An electronic newsletter Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 92 18 December 1998 In this issue:
(2) CHINA'S ETHNIC MINORITIES
(3) ISLAM THRIVES IN CHINA DESPITE TIGHT REIN
(4) SITUATION OF UYGHURS IN PAKISTAN DETERIORATE.
(5) SITUATION IN EAST TURKISTAN UNSTABLE.
(6) CHINA PLEDGES FAIR TRAILS FOR DISSIDENTS. SEVEN OTHER DISSIDENTS DETAINED
(7) NEW RADIO SERVICE FOR CHINA’S UYGHURS.
(8) DEMOCRACY ON RISE, SAYS DISSIDENT WEI
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Earthquakes regularly rattle the vast Tibetan plateau, including Tibet itself, the far west region of Xinjiang and Qinghai province. They are also common in southwest Yunnan province and northern areas. August 1985 -- Xinjiang hit by earthquake
that kills 67 people and injures more than 100. The tremor measures 7.4. March, 1996 --
Earthquake measuring 6.9 jolts Xinjiang, killing 26 people, injuring 128. Chronology of China's major quakes An earthquake that struck northern China on Saturday (Jan. 10), killing dozens of peasant farmers and leaving tens of thousands homeless, was a modest tremor by the standards of the quake-prone country. (Pictured, a woman in Zhang Jia Kou in northern Hebei province near the Great Wall stands amid debris holding a photo of her family, Jan. 11.) The most devastating earthquake in recorded history hit northern Shaanxi province in 1556, killing an estimated 830,000 people. In April, 1995 China put into force a law to improve emergency response to earthquakes. State media report at the time that more than 610,000 Chinese had been killed by earthquakes this century. Earthquakes regularly rattle the vast Tibetan plateau, including Tibet itself, the far west region of Xinjiang and Qinghai province. They are also common in southwest Yunnan province and northern areas. Quakes are rare in central China and along the eastern seaboard. The following is a chronology of some of the biggest earthquakes in the past several decades: July, 1976 -- At least 270,500 people die
when an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the open-ended Richter scale flattens the northern
city of Tangshan. (2) CHINA'S ETHNIC MINORITIES
China officially registers 56 ethnic groups. The ethnic Chinese, known as the Han Chinese, compose 93 percent of the population. Han Chinese speak seven languages, with Manadrin or Putonghua - which means "common speech" -- being the official and most-used. Cantonese, which is spoken in Hong Kong and in China's other southern provinces, is the second most popular. Most of the 55 other ethnic groups use their own languages. Although China's minorities account for a small 7 percent of the entire population, they are of strategic importance to Beijing as they live along the country's borders, often living on both sides. Beijing created five so-called 'Autonomous Regions' for its minorities: Guangxi, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia. Please see the map of China. The high numbers of Chinese troops stationed in distant Tibet and the remote northwestern province of Xinjiang allow Beijing to maintain strict control over the local population. Following is a list of the ethnic groups recognized by the Chinese government as members of the "The Big family of China." The names of the groups are given in their transcription from Chinese characters. When ethnic groups have another name used in the West, it is mentioned, as in Weiwuer (Uighur). Achang -- 18,000 members, mostly in Yunnan
province (south)
KASHGAR, China -- Mosques are mushrooming across China's mainly Moslem Xinjiang region to meet an increasing demand for places of worship. Congregations are swelling as increasing numbers of young people among China's Moslem minorities are inspired by Islam in the country's westernmost region. Students even take time out during lunch hour to perform noon prayers. The resurgence of Islam in Xinjiang is causing an uneasy relationship between Communist Party officials and Moslem clerics, between Han Chinese and ethnic Uighurs. Religious Freedom Guaranteed, Limited by Law "Religious freedom is guaranteed by our constitution and no one can interfere with this," said Tsadik Kara Haji, deputy director of the Kashgar Islamic Association and imam or leader of the great 15th century Aidkah mosque in this ancient Silk Road city. "But religious activities must be carried out within the limits of the law," he said in an interview. In recent months, more and more Moslems appeared to be acting outside the country's law, prompting Xinjiang regional authorities to close hundreds of illegal mosques. Unauthorized