Party secretary of Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region Wanglechuan answered the foreign media’s question in march 2008 and said that the Chinese government is not  claiming Uyghurs are terrorists just because of few people who planning terrorist activity  were Uyghur, does not mean all Uyghurs are terrorists. What is your reaction about his explanation? 

If he knows that there are just a few people planning a terrorist attack, he must also know that it would be committed by scattered Uyghur individuals who are reacting out of hatred and frustration due to the Chinese government’s oppressive regime and they do not represent the entire Uyghur population.  If so why are they launching massive arrests in East Turkistan and arresting Uyghurs everywhere? How can he explain that? 

You said that there are mass arrests in East Turkistan, could you give some example? 

The Chinese government officially launched its mass arrest campaign from July first to July fifteen. It is not clear how many people were jailed at this time.  We learned that all former prisoners were sent back to jail and Uyghur migrants who traveled from one place of East Trukistan to another place of East Turkistan would be targeted first in this campaign. Mass arrests already have taken place in many places of East Turkistan, before the campaign officially launched.  For instance, from the Aksu and Kelpin counties, 200 young men and women were detained in May.  This mass arrest was justified by claiming that it was done for the security of the Olympics.  According to credible research, some police stations confessed to arresting these individuals until the conclusion of the Olympics although they had committed no crime. 

Were Uyghurs optimistic when the Olympic torch was handed over to China in 2004? 

Yes, but not only the Uyghurs, the World was very optimistic about the new future of China  when the Olympic torch was handed over to this massively populated  repressive  communist country.  The World community believed the goodness and power of the Olympic spirit and they dreamed of friendship, freedom, peace and human solidarity in China.  Smiles and hope came back to the faces of the Uyghurs who have been oppressed by China because they expected China to reduce its oppressive regime in order to not ruin its reputation before the Olympics.  They wished that China may respect the dignity of the Olympic spirit and return the rights of Uyghur people that had been forcibly taken away.  But, unfortunately, there has been no change, with only one month left before the Beijing Olympics begin.  On the contrary, the Olympics became another excuse for China to justify mass arrests of Uyghurs in East Turkistan and its repressive policy. 

Chinese media published that there are Uyghur terrorists that plan to sabotage the Olympics, do you think there is existence of such terrorist activity in East Turkistan?

I believe that there is no such thing in East Turkistan.  If there is, it must be purposely designed by the Chinese government to use as an excuse to justify its mass arrests.  Or, if in fact this is true, it could only be committed by scattered Uyghur individuals who are reacting in hatred and frustration due to the Chinese government’s oppressive regime. 

The Chinese media always links terrorism with independence movement, do you think there is any underground independence movement in East Turkistan and are they using violence?  

Terrorism is not a viable solution or option for the Uyghur independence movement.  It is true that it is not a democratic country and there is no freedom of speech.  Thus, it is not possible for them to organize and demand their rights peacefully.  However, this does not mean that they can organize underground and use violence as a means to gain independence. because Uyghurs know that there is a huge power balance within China.  They understand that it is not feasible to use violence to over come the Chinese aggressive regime since China has a strong military power and billions of mass population. The Uyghurs also realize that partaking in terrorist activity will create a bad image of their cause thus they will loose international support and credibility. 

You said that there is no terrorist activity of independence movement. What about the ETIM (East Turkistan Islamic Movement)?  Are any members of ETIM in east Turkistan as China used to claim? 

ETIM was organized in central Asia.  Since China has a strong power in central Asian countries, they harshly cracked down on ETIM and its members were forced to escape to Afghanistan at that time because Afghanistan was the only available country for them because they do not require a Visa.  After the September 11^th, 2001 terror attacks, ETIM was listed as a terrorist group by the United Nations and the United States to gain China’s help in its so-called “War on Terror” simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

I don’t believe that there is ETIM members in East Turkistan, because, first of all they are a very small organization and ETIM members escaped from the Chinese regime and struggled for survival of their own life.  Almost all of the members disappeared with Bin Laden’s camp and most of them were arrested and executed by the Chinese government.  Some were detained in Guantanamo Bay and the US government already proved that they were not guilty.

 What is your people’s goal? Independence or Autonomy?

To get independence is the wish of every Uyghur.  We don’t want autonomy because we have tried it before and it remains an abstract idea as it is only on paper.  However, this question mainly depends on Uyghurs in East Turkistan.  The Uyghur community in the Diaspora and Uyghur organizations can only try to gain international support and request for the human rights of Uyghurs living under this repressive regime..