Free Eastturkistan: March 2010

Three Article From Korash Atahan About Politice Stuation East Turkistan

1-East Turkistan: Genocide, prison, torture and linguacide

By Korash Atahan

1. Restriction of the Chinese Government regarding Media Distribution 2 . Oppression and Restrictions of the Chinese Government by Means of Administrative Work 3 . The Oppression of the Chinese Government in the Field of Education 4 . The Oppression of the Chinese Government in the Field of Media, Press and Publications 5 . The Oppression of the Chinese Government in the Field of International News Exchange and Internet Communications 6 . The Oppression of the Chinese Government in the Field of Religion 7 . Restrictions and Destruction in the Field of Historical and Cultural Inheritance. The state terror and the crimes committed by the Chinese aggressors in East Turkistan take many different forms.

The Chinese government is unjustly labelling our people as “terrorists”; accuses innocent people of political crimes and imprisons and tortures them; practices genocide; oppresses any free thought; arrests and executes thousands of innocent men of religion despite their having nothing to do with the current radical islamist groups; represses Islam and our over-a-thousand year old indigenous culture which we have always been protecting – but now the people are able to protect these in the name of Islam only secretly. But the oppression by the Chinese government on a large scale, against the idea of independence and our struggle for independence which has been rooted in our people since long ago is increasing every day. An example of this is that Imams are controlled in their convictions and although they have nothing to do with politics, they are forced to give fatwas in conformity with Chinese interests.

The country has been turned into an open air prison of more than 1.850.000 m² for the over 20 million people living in these regions for more than thousand years and who have nothing in common with the Chinese regarding their lifestyle, origins, culture and religion: the Arısachk, Tohar, Iftalıt, Turan, Hun, Turk, Soghdi, Oghuz and Uyghur. The freedom and rights of these people are being limited and they are being subjected to Chinese torture, which has no like in the world. We will inform about the project of extermination of a people with a different historical background, different language, different geographical location, different ethics, different religion and a different culture in sections on media distribution, press and news exchange, information exchange, general education, social rights and language.

1) Restriction of the Chinese Government regarding Media

Distribution With a decree from 1 September 2002 and the decision to “eradicate the roots”, practices like burning of books on a massive scale and the removal of the Uyghur language as a teaching language from the University have been carried out. On 31st October 2002, a meeting of high ranking state officials and administrative officials took place in Urumchi, the capital of East Turkistan, and actions to be taken in the ideological field were presented and it was discussed what kind of policy and repression could be applied against the protests and actions of the population they had made against the injustices imposed upon them.

At his gathering, Wang Lequan, known among the people as “The Executioner” held a speech in which he stressed that the main point of that gathering was to discuss how the publication of every kind of newspaper, magazine, book and printing houses could be tightly controlled, and ordered that people struggling for freedom by means of media institutions, radio, television and similar regional media institutions could be severely harmed and ordered that this be carried out even at the cost of mistakenly striking thousands of innocent people and institutions, but not to let a single suspect escape.

Since March 2002, there has been an increase in the operations carried out in “the field of ideological educational seminars” in order to “fight against the struggle for independence”.

As a result, the Uyghur language, it history, culture and literature have been subject to restrictions ever since. Many valuable works like the “Risala on Handcraft”, “The Uyghurs”, “The History of the Huns”, “History of Uyghur Literature”, “The Uyghur Khanate of Saidiyya”, “Hard to be a Peasant”, “Awakened Homeland”, “The Gift”, “The Sand-Covered City”, “Greeting from a Foreign Homeland to the Mother Homeland” were placed under prohibition along with essays of famous writers on independence, any VCR or DVD film material and pictures which in any way expressed the struggle for independence. Homes of the people were raided and such material confiscated and then burned publicly before the eyes of the people. These operations took place in the Urumchi, Guldja, Altai, Artush, Kashgar and Hotan regions and books, tapes and other media on religion, philosophy, culture and works of literature amounting to a million in number were confiscated and burned publicly.

Thousands of people who had protected such material secretly in their homes were labelled “Islamic terrorists” or “nationalist separatists” and either heavily fined or sentenced to prison. The information presented here rests on information supplied to the East Turkistan Information Centre and much of it has been released also by the Chinese central news agency.

