An electronic newsletter

Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center

23 August 1996

23 August 1996, Reuters

23 August 1996, Voice of America

23 August 1996, Reuters

23 August 1996, AFP

21 August 1996, Reuters

21 August 1996,Voice of America

21 August 1996, Voice of Eastern Turkistan

21 August 1996, Eastern Turkistan Information Center

21 August 1996, AFP

20 August 1996, OMRI Daily Digest

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(1) TAIWAN TO PUSH FOR FOREIGN TIES

23 August 1996, Reuters

Taiwan's president said Friday his island will not halt its drive for broader international ties, urging China to face reality and sit down to talk. ``We will continue to expand our friendly cooperation with countries all over the world, to participate in international organizations of all kinds,'' Lee Teng-hui, who doubles as chairman of the Nationalist Party, told a party congress. On Wednesday, Taiwan kicked off its latest bid for a U.N. seat despite the certainty of a Chinese veto. On Thursday, Taiwan and China each called for a resumption of talks, which were broken off more than a year ago.

(2) CHINA SAYS THE FIGHT AGAINST CRIME WILL CONTINUE

23 August 1996, Voice of America

China says the fight against crime will continue because despite the success of a five month-long campaign, there are still some criminals and gangs at large. V-O-A's Gil Butler in Beijing has a report.

Since last April, Chinese police and other public security forces have been engaged in a campaign that Beijing named "operation strike hard". During that time, some estimates say, more than 150-thousand people have been arrested. Well over one-thousand have been executed. Rarely a day goes by that Chinese newspapers do not report the execution of drug dealers and murderers, robbers, and bribe-takers, and even car thieves. On Thursday, for example, five members of a car theft ring were put to death for stealing 60 cars. After a court hearing they were taken away and shot.

A commentary in the communist party newspaper, the people's daily, said the battle against crime in china is far from over. It hailed operation strike hard as having a huge impact and excellent results, in its words.

But, the people's daily said, in some places brazen and arrogant criminals have not yet been put down, some fugitives have not yet been apprehended and some gangs have not yet been smashed.

China's official Xinhua news agency quotes a senior public security official as saying the anti-crime campaign will continue and deepen. The official says since china's opening up to the

Outside world and its economic reforms, great changes have taken place in people's behavior and he says the social environment is less satisfactory than before. The official said a new social mechanism to effectively control behavior problems has not yet emerged.

With improved economic growth, there has been a rise in crime in china leading to widespread concern among Chinese citizens unused to such problems. Operation strike hard was a response to that. Xinhua says since the all-out campaign, people's sense of safety has improved and China's position as a country with one of the

Lowest crime rates in the world has been safeguarded. It says a harsh anti-crime campaign is a key link in economic construction in China.

(3) JAPANESE PILOTS TO TRAIN ON SU-27'S.

23 August 1996, Reuters

In what some observers are interpreting at least in part as a message to Beijing, Japanese defense officials indicated on August 23 that Tokyo hopes to send several military pilots to

Russia to train on advanced Russian Su-27 jet fighters. Japanese pilots would reportedly like to become familiar with the highly-praised aircraft, which is the centerpiece of China's plans to modernize its own Air Force.

(4) UN BODY DENOUNCES CHINA'S TREATMENT OF MINORITIES

23 August 1996, AFP

GENEVA - UN experts on racial discrimination on Friday denounced attacks by China on the rights of ethnic minorities particularly the Buddhists in Tibet and the Moslems in Xinjiang.

The 18-member UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination issued a statement voicing concerns for the lack of legal protection for minority groups across China.

And it singled out reports of the state's destruction of Buddhist temples in Tibet, ruled by Beijing since 1959, as well as mosques in Xinjiang, and called for further information.

The committee also criticized the advantages granted by Beijing to the Han majority aimed at persuading them to move to the autonomous regions in a bid to alter the demographic make-up of the areas.

The experts also denounced discrimination practiced by Chinese authorities towards minorities in the workplace, secondary and higher education and the lack of teaching of their own culture and history.

China's expert to the committee distanced himself from the findings, saying they were based on unconfirmed reports.

Set up in 1969, the committee which had been meeting in Geneva from August 5, is charged with monitoring the implementation of international conventions outlawing racial discrimination.

