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THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
SO-CALLED XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION
China is preparing for the celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the so-called Xinjiang
Uyghur Autonomous Region, which the Uyghur people call
East Turkestan, on October 1, 2005. But the Uyghur
people living at home and abroad commemorate this date
as a date of national mourning. The main reason is
that the decision to set up the autonomous region
rather than fulfilling the promises of
self-determination made by Mao Zedong was against the
wishes of the Uyghurs people.
At the Sixth Congress of The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
in 1945, Mao Zedong announced that after CCP takeover
of China, the people of East Turkestan would have the
right to self-determination and the choice between
full independence and establishment of a federated
republic within the framework of federalism. However,
as soon as CCP took over China, Mao Zedong denied the
people of East Turkestan the right to
self-determination, and established this so-called
Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region.
Faced with this situation, the Uyghur people asked to
form a federated republic within the People’s Republic
of China. Mao also rejected this request calling it a
“ demand hostile to the history,” and claimed “that
East Turkestan has always been an inalienable part of
an indivisible China, even before it was liberated;
therefore there would be no sense in dividing China
into federated republics.”
When it became apparent that Mao was taking a hard
line on the possible republic status, the Uyghur
people demanded that the name “Xinjiang” given by the
Manchu rulers of Qing Dynasty be changed to the
historical name of “East Turkestan.” Mao also rejected
this request and decided instead to form an autonomous
region for all the people living in the area.
The draft program for the introduction of regional
autonomy for non-Chinese peoples in East Turkestan was
formulated at the Second Enlarged Session of the
Nationalities Affairs Commission in December 1951 and
finally ratified by the Central Government Council of
August 8, 1952. It forsaw three types of autonomous
units; a unit inhabited by a single national minority;
a unit with one large majority and several
local minority units, having sub-autonomous status;
and a unit with several minorities, none of which was
in the majority.
In Februrary 1955 a special committee was created by
CCP to prepare for regional autonomy in East
Turkestan, and in August the provincial government
adopted a resolution calling for such regional
autonomy. The First East Turkestan Provincial People’s
Congress approved the resolution in September 1955 and
dispatched it to Beijing, where the State Council and
the Standing Committee of the National People’s
Congress approved it on September 13, 1955. As a
result, the so-called Xinjiang Wei Wu Er Zi Zi Chu, or
the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, came into being
on October 1, 1955.
With the creation of the so-called Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region, the Chinese political oppression,
cultural assimilation, economic exploitation,
ecological destruction, racial discrimination,
arbitrary arrests, torture and execution policies in
East Turkestan also intensified. The following is the
brief legacy of Chinese communist authorities between
1949- 1979:
- By promising equality, CCP divided the indigenous
peoples of East
Turkestan such as the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks,
Tatars, Salars etc. who are bound together by a common
history, common language, and common culture into
autonomous “prefectures,” and “counties.”
- Under the pretext of “Socio-economic Reform,” in
1959, CCP drove 96.9 per cent of Uyghurs were driven
into 30,000 communes, and destroyed their traditional
family bonds and way of life. ( Xinjiang Ribao,
November 25, 1959)
- Under the pretext of “Land Reform,” CCP confiscated
all private land, property and animals of the Uyghur
people.
- Under the pretext of “Cultural Reform,” CCP
eliminated the traditional Arabic script, which the
Uighurs were using for almost one thousand years, and
instead Latin alphabet was adopted to suite the
Chinese phonology.
- Under the pretext of “Remnants of the Past”, only in
the city of Urumchi 370,000 books written in the
Arabic script were destroyed. (Sotsiyalistik
Kazakhstan, January 14, 1978)
- Under the pretext of “Unification of National
Education,” CCP banned teaching Uyghur history,
culture and civilization, and forced Uyghur children
to transfer to schools where only Marxism, Leninism
and Maoism were taught.
- Under the pretext of “Attendance of Prayers Hinder
Production,” CCP prohibited the Muslims from
fulfilling their religious duties. As a result, more
than 29,000 mosques were closed, 54,000 imams were
arrested, tortured or used for forced labor. (Sotsiyalistik
Kazakhstan, January 14, 1978)
- Between 1950 and 1972, CCP executed 360,000 Uyghurs,
accused as “counter revolutionaries,” drove nearly
500,000 into hard-labor camps for “re-education,” and
almost forced 200,000 to flee to neighboring countries.
( Kommunizim Tughi, March 14, 1974; Chen Shu Peng, The
Chinese Commiunist System of reform Through Labor,
Taiwan, April 1978)
- In an effort to transform East Turkestan completely
into a Chinese colony, CCP transferred and settled
millions of Chinese migrants.
Although China’s founder Mao Zedong died three decades
ago, but China’s strategic, political and economic
objectives in East Turkestan have remained unchanged.
The present Chinese leaders are continuing the same
policy to transform East Turkestan completely into a
Chinese colony, culturally assimilate the Uyghur
people, and economically exploit their natural
resources.
- Today, the local economy only favors the Chinese
settlers in East
Turkestan. The average income of a Chinese settler in
East Turkestan is 3.6 percent higher than that of an
Uyghur. The Chinese settlers in East Turkestan have
monopolized not only official ranks of authority and
influence, but positions in almost all walks of the
life. That is why there is high ratio of unemployment
among the Uyghur people in East Turkestan.
