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Uighur Press on Eastern Turkestan

   The World Uighur Network News 2003

UAA Statement on China’s Identification of Uyghur Groups and Individuals as “Terrorist”


December 16, 2003

The Uyghur American Association (UAA) strongly condemns and categorically rejects China’s recent identification of several Uyghur organizations in the West and their leaders as “terrorist” by using fabricated stories to mislead the international community that has begun to pay a closer attention and become more critical of China’s treatment of the Uyghur population in East Turkestan. This is a failed attempt by the Chinese regime to eliminate the Uyghur Freedom Movement worldwide by seeking foreign support to crush its legitimacy in front of the international community. China cannot fool the Western democracies and blind their eyes because they can distinguish fact from fiction. The United States, the Great Britain, Germany and other democratic countries that the Uyghur organizations legally operate, unlike China, base their decisions on facts, not on fabricated stories that came from the lying mouth of Chinese leaders in Beijing. Such a shameless deception craftily carried out by China’s Ministry of Public Security only proves that China is attempting to hijack the international war on terrorism and trying to capitalize on it to crack down the legitimate opposition of Uyghur groups in the world.

It is clear from the timing of China’s announcement about the identification of Uyghur groups and individuals on December 15, just two days before the commemoration of the death of one of the greatest Uyghur leaders Isa Yusuf Alptekin in Turkey, that it was purely politically motivated to discredit the Uyghur leaders in the West and disrupt the normal function of Uyghur organizations. The commemoration, which was to be held in Istanbul on December 17th to 21th, was canceled after China successfully pressured Ankara to block all the Uyghur guests from around the world to enter Turkey. In order to thwart the non-political event, China sent Ismail Amat, a high level Uyghur figurehead who represents Beijing’s highest interests, in early December to Turkey to inform the Turkish authorities that all the invited Uyghur guests were “terrorists” and they were going to hold a meeting instead of commemorating the death of Isa Yusuf Alptekin who died in 1995. Turkey, a country that has traditionally sympathized with the tremendous suffering of the Uyghur people under Chinese rule, caved in and refused to issue visas to the Uyghur guests and reluctantly allowed Erkin Alptekin, son of Isa Yusuf Alptekin and general secretary of Unrepresented Nations and People’s Organization (UNPO), to enter.

China, an authoritarian state that has carried out massive state terrorism against the Uyghur people since occupying East Turkestan in 1949, once again wore its sheep’s clothing on Monday and identified four Uyghur organizations and eleven individuals as “terrorist” in its first batch of “Eastern Turkistan” terrorist groups and individuals. The four organizations identified are the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Eastern Turkestan Liberation Organization (ETLO), the World Uyghur Youth Congress (WUYC), and the East Turkestan Information Center.

The Uyghur American Association is not aware of the existence or its alleged activities of ETIM, so it declines to comment on this group. As far as the ETLO is concerned, UAA is aware that China tried extremely hard early this year to convince the United States to enlist it as a “terrorist” organization but miserably failed because Beijing could not produce any hard evidence regarding this group’s involvement in violence. According to the U.S., ETLO is not a terrorist organization. Therefore, the identification of ETLO as a “terrorist” organization by China shows how the U.S. and China fundamentally differ on the definition of terrorism. Apparently, China has applied a totally different standard in identifying “terrorist” organizations and individuals that the U.S. would never have considered so. China was probably emboldened and quite confident to do so thinking that the international community would accept its false claims against any Uyghur group, especially after the U.S. enlisted ETIM as a terrorist organization in 2002.

UAA is quite aware of WUYC and ETIC and their activities. Both of these organizations are based and legally registered in Germany. They have been openly and legally operating under the principles of nonviolence and human rights, seeking greater freedom and democracy for the suffering Uyghur people in East Turkestan. Their activities are within the laws of Germany. They have never advocated violence or terrorism. Both of these groups have been able to legally operate so long in Germany because they have not committed the acts alleged by China. China’s identification of these two groups probably came from the belief that it could convince a Western democracy like Germany that any Uyghur organization is a “terrorist” organization as long as it advocates the freedom of Uyghur people and the independence of East Turkestan. The leaders in Beijing probably don’t know that the world is not China and they cannot do outside of its border what they usually can with the brute force they have within the People’s Republic. Or, they have probably thought that someone would become a “terrorist” as long as they call him so.

China has been extremely successful in silencing the entire Uyghur population in East Turkestan over the decades through brutal torture, constant arrests, and frequent mass executions of Uyghurs who dared to voice the most legitimate concern in a legitimate way prescribed by China’s Constitution and Autonomous Law. China has always used the most heinous names to demonize them and alleged a lot of crimes that they never committed, and then it held public rallies and executed them in squares or gymnasiums after announcing the confessions it got by torturing them. China thought it would have no problem ruling the Uyghur people as long as it could freely exercise its iron-fist and inflict fear among the entire population.

However, China’s crimes against humanity, namely against the peaceful Uyghur population of East Turkestan began to be polarized after 1990s with the diligent work of Uyghur organizations such as the East Turkestan Information Center and the World Uyghur Youth Congress in the West. As a result, prominent human rights watchdogs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, other international organizations and world leaders began to raise and criticize the human rights violations of the Uyghur people by China’s government. The United States, United Nations, European Union, and other concerned countries began to question China’s rule in East Turkestan and its claims regarding the legitimacy of Beijing’s policies. This shocked the Chinese leadership because the East Turkestan Question, like the Tibet Question, was no longer an internal issue of China but a common concern of the international community.

