A. Tuyghuni (Canada)

The first year of the third millenium started with the global conflict called "Terrorism and the War against Terrorism".

While there is not a clearly defined norm for "terrorism" yet, it can be understood at least that it is a heinous act of killing and torturing innocent people. As a human-being, I strongly condemn such kinds of horrendous, evil acts. As a member of human society, and as a cell of mankind, I value any kind of life with love and compassion like my other fellow Uyghurs. At the same time, I detest those who deprive others from living as free members of the global family.

As a member of the Uyghur ethnic group who have been accused of "separatism" for several decades, and labelled as "terrorists" by Chinese government since the “September 11th" tragedy", I need to tell the world that it is the Uyghurs who hate terrorism most and therefore oppose to all forms of terrorism, whether it be group terrorism or state terrorism.

At present, there is no nation on this planet other than Uyghurs who understand deeply the pain that is caused by the vicious form of terrorism called state-sponsored terrorism. Thus the anger from the Uyghurs at terrorists is as strong as lava, and the sympathy for the victims of terrorism is as deep as the Pacific Ocean. Ironically, the victims of state terrorism have been portrayed by their victimizer as "terrorists" and the victimizer is called "victim" not by others, but by the victimizer herself.

One must note that this fabrication made up by the Chinese who concocted it with fake stories has been displayed in the political market, not in the second millennium but just after the "September 11th" tragedy.

Clearly, this "seasonal marketing" tactic itself explains something hidden in it.

It may be the "development and extension" of the notorious ancient Chinese stratagem in the modern era. They are smart again. Their intellectual power is always reflected in how good they are in taking advantage of anything and creating an opportunity to justify their actions!

When there is no moral principle to abide by, or when you have no creed that imposes constraints on your behaviour, almost everything is regarded as an opportunity.

Although China's painting of the Uyghur cause is as illogical as saying "Look, the sky is falling down", some "customers" bought it.

Were they bribed or were they deceived?

Natural law makes the above claims absurd, but it is the game that is played in politics always when deemed necessary by the players.

Whatever trick it was, it seemingly worked for China's benefit, unfortunately on the expense of the Uyghurs.

Mr. Ahmatjan Kasimi, the untimely and mysteriously died Uyghur leader once said: "The darker the sky, the brighter the stars". As long as China holds the freedom of the Uyghurs hostage and forces them to live in the dark, it just intensifies the Uyghur people’s crave for freedom and democracy. It is true that the empires founded by the Uyghurs had fallen out of the orbit of dynasties for various reasons just like other fallen empires in the history, but Uyghurs did not vanish from their ancestral homeland for centuries and they have not given up their dream for freedom despite China's ruthless oppression.

The Uyghurs did not wait for their freedom to be given by the oppressors. They fought for it in the past and have been fighting for that lost freedom since they fell under foreign occupation. They succeeded twice in the last century, but the fruits of victory were taken away by the plot of imperialist great powers such as China and the Soviet Union. So to speak, their dreams for self-rule and independence were dashed twice in the last century.

It is well known that the collapse of Soviet empire expedited the demise of evil powers, and the world embraced new nations which rose from the ashes of Communism. The global democracy movement flourished in the early 1990's and the sunshine of freedom splashed on Eastern Europe, Central Asia, but not on the Uyghur lands. Despite this, the Uyghurs whose freedom was abducted by China saw a glimmer of hope from this movement. Unfortunately, That piece of hope evaporated quickly for many reasons. The darkness continued, and the Uyghurs have faced intensified oppression, intimidation and extermination under the Chinese rule.

As if adding salt to the wound, the Uyghurs were betrayed by the Turkic Central Asian nations, (for example, my friend Huseyinjan Celil was extradited to China from Uzbekistan), sold out by Pakistan (for example, Ismail Semed, an innocent young man who was the
father of two children was shot to death by China after Pakistan arrested him and sent him back to China).The countries listed above have already become China's proxy provinces anyway, and all of them are ruled by dictators. But the free world also neglected the Uyghur's plight (for example, Nurpolat Abdulla, an Austrailan citizen has been languishing in another proxy province China's - Kazakhstan’s gulags for many years). The Australian government has done nothing substantial so that Kazakhstan should free Nurpolat.

In his visit to China, the former US president William J. Clinton famously said: " China is on the wrong side of history on human rights". The Uyghurs hope that justice and peace loving people of the world will say echoing to Uyghurs: "China is extremely wrong on the Uyghur issue".

Contrary to China's propaganda of the "happy big family", the already worse ethnic relationships were deteriorated soon after the democracy movement had failed in China. China did not keep her promise, and Zhong Nan Hai appointed kings - the "Wangs" executed a cruel policy against the Uyghurs, which resulted in one of the grossest violations of human rights issues in the contemporary world.

