State Seismological Bureau in Beijing who only gave his surname, Han. The stricken area, 2,000 miles west of Beijing, is near the Tianshan mountains and is inhabited mainly by herders from the Kirgiz ethnic group. A small number of buildings not far from the quake's epicenter, 60 miles northeast of Artux, collapsed, but no more information was available, Han and the Xinhua News Agency said. The quake was felt in Kashgar, 90 miles southwest of the epicenter, and in other surrounding cities, Xinhua said. Xinhua said government seismologists earlier this year had predicted an earthquake would strike the Tianshan mountains. (2) STRONG EARTHQUAKE HITS XINJIANG, NO CAUSALITIES REPORTED March 20, CND-GLOBAL EDITORS [CND, 03/20/98] A 6.0-Richter-Scale earthquake hit a pastoral area 54 miles northeast of the city of Artux in Xinjiang Autonomous Region Thursday, March 19, according to a Reuters report. There were no reports of human casualties, even though the quake destroyed approximately 400 houses, resulting in an estimated 121 million yuan ($14.6 million) loss. A disaster relief team has been sent to the area to provide aid to the victims, the Xinhua news agency said. Exactly two years ago, an earthquake struck the Artux area, killing 10 people. (Yan WANG, Michael ZHENG) (3) US SOFTENS STANCE ON TIAN'ANMEN-RELATED HUMAN RIGHTS SANCTIONS March 20,CND-GLOBAL EDITORS [CND 03/20/98] Speaking at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, senior administration official Sandra Kristoff said that the United States may be willing to scale down human rights sanctions against China as bilateral relations improve, Reuters reported on Friday. At issue are sanctions imposed in 1989 in response to China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Tian'anmen Square. Kristoff was positive about peeling back sanctions and granting Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to China again this year. As an incentive for Beijing to tighten controls on missile-related exports, the US is considering eliminating sanctions that ban US satellite manufacturers from using Chinese launching services. The administration would like to see China as a member in good standing of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a group of 29 countries which have agreed to curb sales of nuclear-capable missiles and related technology. China has pledged to follow MTCR guidelines but has not signed on as a formal member. Critics charge Beijing has violated ist pledge and cannot be trusted. US officials will visit China next week for talks on non-proliferation. They hope to have a missile-related agreement in place for President Clinton's summit with Chinese President JIANG Zemin in June, but aides doubt that the negotiations can be finished before then. (Terry THOMPSON, YIN De An) (4) CLINTON ADMINISTRATION GIVES CHINA CARTE BLANCHE March 16, PRNEWSWIRE WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday afternoon, the Clinton administration announced it would not support a resolution criticizing China's human rights record at a United Nations human rights conference beginning today in Geneva. ``This is yet another scandal,'' Family Research Council President Gary Bauer said Monday. ``America has long been a voice for the oppressed. The administration's decision is giving China carte blanche on human rights abuses. Once again, it shows that our foreign policy with China is not changing China, it's changing us.'' While China's foreign minister, Qian Qichen, announced last Thursday that his country will sign a United Nations human rights covenant, the Senate voted overwhelmingly, 95-5, to urge President Clinton to press China about ``serious human rights abuses.'' The Clinton State Department immediately hailed Qian's statement and asserted it would have a ``significant impact'' on the administration's decision whether to squelch the Geneva resolution. ``What we have here, so far at least, is a paper promise,'' Bauer said. On the very same day that Qian's gesture made headlines came the story that, just weeks after it gave a pledge to halt aid to Iran's nuclear program, the Chinese government has been engaged in secret negotiations with Iran to provide hundreds of tons of uranium that can be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. ``If China cannot be trusted for even a few weeks on a key bilateral agreement with the U.S., of how much worth is its signature on yet another United Nations declaration of good intentions?'' Bauer asked. The State Department's most recent report portrays China's ``widespread and well-documented human rights abuses'' including torture, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced abortion and sterilization, crackdowns on independent Catholic and Protestant bishops and believers, brutal oppression of ethnic minorities and religions in Tibet and Xinjiang, and absolute intolerance of free political speech and free press. Citing recent reports in The New York Times of a growing trade in organs taken from executed Chinese prisoners, Bauer said, ``This is not a record of progress.'' ``The Clinton administration's decision is one more example of the loss of moral leadership by the United States,'' Bauer said. ``Character counts -- for countries as well as for their leaders.'' (5) BEIJING APPRECIATES US DECISION ON HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION March 18,CND-Global [CND, 03/17/98] China expressed warm appreciation of the US decision not to table a resolution critical of China's human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Commission due in Geneva this week, AFP reported Monday. LI Baodong, Vice-Director of the Chinese foreign ministry's international organizations and conferences department, welcomed the decision. He said no anti-China resolution would help cooperation in the human rights field, stressing that there is much common ground in this regard. Mr. Li also implied that WANG Dan, a well-known dissident, might be released on medical parole. Washington was happy with the advance made by the Chinese government in 1997, citing the release of WEI Jingsheng last November and China's intention to sign the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. While the European Union countries took a similar position this year, Human