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UZBEKISTAN: Uighur
minority demands more political rights
07 Dec 2004 15:36:13 GMT
Source: Integrated Regional
Information Networks
TASHKENT, 7 December (IRIN) - "For our father [President
Islam Karimov] there is no such nation as Uighurs in
Uzbekistan," Dilshad (not his real name), a
29-year-old Uighur, told IRIN in the capital, Tashkent.
Uighurs are a Turkic, Sunni Muslim people, with close
cultural and linguistic ties to other ethnic groups in
Central Asia, including Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and
Turkmen.
"I will never be chair of our department because I am
an ethnic Uighur," said another ethnic Uighur who
works in one of the government bodies.
Uzbekistan is one of the most homogenous states in
Central Asia, where according to official statistics,
Uzbeks comprise more than 75 percent of the country's
25 million population.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
Uzbekistan started the policy of nation-state building,
which resulted in the fact that Uzbeks became dominant
over ethnic minorities, local observers say.
Although Uighurs have been living in the country for
centuries, there are no official statistics regarding
their number in the former Soviet republic. Latest
Soviet statistics available indicate that there were
37,000 Uighurs in Uzbekistan before 1991, however many
Uighur activists say the real number is much higher.
The majority of Uighurs live in major cities,
including Tashkent and Andijan, as well as Tashkent
province.
"We cannot say the exact number of Uighurs living in
Uzbekistan, we sent letters to provincial
administrations to count this number," Sultanmurad aka,
the chair of the Uighur Cultural Centre of Uzbekistan,
told IRIN in Tashkent.
The issue of the Uighur Diaspora is very sensitive due
to close relations between Tashkent and Beijing. The
emergence of five newly independent states in Central
Asia following the collapse of the Soviet Union
stimulated a separatist movement among the Uighur
minority in neighbouring China's Xinjiang Uighur
Autonomous Region (XUAR).
Since the 11 September attacks on the US, Chinese
officials have portrayed Uighur radicals in Xinjiang
as separatists and terrorists with links to a range of
extremist Islamic groups throughout Central Asia,
pressing regional countries to exert tighter control
over their Uighur minorities.
Earlier this year, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited
Tashkent to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation (SCO) summit. The SCO is a regional
security and cooperation body comprising China, Russia
and the ex-Soviet Central Asian republics except
Turkmenistan.
During this visit, the two presidents signed a joint
statement on further developing partnership between
the two countries. According to the statement, China
and Uzbekistan agreed that terrorism, separatism and
extremism still pose a major threat to regional
security and stability. "China and Uzbekistan will
continue to adopt powerful measures to fight all forms
of terrorism, including terrorism waged by the
so-called East Turkistan terrorist groups, the
statement said.
While the situation with regard to Uighurs in other
Central Asian states is more liberal, where they can
establish political, human rights organisations and
different foundations, Uighurs in Uzbekistan are
deprived of those rights. "There is no Uighur
political organisation in Uzbekistan," Sultanmurad aka
conceded.
Compared with their ethnic brethren in other Central
Asian states, Uighurs in Uzbekistan are only allowed
to work in the area of culture and the Uighur Cultural
Centre is the main body in that sphere.
"The main aim of our organisation [Uighur cultural
Centre] is preserving our language and culture. This
year we invited the Uighur Theatre from Kazakhstan,
thus we started to communicate with other Uighur
cultural organisations from other Central Asian states,"
Sultanmurad aka said.
The centre also started opening its branches in places
where Uighurs live. "We have 260 Uighur families. We
try and preserve our language and traditions, though
our children have started to speak in Uzbek. It is
really good that now we have a branch of the Uighur
Centre, we hope to open Uighur language classes here
with its help," Farhad Usmonov, newly elected head of
the branch of Uighur Cultural Centre in Uchhoz village,
Tashkent province, told IRIN.
Uighur classes are taught in Kim Pen Hva village, 50
km from Tashkent. "In our village there are 127 Uighur
families, we have Uighur language classes," Kiym aka,
a local community leader, told IRIN.
Now Uighurs have a higher profile, we feel that there
is more attention towards us, an Uighur leader told
IRIN. "If we can use the current government policy
towards minorities correctly, we can get huge benefits,"
he said.
However, many ethnic Uighurs are still afraid to speak
out or to be identified. When asked about the issue of
Uighurs in the country they constantly avoid talking
about it.
But some are optimistic. "I hope that in the future
Uighurs will not disappear in Uzbekistan and our
children can say they are Uighurs," Ahmad aka, an
elderly Uighur, told IRIN, looking at his children.
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