schools that preach Islam have also been banned. Government and party officials fear anti-Chinese separatists seeking to set up an independent state of East Turkestan are using Islam as a base to win popular support. With Moslems making up almost all the 10 million ethnic minority residents of Xinjiang's 16 million people, Beijing has a lot of watching to do. Tsadik Kara Haji said that of the three million minority residents of the Kashgar district, two million were believers. The rest were still too young to be admitted. "All Uighurs are Moslem," he said. He did not explain how that sweeping total was able to include government and party officials, who are banned from holding religious beliefs in atheist China. The region's party chief Wang Lequan has launched a campaign to stop officials from turning to religion -- a sign of the extent of the power of faith that has taken hold since Beijing's guarantee of freedom of religion in 1979. "I don't drink wine, not since I went to Mecca," said one Uighur official at a dinner. Asked if he was religious, he burst into laughter. "Party members are not allowed to be religious," he said. No one was convinced. Such tacit acceptance seemed to extend throughout the region, where Islam arrived more than 1,000 years ago, brought by Silk Road traders to this once Buddhist area. "I am free to worship," said one Uighur student as he emerged from noon prayers in the small New City United Mosque in the southern Xinjiang oasis town of Khotan. "Of course we are free," said the student's classmate. Concerns Over Separatism Moslem clerics have been called to frequent meetings by the government and ordered to ensure no member of their flock strays toward separatism. This is because Islam poses the greatest peril to China's unity, Xinjiang's top officials have said. In Kashgar, the heart of Islam in China, senior Moslem clerics insisted that the officially sanctioned faith was loyal to Beijing. "We carry out religious work, we do not interfere in politics or engage in splittism," said Tsadik Kara Haji, speaking after conducting noon prayers for some 500 faithful in the yellow and white tiled Aidkah mosque. However, the cleric said he would not use his preaching in the mosque as a platform to disseminate the government's warnings against what it calls illegal religious activities. "Our work is to worship, to read and to interpret the Koran," he said. "Other matters are the business of propaganda departments." The government may not be able to persuade clerics to spread the party line, but it recognizes the influence of Islamic elders in the local communities. In some parts of Xinjiang, clerics must attend government education sessions as often as twice a week. This is particularly so in the restive south, where the Uighur Moslems make up the vast majority and where most sporadic anti-Chinese unrest has erupted, officials said. "We need to teach the imams what they can and cannot preach," one Khotan official said. "There are very detailed regulations covering what they can say." Such rules were essential. "Illegal religious activities are very numerous," the official said. Imam Mohammad Sit, 78, of Khotan's United Mosque was unable to answer when asked to describe an illegal religious activity. "I can say what I can say, what I should not say I will not say." The Kashgar imams insisted those involved in the anti-China movement received no support from the Moslem community. They blamed illegal activities on impostors who duped gullible and illiterate Uighurs. "These people are not religious," Tsadik Kara Haji said. "They dress up as men of religion, they tell fortunes and take money... but we oppose this kind of activity. "They take advantage of illiterates and deceive people," he said. Islam Shows Healthy Signs of Growth Despite threats from such impostors, Islam was still showing healthy growth in Xinjiang, the imam said. "There are now 10,000 mosques in the Xinjiang district, compared with 6,000 to 7,000 before the Cultural Revolution," he said. During the Cultural Revolution, the ultra-leftist movement launched by chairman Mao Zedong from 1966-1976, religion was outlawed as bourgeois, mosques were closed or destroyed and clerics jailed. The imam glossed over the apparent
flouting of a government rule that a religious building may only be built on a site
previously used for the same purpose. "The population has grown a lot and so we need
more mosques," he said. "If the people who want to build a mosque apply for the
proper permission then they can go ahead." (4) SITUATION OF UYGHURS IN PAKISTAN DETERIORATE.