In a news-release on www.tianshannet.com on 24 March 2002 it is reported that the Chinese government, in its efforts “to eradicate nationalist separatists” had investigated seven dossiers, tortured 377 people and sentenced 9115 people to prison. The same site reported on 31 May 2002 that during the continuing “heavy strikes” of the Chinese government 20 independence organisations, more than 100 independence fighters, 6000 items of ammunition, 140 arms, 10 explosives were discovered and over 500 mosques closed.

Additionally three religious books on Islam (books of great spiritual value) were burned. Dossiers of 40.000 criminal records were examined and more than 40.000 people punished.

We have not yet been able to verify these official statistics released by the Chinese government. However, we are able to detect, from the news that three religious books on Islam were burned, just how much the Chinese state terrorism is concealed from world media and world public opinion.

Recently, the publication of 54 newspapers and magazines was stopped, 20 bestseller magazines, among them “World Literature”, “The Spring” and “Inheritance” were forced to limit their circulation and sack editors and workers who had been working hard in this sector for long years. The burning of our spiritual wealth is a step in the declared intention to turn our children into Chinese and the take-over of all affairs by Chinese.

2) Oppression and Restrictions of the Chinese Government by Means of Administrative Work

In the following we will quote information from the East Turkistan Information Centre, from our reporters inside East Turkistan and news published by the Chinese media regarding human rights and related issues. According to the news supplied by a correspondent of our newspaper “The Spark”, the Chinese government is striking our independence movements heavily since April 2002. The central Chinese government and the police directorate of East Turkistan organised a propaganda meeting in the Library of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in which the independence fight of our people was labelled as “terrorism”, “nationalist separatism” and “a danger to national integrity”.

The Chinese government forced all school staff and students, all workers unions and commerce chambers, and all personnel of state administration and private institutions to attend this propaganda meeting and to express their thoughts and their rejection of all independence efforts.

According to the information supplied by our reporter, over 400 new photographs were shown which showed our ghazis and shuhada who had fought for our independence in fights with Chinese police, scenes of mass execution by the Chinese military police, fighters being led to execution and execution scenes – all these were displayed before the people of the capital.

According to the news of our reporter Timur Choki from inside the country on 28 March 2002, newspapers, magazines and books in the Uyghur language were collected in Urumchi and burned in the waste burning facilities. Since that day, the enforced burning of books, magazines and newspapers in the Uyghur language has spread like itself was an uncontrolled fire.

According to the news in the Chinese edition of the “Kashgar Newspaper”, the Chinese government gathered all mayors and village leaders of 12 towns and villages in the Kashgar region and announced that a first phase of strikes against “islamic terror” and “nationalist separatists” had been a success and that on that day a second phase of strikes would be officially initiated. Then a collection of 42.320 items of newspapers, magazines, books and different recording media was burned.

According to news supplied by our reporter Yorunkash, the police has, in order to comply with the command to carry out a “strike”, searched every house in the two villages of Chira and Kiriye in the Hotan region and confiscated books and arrested those who resisted.

Thus, the oppressive Chinese government is becoming more and more aggressive in East Turkistan each day. According to news of the East Turkistan Information Centre, the “Kashgar Newspaper” reported on 4 July 2002, that a group of over 60 specially communist school educated people were rallying through towns and villages like Yopurga and Mekit and were gathering state officials, teachers and students on a daily basis and forcing them to adopt the politics of the central government, the subjects being “islamic terrorism”, “solidarity against nationalist separatists” and “protection of the integrity of the state”.

Further, villagers who under the difficult oppressive circumstances remain already without education are compelled to attend daily political conditioning. They were compelled to sign statements assuring that they repent for whatever mistakes they committed in the past in this regard and that they would denounce any elements suspect of nationalist separatism to the state officials.

In another news report the East Turkistan Information Centre was supplied with, similar information is contained. On 16 June 2002 the Chinese government gathered by force all the leading personnel of the radio and television of the Mekit area, of the directorate for education, of the muftis office within their campaign of elimination of people adhering to ideas of independence.

These people were repeatedly forced to gather under the lead of the Chinese communist party at meetings of solidarity against independence fighters and to organise denunciation of people suspected of adhering to such thoughts to state officials. Such practice of the Chinese government and its tremendous repression of the free thought of people is causing great unrest among the people in East Turkistan who are the true owners of those lands and is leading to tens of thousands of people being tortured in prisons and thousands of people being executed – thus, people are finding the Chinese communist regime and state ever more unbearable.