Nowadays, discrimination and animosity against the Uyghurs both in China and in East Turkistan were no longer the isolated acts of individuals, but became institutionalised.

We hear more and more that the Uyghurs are are being arrested for expressing their discontentment with the government policy. Unlike in other parts of China, Uyghur political prisoners are being executed despite the yearly condemnations of international human rights organizations of such practices. Even students are not spared. They are being expelled from schools for fasting during Ramadan, and Uyghur government clerks are being punished for growing a beard. Uyghur college graduates are denied jobs in their own native land for not speaking Mandarin well. In this aspect, China's so-called "favourable minority policy" is nothing but a bare deception.

What are the use of such policies when the discrimination pushes even college educated young Uyghurs into unemployment, poverty and destitution?

In short, the Uyghurs are discriminated in all walks of life. China failed to provide equality to Uyghurs and things are now very much polarized.

Each and every Uyghur with a conscience feels this heat this or that way.

" Look" - one Uyghur says – “just a decade ago, the situation of the Kazakhs, Uzbeks and ours were the same. Now they are independent nations. If Nazarbayev or Kerimov visits China, Hu Jin Tao will place a red carpet on the floor and greet them humbly. But if you were an Uyghur, supposedly a citizen of China and go to Beijing, you even could not get a place to sleep, the Chinese treat you as if you were a criminal in the best of circumstances".

-"Exatly", agrees to this another Uyghur nodding his head. "We got excited when Central Asian nations got their independence from Russian Imperialism. Because they were our kin and they were too oppressed in the past. What are they doing to us now?
They are exploiting us for petty sums of money, and making us a bargain tool with the Chinese.”


According to some Uyghur observers, it will not be an exaggeration if it is said the red carpets are placed on the feet of those dictators because of the Uyghur issue. Each of those countries has sizable Uyghur communities. It is now a routine speculation that any agreements of transactions between China and these countries come at the expense of further Uyghur sufferings. Therefore, Uyghurs generally regard any visit made by Musharraf or any Central Asian country president to China as an ominous sign for Uyghurs.

"The Chinese are trying to get rid of us via burning our books, changing our history, and narrowing down all possible venues of life for us. I am really worried that we will be exterminated from the face of the earth after 50 years, if the world stays mute", - another says hopelessly.

What actually happened and happening now to Uyghurs confirms this Uyghur man's worry.

Since the "September 11th" tradegy, China intensified the destruction of the Uyghur culture by burning Uyghur books, annulling Uyghur language teaching at educational institutions, and forbidding anything that shows Uyghur pride from Uyghur life.

As a contempt to International organizations and democratic nations appeal, China expedited the demographic genocide.

Today thousands of Chinese are being transferred to the Uyghur land in the name of "development" and thousands of Uyghur teenagers are being sent to China in the name of "quality education". They will ultimately grow up knowing nothing about their own culture.

One rare thing has recently started to happen in East Turkistan.

China is forcefully sending single, educated and beautiful young Uyghur girls between the age of 16-22 to coastal Chinese regions in the name of "employment".

Uyghur leaders, scholars and general public inside and outside East Turkistan unanimously feel that China's motivation of doing this is to eradicate Uyghurs from East Turkistan without a smoke.

This must cause world's close attention and freedom loving people must heed China's this type of bizarre action. This should be called "soft killing", and thus should be considered to be part of state-terrorism.

Given this reality, one may ask where are those voices who speak against terrorism? Where are those defenders of freedom?

The free world who paid close attention to the Tibet and East Timor issues, somehow do not raise the East Turkistan issue as it should, in conformity to their principles. Unfortunate to Uyghurs, they sometimes seem to abandon their principle for short term interests as western analysts observed. One may wonder again if it is due to Uyghur's religion as majority of them Muslims.

The Uyghurs have no supporters or sympathizers among Muslim world.

Despite China's persecution of Islam in the Uyghur land, the Muslim world did not lift an eyebrow for a second. This makes one wonder if the Muslim world has already lost its moral to stand up for justice. When you lose your love and respect for universal principles of morality for your own narrow self-interest, you lose your audiences and credibility. If you do not believe this, look at how many friendly agreements the Chinese made with full-beard grown Muslim countries. this "bridge of friendship" extends from Central Asia to all Muslim countries most notably including Turkey.

Recent information indicates that Uyghurs are facing cruel repression and being marginalized by the Chinese.

The late Vermont Connecticut Royster, the former editor of the Wall Street Journal wrote in his editorial - "In Hoc Anno Domini" half a century ago:

"... Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new caesars and to false prophets. Then it might come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the east and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness ".

I find that his piece describes extremely well the current situation of the Uyghurs.

If the life of the Uyghurs is as horrible as this, and their fate is as dark as this, and yet no one listens to the Uyghur's rumblings, and no one cares about their sufferings - then oh, mankind, how do I call these poor people?

- The orphans of this planet!