An electronic newsletter Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 18 10 February 1997 In this issue: (1) 32 UYGHURS KILLED IN CLASHES WITH THE CHINESE MILITARY IN GHULJE.
(2) CHINA SLAPS CURFEW ON TOWN AFTER ARRESTING 500 IN DEADLY RIOT
(3) A MUSLIM MARCH DEMANDING INDEPENDENCE FOR XINJIANG
(4) XINJIANG RIOT REPORT
(5) MOSLEM SEPARATISTS RUN AMOK IN WESTERN CHINA
(6) MOSLEM SEPARATISTS RIOTED IN YINING
(7) RADICAL MOSLEM SEPARATISTS RAN AMOK
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Our center was informed from Urumchi, that on February 6, 1997, there were serious clashes between Uyghurs and Chinese police in Ghulje City (Inin) of Eastern Turkistan (Uyghuristan). 32 Uyghurs and many Chinese police and military officers were killed in the riots, and hundreds were injured. These events happened during Ramadan just two days before Islamic holiday Ramadan Eid. According to our source, the riot began when Chinese police attempted to arrest two Uyghur talips (religious school students) from the mosque during religious service. Angered by such insult to their religious rights, worshipers refused to surrender the students. A fight broke out and the policemen opened a gun fire killing two Uyghurs in the mosque. Infuriated crowd unarmed and stubbed the policemen. The Chinese were have to send a large reinforcement consisting of secrete police and military officers to disperse the crowd. Shortly after, people in surrounding areas and mosques learned on what happened and took to the streets organizing demonstrations against the Chinese rule in Eastern Turkistan (Uyghuristan). After severe clashes with the military and police, about 32 Uyghurs were killed and much more were seriously injured. Chinese officials in Urumchi claim that at present situation is under control in Ghulje. Hundreds of the Uyghurs were arrested. Nevertheless, our source say that riots still continue in several places in Ghulje. In response to this massacre by the Chinese military and police, Uyghur Students and refuges in Turkey and Germany staged demonstrations burning Chinese National flags and portraits of Zhang Zemin. (2) CHINA SLAPS CURFEW ON TOWN AFTER ARRESTING 500 IN DEADLY RIOT
BEIJING -- Crowds of young Muslims beat people to death and torched cars during pro-independence riots in far western China, a policeman said Monday. Those reported killed in the melee varied widely, from at least four people dead to nearly 300. There was no way to immediately reconcile the conflicting death tolls. The riots last Wednesday and Thursday were the worst to hit Yining, in the restive Chinese province of Xinjiang (pronounced sin-jeeang), since the 1949 Communist takeover, the Yining city police officer said. The city is near the border with the former Soviet republic of Kazakstan. Four or five people were killed, some of them beaten to death, said the officer, reached by telephone from Beijing. He refused to give his name. Security forces arrested up to 500 people and released some later, he said. Three cars were set on fire and police fired shots into the air to calm the crowds, he said. Ming Pao, a Hong Kong daily, said local TV reported more than 10 Chinese were killed and their bodies set on fire, and over 100 people injured in the riots. It quoted a Yining resident as saying that 1,000 Muslims beat up, killed and burned their victims before police quashed the violence. Modan Mukhlisi, a spokesman for the United National Revolution Front, a Uighur separatist group based in Kazakstan, said 30 Uighurs died in the riots. Ismail Cengiz, the secretary general of a pro-independence Uighur group based in Istanbul, Turkey, claimed that 200 Muslim rioters and about 100 Chinese soldiers were killed in the melee. The Yining policeman said the rioters were Uighurs (pronounced wee-gers), Xinjiang's Muslim majority, demanding independence for the region. Clashes are periodically reported in Xinjiang, where the Turkic-speaking Uighurs face an influx of ethnic Chinese. "There was a protest... It was illegal," said an official with Xinjiang's provincial government, who gave his surname, Liu. "Illegal protests are curbed." Covering one-sixth of China, Xinjiang has a population of 16.6 million, of whom 38 percent are ethnic Chinese, according to Chinese figures. The Uighurs had their own Republic of East Turkestan from 1944 to 1949. Xinjiang is now one of five autonomous regions of China. Xinjiang authorities have acknowledged unrest in their province. Abdulahat Abdurixit, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, has claimed successes in fighting separatists in 1996 and has vowed continued crackdowns. (3) A MUSLIM MARCH DEMANDING INDEPENDENCE FOR XINJIANG