(5) REUTERS INTERNATIONAL SUMMARY

21 August 1996, Reuters

China Cancels Ukraine Trip - China has cancelled a trip by a high-ranking government delegation to Ukraine following a visit to Kiev by Taiwan's Vice-President Lien Chan, a senior Chinese diplomat said today. In Taipei, Taiwan State Radio said Lien met Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma today. But Kiev denied the report, saying Lien's visit was private and there was ``no meeting.'' China regards Nationalist-ruled Taiwan as a rebel province and has sought to isolate the island diplomatically since a civil war separated them in 1949.

(6) AUSTRALIA'S FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER’S VISIT TO CHINA.

21 August 1996,Voice of America

Australia's foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, arrives in Beijing Thursday, at the start of a four-day visit to China. The main agenda items are said to be trade and investment

ties between the two countries. But, as Robin Poke reports from Canberra, issues such as Australia’s aid program, the sale of Uranium to Taiwan, the planned visit to Australia by the Dalai Lama and Australia’s defense ties with the united states may also surface.

(7) "STRIKE HARD" CAMPAIGN NEWS

21 August 1996, Voice of Eastern Turkistan

Urumchi radio reported on August 20 that in the wake of "Strike Hard" campaign in Karakash County of Hoten Willayet, 30 people were taken under arrest following investigations by the security officers. Many items of "criminal" property, including 12 motor cycles, were confiscated.

The Urumchi radio cited the XUAR Chairman, Mr. Ablet Abdureshid, that more than 300 factories were not implementing their half year plans, therefore, causing economic losses for the Region. Planned 20 large constructions were not even started, and, apparently, will not in the current year.

(8) ARRESTS DURING "MASHRAP".

21 August 1996, Eastern Turkistan Information Center

Last year in Gulja, a group of Uyghur young enthusiasts began to revive a traditional Uyghur game-entertainment called "Mashrap". This national Uyghur game appeared in Uyghur culture many centuries ago as a way to entertain people and educate youth. Mashraps were usually organized during fall and winter, that is, when predominantly sedentary Uyghur farmers had some time for leisure after harvest.

The organizers hoped to use mashrap for keep young people out of streets, alcoholism, using drugs, and teach them traditional good manners and moral principles.

The initiative got a good response from the Uyghur public, and after some time it began to spread from one village to another involving more and more people. The people participating in mashraps began even to arrange a soccer competitions between different mashrap groups.

One day before the competition the local authorities ploughed and flooded the stadium. The young Uyghurs, outraged by this unjust act of the authorities, staged spontaneous demonstrations.

Using this as a pretext, the security officers arrested 30-40 demonstrators accusing them in separatist and nationalistic activities. It was recently announced that 4 of the arrested were

charged as instigators and given 3 year sentences in prison.

We suppose that the reason for such harsh measures by the Chinese authorities against those young Uyghurs is desire to keep Uyghur youth away from their national traditions, preferably, make them go to streets, drink alcohol and use drugs. That is, to criminalize Uyghur community in Eastern Turkistan and marginalize it from the civilized social life. Also, the Chinese authorities take all measures to keep young Uyghurs from informal organizing themselves, even if it is just a traditional game or a soccer team.

(9) 'RADIO FREE ASIA' SET TO BEGIN BROADCASTING, AMID CONTROVERSY

21 August 1996, AFP

WASHINGTON - Asian governments worried about potentially destabilizing Internet technology will soon have a new source of information to contend with from a much older medium: radio.

The US government's new Asia Pacific Network (APN), also called Radio Free Asia, starts broadcasting in Mandarin next month, with services in seven other languages to follow. And experts say it could have a far wider reach than the advanced computer technology that Asian autocrats are scrambling to control.

"Radio still has enormous impact. It's far more important than computers or even television," said Lewis Wolfson, professor of communication at the American University here. "It reaches people more easily, and it's economically attractive." In the months leading up to its first broadcast, however, the fledgling network has met for the most part with a curious silence from Asia -- and an outcry from conservative US legislators who fear it won't take a hard enough line against communism.

They fear, notably, that a 1995 decision to drop the name "Radio Free Asia" in favor of the more neutral-sounding Asia Pacific Network may suggest backsliding on the service's original goal: to help spread democracy in Asia. APN president Richard Richter, a longtime broadcast journalist, seems resigned to some congressional criticism for the moment but also determined

to broadcast objective programs that let the facts speak for themselves. In addition to broadcasting hard news, he wants to make APN a sort of "university of the air" with cultural programs and radio adaptations of now-banned Asian literary classics.