- To restrain the growth of the Uyghur population, CCP
carried out coercive birth control among Uyghur women,
under the pretext of “ensuring a steady growth in the
minority population,” “improving the quality of the
population,” and “eliminating economic inequalities.”
How can “economic inequalities” as claimed by the
Chinese authorities be eliminated if coercive birth
control is practiced among Uyghur women on the one
hand and hundreds of thousands of Chinese migrants are
encouraged to settle in East Turkestan every year?
Furthermore, the Chinese settlers are allowed to have
more children in East Turkestan. It is clear that the
aim of such a policy is to expand the Chinese
population in East Turkestan in every way and dilute
the Uyghur population.
- In order to sinosize the Uyghurs literary language,
CCP carried out a fierce campaign. Until the Chinese
occupation of East Turkestan, the literary language of
the Uyghurs contained almost no Chinese loanwords. But
now, large quantity of Chinese words has been
introduced into Uyghur vocabulary. Meanwhile, in order
to accelerate the sinozation of the Uyghurs, the
Chinese authorities banned all Uighur language schools
in East Turkestan. Uyghur language schools have been
merged with Chinese language schools, imposing Chinese
as the language of instruction. Throughout the country
hundreds of thousands of books written in Uyghur
language have been burned or banned.
- CCP continues to view religion as a negative force
in East Turkestan. Last April, Human Rights Watch and
Human Rights in China jointly released a 114-page
report accusing the Chinese authorities of directing a
crushing campaign of religious repression against the
Uyghur people in the name of anti-separatism and
counter-terrorism.
- CCP continues to raise territorial claims on East
Turkestan, and treat the Uyghur people as foreigners
in their own motherland. Despite their rich
civilization as old as the Chinese, the Uyghurs are
still being treated as “barbarian,” “dirty,”
“primitive,” and “backward” by the Chinese government.
- Millions of Chinese have come to settle in East
Turkestan but if an Uyghur wants to settle in China,
he needs a special permit which is impossible to
obtain. A Chinese settler in East Turkestan has the
right to settle anywhere he wants and do business as
he wishes. But the Uyghurs are not allowed to open
business in China. A Chinese can stay in the finest
hotels in East Turkestan, but an Uyghur traveling on
business to China is not allowed to stay in a hostel.
These policies of political oppression, cultural
assimilation, economic exploitation, ecological
destruction, racial discrimination have gradually
turned East Turkestan into a time bomb. As a result,
severe anti-Chinese sentiment is intensified
throughout East Turkestan. Instead of defusing the
tense situation Chinese authorities turned to ruthless
and repressive measures aimed at silencing Uyghur
people’s demands to live with dignity. Thousands of
Uyghurs have been arrested, tortured or executed since
Chinese occupation of East Turkestan.
After the unprovoked barbaric terrorist attack on
United States on September 11, 2001, the Chinese
authorities staged a worldwide campaign to portray
Uighurs as “terrorists.” Despite concerns expressed by
the international community, the Chinese authorities
continue to use the war against international
terrorism as an excuse to launch a massive crackdown
upon the Uyghurs people.
China’s current efforts to label Uyghurs as
“terrorists” is clearly a part of CCP’s strategy as
outlined in a secret document of the Standing
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party entitled
“Defending the Stability of Xinjiang”, adopted on
March 19, 1996. It stated that the Chinese government
must “through disinformation, prevent by all means,
the separatist forces from making the so-called East
Turkestan problem
international.” The internationalization of the
question of East Turkestan is the biggest fear of the
Chinese leadership. Thus, since December 15, 2002, the
Chinese government is spending 25 million dollars
annually to spread disinformation in the hope to
silence the voice of the Uyghur people abroad.
In conclusion, I would like to point out that although
the Chinese government is making preparations to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but the Uyghur
people in East Turkestan are in a very hopeless,
desperate and frustrated situation. Continued
hopelessness could lead to violence. Where there is no
justice there is invariably violence. Hopeless people
have nothing to lose. The present silence in East
Turkestan is deceiving. It is a silence before a storm.
Tensions are gradually building up due to China’s
hardline repressive policies imposed upon the Uyghur
people. Thus, there is an urgent need to defuse the
rising tensions in East Turkestan.
Respect for human rights is an essential element in
conflict prevention. If the Chinese leaders do not
want to turn East Turkestan into another Chechnya ,
then they must stop violating the basic human rights
of the Uyghurs immediately. It is time that the
Chinese leadership realizes that human beings cannot
endure oppression forever. They must also understand
that the Uyghur people’s will to live with dignity
cannot be silenced by arresting, torturing and
executing them or branding them as “terrorists.”
Instead of using oppressive measures to silence the
legitimate demands, desires, and the aspirations of
the Uyghur people, the Chinese leadership should
choose dialogue. The Uyghur Diaspora strongly believes
that dialogue is the foundation for better
understanding and peaceful solution to the East
Turkestan Question.
Erkin Alptekin
President
World Uyghur Congress
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