To China, the internationalization of the East Turkestan Question has always been its worse nightmare. Yet, the East Turkestan Question began to be gradually internationalized as more and more democratic countries and human rights groups began to pay more and more attention year after year. To the Chinese disappointment, the East Turkestan Question, which was successfully buried in East Turkestan, became bigger and bigger in the world as a snowball rolling down from Himalayas, just like the Tibetan Question. Fearing that the international community would look at the East Turkestan Question the same as the Tibetan Question and give it its legitimacy in the world, China masterminded the best method to destroy the Uyghur Freedom Movement worldwide by issuing the secret Number Seven document in 1996.

This document states that, “China should use all necessary means to stop the Uyghur problem in Eastern Turkistan to be internationalized.” However, China was never successful in preventing the internationalization of the East Turkestan Question in the world until September 11, 2001 when terrorists attacked the United States with civilian airliners killing thousands of Americans in both New York City and Washington, DC. China took full advantage of the tragedy in the United States and immediately claimed itself a victim of “terrorism” and began to condemn the Uyghur Freedom Movement as “terrorist”. China thought that it could easily shift the blame on the Uyghur groups because after September 11 the world would not believe in the freedom cause of any Muslim people like the Uyghurs. It thought the whole world would stand behind China in condemning the Uyghur groups in the world as “terrorist” as long as Beijing could produce some sort of link between these groups and other religious fundamentalist groups in the world that were against the United States and the West. Some misguided Uyghur youth found in Afghanistan before September 11 provided China the best opportunity to play its terrorism victim card against all the Uyghur organizations in the world. The result, a so-called East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) that most Uyghur organizations in the West had never heard of labeled as a terrorist organization.

After the U.S. designated ETIM as a terrorist organization in September 2002, China believed that it could justify its terrorist claims against all the Uyghur organizations in the world and legitimize its hardline repressive policies against the entire Uyghur population in East Turkestan. This mistaken belief has led to China to come up with the so-called the Identification of First Batch of “Eastern Turkistan” Terrorist Groups and Individuals. If China succeeds in getting other countries, especially the United States and Germany, to recognize that the newly added organizations and the eleven individuals as “terrorist”, it would very quickly release its second batch of Uyghur “terrorist” organizations and individuals. If China fails in getting them recognized, it would probably fabricate more “convincing” evidence to link these groups and individuals to a lot of violence. In any case, China would at least force Germany and the United States to look closely to the organizations and individuals named as “terrorist” and possibly monitor their activities, thus reaching the goal of disrupting their normally legal activities against Beijing.

In fact, China’s identification of several Uyghur organizations and individuals as “terrorist” shows the dilemma that some authoritarian and repressive regimes in the world are ready to take full advantage of the international war on terrorism to justify its own brutal policies against legitimate oppositions who have legitimate grievances. This is what the United States has always been worried since September 11, 2001 because it is so easy for countries like China to pretend to be a friend of the U.S. in this war against terrorism and a victim of terrorism in order to carry out its unpopular policies against persecuted peoples like the Uyghurs and Tibetans. This is the perversion of the U.S. vision against international terrorism. However, China has been fiercely pursuing the goal of destroying all Uyghur opposition groups in the world both inside and outside of East Turkestan in the name of fighting against international terrorism despite previous U.S. warnings. If the U.S. and the coalition do not watch out the true intentions of authoritarian regimes like China, they would lose the legitimacy of the war against international terrorism. The United States should not let China hijack the legitimate war on international terrorism but always hold Beijing up to its own standard. Otherwise, the U.S. would be seen supporting and justifying China’s oppressive and hardline policies against the Uyghur people, a much-brutalized Muslim group in the heart of Asia.

The Uyghur American Association advocates democracy, human rights, and religious freedom for the Uyghur people of East Turkestan through nonviolence and negotiation. UAA neither advocates violence nor terrorism but condemns it whether it is committed by the authoritarian Chinese regime in order to terrorize the entire Uyghur population or by certain individuals out of desperation against the Chinese state. UAA demands the Chinese government to stop fabricating evidence regarding Uyghur organizations and individuals but address the real issues facing the Uyghur people in East Turkestan. UAA expects the United States, United Nations, Germany and other democratic countries in the world to prevent China from hijacking and destroying the legitimacy of the war on international terrorism and watch closely China’s true intention in fighting its own war on “terrorism”. UAA also asks these countries to continue to allow the Uyghur organizations legally registered operate without any difficulties or disturbances.

China’s true intention is to link any Uyghur organization that opposes Beijing’s heavy-handed rule in East Turkestan to terrorism and even international terrorism in order to justify its hardline policies such as the Strike Hard campaigns against the Uyghur people. For China any Uyghur organization is a terrorist organization even if it peacefully advocates the freedom of Uyghur people and independence of East Turkestan without ever committing any acts of violence. China’s fictitious war on terror is the test of U.S. war on international terrorism. The legitimacy of the war on international terrorism is in crisis because of China’s illegitimate stance toward the legal opposition of the Uyghur Freedom Movement. Therefore, the international community and the coalition led by the United States should never allow China to freely bandwagon with them for the ultimate victory over international terrorism.

Board of Directors
Uyghur American Association
 


© Uygur.Org  17/12/2003 16:00  A.Karakas