|
Chinese oppression in Xinjiang regular and brutal:
rights groups
BEIJING, Dec 18 (AFP) - A top US rights diplomat going
to China's Xinjiang region Wednesday could have chosen
no better destination if he were looking for a place
where dissent is crushed regularly and brutally,
according to observers.
Beijing is determined never to let go of the
predominantly Muslim desert area, and the US-led war
on terror has emerged as a convenient excuse for harsh
policies adopted years earlier, they said.
"The crackdown has increased, but it has increased on
top of a very
systematic and thorough campaign already waged by
China," said Nicolas Becquelin, a Hong Kong-based
spokesman for Human Rights in China.
Lorne Craner, assistant secretary of state for
democracy and human rights, will spend two days in
Xinjiang, which is often seen as an abyss of Chinese
rights abuses.
It is the only part of the country where political
prisoners are still
executed regularly, and hundreds are believed to have
been put to death since the mid-1990s, rights
organizations said.
Arbitrary arrests, combined with beatings and torture
in police detention, add to the picture of a
leadership bent on control, they said.
But the harsh policies extend far beyond the prison
cells and into most people's lives, as open
expressions of the Muslim faith are curbed and the use
of the local Turkic language restricted at
universities.
All this is because of Xinjiang's immense strategic
importance, thrusting a Chinese dagger of influence
into the heart of Asia, according to analysts.
The seemingly infertile region could also become an
increasingly crucial factor for China's energy-starved
economy because of its large reserves of
oil and gas, they said.
"Xinjiang has no chance of ever becoming independent,
unless the regime completely collapses at the center,"
said Becquelin.
Members of Xinjiang's ethnic Uighur group said they
have few illusions that Craner's visit will change
much.
"Each side will be satisfied with expressing its point
of view," said Dilxat Rexiti, spokesman of a
German-based group supporting rights for the Uighurs.
"We won't obtain anything."
Even so, observers see Craner's visit as an attempt by
the US government to confront some of the most painful
issues raised by the US-led war on terror.
The United States needs China in its global effort,
and has been forced to make compromises in areas such
as religious freedom, reputed to be a private key
concern for US President George W. Bush.
In March, Amnesty International said the pretext of
anti-terrorism was being "used to detain a broad range
of people, some of whom may have done little more than
practice their religion or defend their culture".
China received a major boost in September when the
United Nations added the little-known East Turkestan
Islamic Movement to a list compiled by the UN Security
Council committee on sanctions against al-Qaeda.
The previous month the United States announced it
would freeze the assets of the group's members, a move
some observers said appeared to be a pay-off for
Chinese efforts in other areas such as arms
proliferation.
Craner's trip is aimed at making up for this, and a
speech he is scheduled to make at Xinjiang University
could serve to reassure the Uighurs that the United
States still cares about their plight.
The US nightmare scenario is that of desperate Uighurs
being forced into more radical modes of action and of
militants fanning from Xinjiang to other parts of
Central Asia, said Becquelin.
"They want to reach out to Muslim communities that are
not opposed to the United States," he said.
"There are not so many left, but the Uighurs are
definitely among them."
|