The Pakistan government has been trying to repatriate the Uyghurs living in Pakistan by refusing to extend their visa. Many Uyghurs received warning letters from Pakistan secret police. In the letters were statements such as "There are illegal Uyghurs from Pakistan among you. Please report them to us. You should not stay in Pakistan illegally. " From 15th of October this year Uyghurs returning to East Turkistan through Qonjirap border were detained and interrogated by the Chinese border police. There are now more than 20 Uyghur youths at the border detention center. Chinese authorities question anyone passing through the Qonjirap border. Questions like "What did you do in Pakistan?", "Have you been to Afganistan?", "Did you join the Mujahidin?" were asked. Several Uyghurs were beaten up badly. Pakistan government is cooperating with
the Chinese to expel all Uyghurs from Pakistan.
On the 7th and 8th of October 1998,
four officials and four policemen from the Xinjiang Hotan County Security Department were
killed by the Xinjiang separatists. After the incident the communist government deployed
more than 30,000 soldiers and police to tighten security over the transport and other
sectors. They also issued arrest warrants for the killers.Beijing Bahari Journal, August
1998, No.63
BEIJING (AP) -- China promised Tuesday that subversion trials for two leading organizers of a budding opposition party would be fair and free from government interference. Chinese courts in two cities will hold trials for Wang Youcai and Qin Yongmin on Thursday, part of a swift, sustained crackdown against the China Democracy Party. "These people's activities violated the criminal law of China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said. Despite the condemnation, Sun added that China's courts operated according to law and without government meddling. "They will investigate the cases independently and make their independent judgments. The government cannot interfere," Sun said at a news briefing. "The trial process will be conducted according to law and a fair judgment will be made, eventually." To prevent a show of support for Wang outside the Hangzhou courthouse, police detained seven China Democracy Party members in the eastern city and warned dissidents in Beijing and northeastern Jilin not to travel there, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported. A challenge to Communist Party Many of those targeted are among the nearly 30 party members and supporters arrested or questioned over the past 16 days. Wang, Qin and a third member arrested in the crackdown, Xu Wenli, are among the most influential members of the dissident community. All tried to set up party branches, challenging the Communist Party's monopoly on political power. Eleven China Democracy Party members and supporters urged the government in two separate statements Tuesday to halt the trials, hold talks and recognize the party's peaceful aims. Nine supporters, including veteran dissident Ren Wanding, wrote that suppressing dissent would not ensure social stability in the long run. Guilty verdicts likely High-profile trials in China almost always produce guilty verdicts. Although China has moved tentatively to bring its legal system closer to international norms, odds are overwhelmingly against the accused in criminal cases. Qin's family was notified only Monday that his trial for inciting the subversion of state power -- one of the most serious charges used against dissidents -- would be held in three days. One lawyer who wanted to defend Wang has reportedly been detained several times since the end of last week. Foreign reporters have been barred from both trials. Wuhan's Intermediate Court will select the audience for Qin's trial, said a court official who refused to give his name. Authorities refused Tuesday to tell Xu Wenli's wife whether he will be put on trial. He Xintong said neither police nor prosecutors in Beijing claimed to have jurisdiction over Xu's case. Prosecutors told her they were not investigating Xu, contradicting information given to her by police last week. Police insist the prosecutors are. "'Maybe the case is on the road on its way to the prosecutors,'" she quoted one officer as telling her. "They are making a joke over a matter that concerns one person's fate," said He. Xu, who lives in Beijing, and Qin, from
the central city of Wuhan, were active in the Democracy Wall movement of the late 1970s,
and Wang, from Hangzhou in east China, was a leader in the 1989 student democracy
demonstrations.
