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Chinese Activists Call for Day of
Mourning
By STEPHANIE HOO, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 30, 5:51 AM ET
BEIJING - Exiled activists seeking more freedom for
China's mostly-Muslim northwest warned Friday that
Beijing's hard-line control could lead to increased
separatist violence, as the Communist Party prepared
to mark 50 years of rule over the area.
The Xinjiang region is populated by ethnic Uighurs,
who are Turkic-speaking Muslims with a language and
culture distinct from the rest of China. A high-level
government delegation was in Xinjiang to celebrate the
50th anniversary Saturday of its establishment as an "autonomous
region" under Beijing's control.
Activists abroad, who refer to Xinjiang as East
Turkistan, said Oct. 1 should be designated a day of
mourning.
"Continued hopelessness could lead to violence," the
German-based World Uyghur Congress, which uses an
alternative spelling for Uighur, said in a statement.
"If the Chinese leaders do not want to turn East
Turkistan into another Chechnya, then they must stop
violating the basic human rights of the Uyghurs
immediately."
It called on Beijing to seek a peaceful solution
through dialogue.
The stark warning reveals increasing frustration among
Uighur activists, who Beijing decries as terrorists
but who have found international sympathy for their
plight diminishing amid the war on Islamist terror.
The congress accused Beijing of turning Xinjiang into
a Chinese colony by stripping the region of its
natural resources and encouraging ethnic Chinese to
move in to take jobs from the 8 million Uighurs and
dilute their culture.
China says it has controlled the region on and off for
thousands of years, but links were loose until the
establishment of the People's Republic in 1949.
Communist troops occupied Xinjiang that year and a
local government under Beijing's control was set up on
Oct. 1, 1955.
China doesn't publish statistics on migration to
Xinjiang, but experts say about 250,000 ethnic Chinese
have moved to the region annually over recent years.
Uighurs still make up the largest single group, with
ethnic Chinese accounting for about 40 percent, and
other ethnic groups such as Kazakhs making up the rest.
A separate rights group, the Washington-based Uyghur
Human Rights Project, accused Beijing of using the war
on terror as an excuse to oppress Xinjiang.
"Beijing has deliberately linked peaceful Uyghur
nationalism with 'terrorism,' bringing about a massive
crackdown on Uyghur culture and identity," the group
said in a statement.
Meanwhile, top officials planned to attend a
song-and-dance pageant in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi,
China Central Television reported.
Luo Gan, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee
in charge of law enforcement, opened the
commemorations earlier this week by urging officials
to crack down on terrorism and "be prepared for danger."
The extent of separatist violence in Xinjiang is hard
to measure because of China's strict controls on
information. Beijing has issued contradictory
statements, saying both that the region has been
stable since a rash of violence in the 1990s and that
terrorism remains a threat.
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