"We intend to be forthright about what's going on in each of these countries ... to make people hear different points of view," Richter said in an interview. He bristles at the notion of broadcasting propaganda and insists that APN must be perceived as independent to maintain credibility with listeners. The network expects to receive about 10 million dollars a year in

federal funding, but it is technically a private corporation.

Richter, who was hired after broadcasting overseers opted for the name APN, said "Radio Free Asia" just sounded unnecessarily provocative. It could also impede future expansion into other media and discourage US allies in the region, already skittish about annoying Beijing, from allowing APN to transmit its signal from their territory. In another move toward

establishing journalistic credibility, Richter recently hired Daniel Southerland, a respected Washington Post correspondent and early critic of plans to start Radio Free Asia, as APN's executive editor. Both are vetting potential employees with enormous care, Richter said, conceding that many Asian-Americans possess desirable language skills but undesirable

bias against the countries from which they or their relatives fled. Richter also took the unusual step of explaining APN and its mission to Vietnamese and Chinese embassy officials in Washington. "They were basically curious," he said. "Their reaction was essentially, 'we'll wait and see what you do.'" "Until we're on the air, there's going to be constant wonder and questions about exactly what we intend to do," he said.

Through their official media, China, North Korea, Burma, and Vietnam all criticized the concept of Radio Free Asia when it was first raised several years ago as unjustified American meddling.

Most have since fallen silent on the issue, though a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman contacted in Beijing in late July expressed "grave concern" at the creation of APN and urged Washington to dissolve it.

Nonetheless, China and the rest of Asia seem more preoccupied now with keeping a nervous eye on the Internet than jamming radio signals from the West, said Shalini Venturelli, a Washington-based global communications expert.

"You can shut down computers, but radio is much more ubiquitous and much harder to regulate or control," Venturelli said.

Bhuchung Tsering, a Washington-based official with the International Campaign for Tibet, agreed. Even in remote areas of Chinese-controlled Tibet, Buddhist monks and nuns can pick up radio signals from the Voice of America (VOA) with inexpensive transistors, he said.

Chinese listeners can tune into APN's Mandarin-language service for the first time on September 30 at 11:00 p.m. local time and again the next day at 7:00 a.m.

Radio programs in Cantonese, Tibetan, and five other languages will follow, with broadcasts targetting Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam.

APN programming will aim to supplement VOA, which is funded and managed by the US government, by focusing specifically on each target country and skipping VOA's emphasis on world news.

(10) RUSSIA LEADS U.S. IN ARMS SALES TO DEVELOPING WORLD.

20 August 1996, OMRI Daily Digest

The U.S. Congressional Research Service has calculated that Russian arms sales to the developing world grew by an impressive 62% in 1995 and reached $6 billion, outpacing the United States, which sold $3.8 billion in weapons to the same countries, The New York Times reported on 20 August. Russia has thus become the largest seller of arms to the developing world, the report said, with China its biggest customer. Russian arms sales are difficult to calculate, however, due to government secrecy, weak export controls, and a blurring between signed contracts and actual deliveries. Also, Russia does not report its

conventional arms sales to the UN, as do many Western countries. All sources agree that Russian arms exports surged in 1995, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has estimated that Russian arms exports totaled $3.9 billion in 1995, while Russian officials have placed the figure at about $2.5 billion. – Scott Parrish

Prepared by:

Abdulrakhim Aitbayev (rakhim@lochbrandy.mines.edu)

WUNN newsletter index

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The World Uyghur Network News electronic newsletter is produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center (ETIC) in cooperation with the Taklamakan Uighur Human Rights Association (USA), and is devoted to the current political, cultural and economic developments in Eastern Turkistan and to the Uyghur people related issues.

Eastern Turkistan (Sherqiy Turkistan in Uyghur) is a name used by the indigenous people of the region for their motherland located in what is at present the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic China.

The World Uyghur Network News brings information on situation in Eastern Turkistan from the Uyghur and other sources to the attention of the international community.

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EASTERN TURKISTAN INFORMATION CENTER

Director: Abduljelil Karkash

Lindwurmstr 99, 80337 Munich, Germany

http://www.uygur.com

Fax: 49-89-54 45 63 30 Phone: 49-89-54 40 47 72

E-mail: etic@uygur.com