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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
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