HONG KONG - A Muslim march demanding independence for the northwest Chinese province of Xinjiang turned into a riot in which more than 10 Chinese were killed and their bodies set on fire, a Hong Kong newspaper reported today. The Ming Pao Daily quoted an unidentified resident as saying the violence Wednesday and Thursday in the city of Yining was the worst there since the 1949 Communist revolution. A Xinjiang (pronounced sin-jeeang) government official confirmed that police quelled protests last week in Yining. ``There was a protest ... It was illegal,'' said the official, who gave only his surname, Liu. ``Illegal protests are curbed.'' Liu said the protesters were Uighurs, Xinjiang's Muslim majority. Clashes are reported periodically in Xinjiang, where the Turkic-speaking Uighurs (pronounced wee-gers) face an influx of ethnic Chinese into the region. Liu, reached in Urumqi, Xinjiang's provincial capital, by telephone from Beijing, said order had been restored in Yining. He said he had no more details because of the Chinese New Year holiday. Ming Pao said local TV reported more than 10 Chinese killed and over 100 injured. The newspaper quoted the Yining resident as saying that 1,000 Muslims, mostly ages 17 and 18, beat up, killed and burned their victims before police quashed the violence. Covering one-sixth of China, Xinjiang has a population of 16.6 million, of whom 38 percent are ethnic Chinese, according to Chinese figures. The Uighurs had their own Republic of East Turkestan from 1944 to 1949. Xinjiang is now one of five autonomous regions of China. Yining, also called Gulja, is near the Kazakstan border, 300 miles from Urumqi. Xinjiang authorities acknowledge there is unrest in their province. Abdulahat Abdurixit, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, has claimed successes in fighting separatists in 1996 and has vowed continued crackdowns. ``We severely attacked enemy forces' crazed violent activities, annihilating the enemy's effectiveness,'' he said in a Jan. 25 speech to Xinjiang's legislature. (4) XINJIANG RIOT REPORT
News reports say more than ten people have been killed and 100 others injured in riots last week in the northwestern Chinese province, xinjiang. V-O-A's Gil Butler reports from Beijing the riots reportedly involved ethnic Uighers (wee'gers) who attacked Han Chinese and called for an independent Xinjiang. A Hong Kong newspaper -- the Chinese-language "Ming Pao" daily -- reports more than one thousand Uigher youths took to the streets of Yining, calling for a separate state and beating Han Chinese. The rioting – described as the worst since 1949 -- took place Wednesday and Thursday. All of those killed or injured were described as Han. In an apparently related development, Uigher demonstrators in Istanbul on Saturday burned a Chinese flag in front of the Chinese consulate. Xinjiang is in the remote northwest of china and is officially called the Xinjiang Uigher autonomous region. There has been separatist sentiment among Uigher Muslims. Chinese authorities blame the unrest on a small minority of Islamic radicals. According to Uighers living in neighboring Kazakhstan, 57 thousand people were arrested in Xinjiang last year in an anti-separatism crackdown by Chinese authorities. (5) MOSLEM SEPARATISTS RUN AMOK IN WESTERN CHINA
BEIJING--Moslem separatists looted shops and attacked villagers in northwest China last week, leaving dozens injured and sparking fears of a major revolt against Chinese rule. Police in the remote Xinjiang (``Shin'jeeang'') province town of Yining (``Yee'neeng'') said Monday a roving band of thieves ran amok on the eve of the Chinese lunar new year holidays, assaulting residents and destroying shops. Dozens of people were involved in the riot, police said, and at least four men who claimed to be separatist leaders were in custody. One officer confirmed a number of injuries but said no one died during the two-day crime spree. The local government refused comment on the incident, which was described in a Hong Kong newspaper as an anti-government uprising involving thousands. The Chinese-language Ming Pao daily reported at least 10 ethnic Chinese were killed and over 100 injured in the rioting. Yining police denied the attacks were racially motivated and said both Moslems and Han Chinese were terrorized. Communist officials are extremely sensitive to any signs of anti- government sentiment in the racially mixed region. Chinese account for only 37 percent of the population in Xinjiang, where predominately Moslem ethnic groups have been engaged in a long struggle to free themselves from China's yoke. Racial tensions peaked last May when 200,000 Chinese troops were dispatched to the provincial capital of Urumqi (``Aroom'chee'') to quell riots which left dozens dead. (6) MOSLEM SEPARATISTS RIOTED IN YINING