A radio service funded by the United States, Radio Free Asia, has begun broadcasting to China in the Uyghur language. The short-wave transmissions will broadcast news and commentary for half an hour twice a week, aimed at the estimated ten million Uyghur speakers who make up the ethnic majority in China's western province of Xinjiang. Correspondents say opposition among some Uyghurs to Chinese rule in Xinjiang has led to ethnic unrest in recent years. China has repeatedly criticized Radio Free Asia for meddling in its internal affairs. Chinese dissidents go on trial A lone protestor holds up a post of Wang Youcai Two high-profile political activists in China, Qin Yongmin and Wang Youcai, have pleaded not guilty to charges of subversion at separate court hearings. It is not yet clear if their trials - the first such hearings for two years - are over, or if they have finished, when the verdicts would be announced. Both men had been involved in efforts to set up the China Democracy Party (CDP), the country's first opposition party under communist rule. Mr. Qin, who was detained on 30 November, is being tried in the central city of Wuhan and Mr. Wang in Hangzhou, in the east. Mr. Qin, 44, is known as one of China's most outspoken dissidents and has spent nearly a decade in prison. Mr. Wang, 32, who has also spent time in custody, founded the CDP and was a prominent student leader during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The families of the two activists said they were prevented by the authorities from hiring lawyers, and that the men had to conduct their own defense. Mr. Wang's relatives said he spoke in court for 30 minutes before being stopped by the judge. Reports of protests About 200 people gathered outside the court in Hangzhou to express their support for Mr. Wang. Reports from Wuhan also said angry protests were held outside the court there in protest of the action against Mr. Qin. Dozens of activists around the country have also petitioned the government for the release of Mr. Wang and Mr. Qin, and Western governments have expressed concern about their treatment. The American Ambassador in China, James Sasser, warned in a speech on Wednesday that a worsening of the political environment in China could chill the relationship between Washington and Beijing. In a statement, the human rights group Amnesty International said it was worried Mr. Qin and Mr. Wang would not receive fair and open trials. It said that "they have been imprisoned solely for the exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association." Others detained On the eve of the trials, at least 10
other dissidents were detained in Hangzhou and four were being held in Wuhan as part of a
24-hour crackdown by police. "Police came to our house at 7.00 a.m. on Thursday
(Wednesday 2300 GMT) and took away my husband," the wife of dissident Xiao Shichang
told the AFP news agency. Jing Hanshen, a supporter of Qin who had been briefly detained
in the run-up to the trial, was taken away by police outside the courtroom where Qin was
being tried, witnesses were quoted as saying. Two other Wuhan-based dissidents, Lu Xinhua
and Chen Zhonghe, were also detained by police on Wednesday. All four are members in the
Wuhan branch of the China Democratic Party (CDP).
Democratic ideas are advancing and the authorities can do little to stop them, Wei Jingsheng said in the first interview with a Chinese dissident to be published in the French Communist Party newspaper. L'Humanite on Thursday devoted a tabloid page to Mr. Wei, including the interview, a biography and a picture of tanks in Beijing at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. The publication coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mr. Wei told the newspaper that in the 20 years since he first called for democracy in a wall poster in Beijing, such ideas had become more openly discussed. "The universal fear and mutual distrust have given way to other thoughts and attitudes," he said. He said he had no regrets over what he had done, despite the persecution and imprisonment that followed. "If, in 1978, when everything was completely stifled, no one had got up to claim democracy, there would not be so many people today demanding it," he added. Workers and peasants were now the most active participants in the democratic struggle, he said, as ideas on democracy and human rights spread during the past decade. "We are no longer in the situation of 1989, when it was intellectuals above all who demanded democratization." Mr. Wei was released on medical parole and deported to the United States last year after spending all but six months of the past 18 years in mainland prisons. Since going into exile, he has been urging a tougher stance on human rights abuses in China and has met leaders worldwide, much to Beijing's chagrin. Several French human rights groups have organized a day of action in favor of Mr. Wei and other dissidents expected to take place today 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 |