Rights organizations such as Amnesty International have criticized the decision of the US government. (Xiaolin LI, YIN De An). (6) CHINA NOMADS SETTLE DOWN March 18, UPI BEIJING, March 18 (UPI) China's rural nomads are casting aside centuries of tradition to settle down under a government program aimed at wiping out the nomadic lifestyle by the year 2000. According to Vice Agriculture Minister Qi Jingfa (``Chee Geeng-fa''), more than half of China's nomads already live in government-funding housing projects. The remainder are expected to stop herding animals over the next two years and take up more sedentary pursuits. Qi said the settlement effort began more than 12 years ago and has been conducted ``with perseverance.'' By cutting their ties with tradition, Qi explained, the herders can become ``better off or affluent.'' He added that stamping out nomadism also helps ``develop animal husbandry and promote cultural undertakings in pastoral areas.'' The plan has been well received in Inner Mongolia and northwest Gansu (``Gan-sue'') province, where more than three-fourths of all nomads have settled down. But herders in rural Qinghai (``Ching-high'') and Xinjiang (``Shin- jeeang'') provinces keep tradition alive, with barely 50 percent of Xinjiang nomads living in government housing. (7) XINJIANG CRACKDOWN March 13, Voice of America, by Roger Wilkison Leaders of china's westernmost region, heavily muslim Xinjiang, say a year-old police crackdown has succeeded in Restoring stability to the troubled province. But, as v-o-a Correspondent Roger Wilkison reports, the region's governor and Communist party chief are refusing to provide details on how many people have been arrested and how many have been put to death. Meeting with reporters during the annual two-week session Of China's legislature, the National People's Congress, the Xinjiang leaders acknowledged that there has been unrest in the region. But they said stepped-up police activity and an education campaign have broughtfavorable results. They said Several people have been punished, but xinjiang party boss Wang Lequan -- speaking through an interpreter -- declined to give specific details. Wang interpreter act: "It is impossible for me to get my hands on all those Figures or statistics. As for those punished, some of Them have been sentenced to death. Some of them have Been sentenced to death with a reprieve. And some have Been sentenced to imprisonment with variable length." Mr. Wang said unrest flared up in Xinjiang two years ago, when groups of ethnic Uighur separatists began what he called a campaign of terror. The violence got worse a year ago, when three buses in the provincial capital, Urumqi, were blown up. It is still unclear how many people were killed in the attacks. Wang interpreter act: "That's why last year we staged a massive campaign to Rectify the public order and crackdown on the terrorist And violent crimes." According to government figures, Uighurs account for 42 per cent Of Xinjiang's 17 million people. Exiled uighur groups --mostly in turkey and Central Asian countries -- are seeking independence of the territory they call East Turkestan. But Xinjiang governor Abdul'Ahat Aburixit-- who is an ethnic Uighur -- said the vast majority of the region's people support the government and unity with china. Interpreter act: "Those separatists are making use of the ethnic relations and the temporary problems and difficulties facing economic development in creating conflicts, in estranging relations among the various ethnic groups, in (stirring) up sentiments of the people. Therefore, in order to maintain stability, as the first step, we should accelerate economic development and improve the livelihood of the people." Xinjiang authorities have asked the central government to step up funding to the region, one of China's poorest. Still, mr. Wang, the party chairman, said last year was the best yet for the province's economy, with record harvests, increased oil production and an 11 per cent growth rate. But governor Abdul'Ahat acknowledged that, even if the economic situation gets better, the separatists will not necessarily give up their fight. (8) OFFICIALS DENY REPORT OF MASS KILLINGS OF UYGUR SEPARATISTS December 30, 1997, HONG KONG STANDARD, By Pamela Pun Volume 97:1-121 A GOVERNMENT spokesman in the restive Xinjiang region on Monday denied a report which said Chinese soldiers have killed 186 Uygur separatists and alleged criminals and arrested 2,100 others in recent two months. ``The report is totally fabricated,'' said Bahe Tiya, a Uygur official from the Xinjiang foreign information office, said. The official also denied that Beijing has sent tens of thousands of troops into Xinjiang. ``It is totally a groundless allegation,'' he said. ``The social order now in Xinjiang is normal and stable,'' he said, adding there has not been any turmoil in the region since a deadly riot in Yining in February. He said he was very surprised to hear the so-called ``information'' and wondered how and why it could ``be made from nothing.'' He said he did not learn of a report issued by an overseas separatist group at the weekend. A spokesman of the United National Revolutionary Front said on Saturday that the Chinese army has killed 186 Uygurs and arrested 2,100 in the restive region over the past two months. Mukhlisi, a spokesman of the Kazakhstan-based separatist group, said Beijing had sent 110,000 soldiers to Xinjiang to launch its Operation Drive Away and Destroy earlier this month. A large number of Uygurs had fled to Karashar _ a territory of 480,000 square kilometres, where the Lop Nor nuclear testing site is located _ to escape Chinese repression, Mr Mukhlisi said. Xinjiang is primarily populated by Uygurs with many of them resent Chinese migration to the region. In February, nine people were reportedly killed in a violent riot in Yining, a western city 50km from the border with Kazakhstan, where an estimated 200,000 Uygurs live. The Xinjiang separatist movement has become resurgent in recent years following the collapse of former Soviet Union and the subsequent independence of its former republics in central Asia in the early 1990s. Prepared by: *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= 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 |