BEIJING: Moslem separatists rioted in Yining, a remote Chinese border town in far-west Xinjiang region, reportedly leaving more than 10 people dead as well as heavy property damage. (7) RADICAL MOSLEM SEPARATISTS RAN AMOK
BEIJING, Feb 10 (AFP) - Radical Moslem separatists ran amok in a remote Chinese border town last week, carrying out robberies, looting and assaults around the main square, a local television journalist said Monday. A newspaper report from Hong Kong said at least 10 ethnic Chinese were killed in an attack by more than 1,000 local Moslem youths calling for an independent homeland, while witnesses also spoke of hearing about some deaths in the town bordering Kazakhstan. But the local reporter, contacted by AFP in the remote city of Yining, played down the incident saying only a handful of Moslems were involved while our or five thieves had been detained. "There were no killings, but there were beatings, looting and robbery. We broadcast the story on local television because they looted several vehicles and attacked people in the name of religion," said the TV journalist from the Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture station.He said the handful of trouble-makers had come from the southern part of Xinjiang province and were not local. "Also, they attacked both Moslems and Han Chinese, we don't have serious (ethnic) problems here," he added. The local government was even more reticent in its account, although a spokesman for the propaganda department did confirm that a disturbance had taken place between February 5 and 6. "You will have to wait until Xinhua (the Chinese state news agency) reports it. We have no other comment to make," he said. However, other residents of the town, which was the site of Sino-Soviet clashes in the 1960s and is still run like a garrison with few Chinese daring to venture out at night, said the riot was on a far bigger scale than that reported on television. "As soon as the trouble started, I locked all my doors and stayed inside with my relatives," said a young ethnic Chinese woman who refused to give her name. "We heard reports of killings and awful things, but we didn't see anything as we stayed right here, and no one I know was killed," she added.Her account backed reports in the Ming Pao Chinese-language daily in Hong Kong which said at least 10 people were killed in the unrest. The report said all the victims were from the ethnic Han majority and some of the victims were burned by the rioting youths, without given further details. Yining is situated some 700 kilometres (440 miles) northwest of the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi and is in the Yili valley that leads into Kazakhstan, where most of China's exiled Moslem separatists are based. A resurgence of separatist sentiment throughout Xinjiang in the last year has been largely blamed on the collapse of the Soviet Union in central Asia and the new-found strength of Islam in Kazakhstan and its neighbours. Xinjiang -- which translates as new frontier -- has only a 37 percent ethnic Chinese population and the Uighur and other Moslem groups living there have been engaged in a centuries-long struggle to free themselves of Chinese rule. Beijing responded to the growing tensions by ordering a major religious crackdown last year, targetting underground schools and mosques that promote separatist sentiment. According to Moslem Uighurs living in exile in neighbouring Kazakhstan, some 57,000 people were arrested in Xinjiang last year as part of anti-separatist moves by the authorities. The Yining riots came as Xinjiang's top government official warned that separatism and illegal religious activity would be the main targets of law enforcers through 1997. "We will form a united front against splittists, isolating and attacking those who take the separatist road," regional government chairman Abdulahat Abdurixit said in a report seen in Beijing on Saturday. Prepared by: Abdulrakhim Aitbayev (rakhim@lochbrandy.mines.edu) WUNN newsletter index*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*==*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= 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. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*==*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= EASTERN TURKISTAN INFORMATION CENTER |