3) The Oppression of the Chinese Government in the Field of Education

During the 50 years of occupation of our homeland by the communist Chinese, the freedom and independence loving people of East Turkistan have been constantly subject to various forms of repression and have not been at peace even for a single day. The support of Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission, the struggle of the courageous people of East Tukistan to lead their lands under occupation to freedom and to establish their own state, and actions of the people of East Turkistan directed against the oppression of the Chinese has caused anxiety with the communist Chinese government.

Therefore, the Chinese government has decided to settle Chinese people on a massive scale by force in East Turkistan in order to maintain control over these fertile lands forever. On the other hand, it has initiated a state terror directed towards the elimination of our language, our religion, our alphabet, our civilisation and culture and an inheritance of more than a thousand years common to all Turks.

In a newsreport supplied to the newspaper “The Spark” published by the East Turkistan Information Centre and released in issue 72, Chang Zhangxi, the responsible director for language and literature at the Chinese Ministry of Education visited the capital of East Turkistan on 18 March 2002. He ordered that education using the Chinese language in East Turkistan had to be increased at all primary and middle schools, at colleges, professional formation schools and universities and had to be brought to a further and more firm level and announced that poor students from both the cities and the countryside were being brought to central regions of China where they were taught in Chinese only under the direct supervision of the state.

He stated that there are at present around a 150 primary and middle schools in Urumchi where Chinese and Uyghur children were being taught together, the number of Uyghur children being 70.000. The people have expressed their strong objection to the compulsory obligation of Chinese as the teaching language at all Uyghur schools in all subjects, the transfer of Uyghur pupils to central parts of China and the change of language at the East Turkistan University to Chinese exclusively.

However, through certain laws and regulations dictated by the Chinese government, the children and students of East Turkistan have been left with no choice but to learn and study in Chinese.

These laws and regulations demand that people who do not know Chinese will not being admitted to schools or that those who refuse to learn it will be thrown out of schools, that people who do not know Chinese will not be admitted to professional formation schools and to universities, and that people who do not know Chinese are not allowed to be employed. These savage laws and rulings aim at the eradication of the identity, lifestyle, independence, religious beliefs and the mother language of the people of East Turkistan from their lifes and the subordination of the coming generation to the service of Chinese interests.

According to news supplied to the East Turkistan Information Centre, a gathering with all teaching personnel and students was held at the University of East Turkistan on 14 May 2002 where a decree was announced that from 1st September on the Uyghur language would be replaced with Chinese in all fields.

According to this news the prohibition of the Uyghur language and the replacement with Chinese is compulsory and any non-conformist action by anyone and any institution against this decree of the central Chinese government will be considered a crime.

The University of East Turkistan is the greatest University in East Turkistan in all branches of knowledge and sciences and has, using the mother language, produced thousands of professors, magistrates, engineers and other academics throughout its history who have been of great benefit to their societies and states.

Now, the Chinese government, under the pretext of “increasing the quality of national education” is pursuing a project of eradication of the Uyghur language and the turning of the young Uyghur generation into Chinese. In these days where strategic changes all over the world prevail, the Chinese government is constantly weakening the people spiritually and materially through assimilation regarding policy, social life, education, culture and religion, and increasing oppression and torture.

According to another news, a magazine published in East Turkistan in Chinese reports, “East Turkistan has been under Chinese central authority for 200 years now and under communist rule for 50 years. Why do these people despite this long time still want independence? The reason is that they continue to adhere to their language, culture and religion. And here lies our greatest mistake we made in the past.” It can also be detected from the orders of the Chinese governments Minister for East Turkistan, Wang Lequan, that Chinese will be compulsory from the 3rd class of primary schools on, how urgently they want to assimilate the Uyghurs.

On special orders - published in issue 127 / 2002 of the official newspaper - from Wang Lequan, leader of the East Turkistan regional government, hundreds of migrants were brought from Wang Lequans`s homeland, the Shandong area, 118 migrants were placed into Uyghur primary schools, and the others into secondary schools as teaching personnel for Chinese as part of a campaign titled “Contribution to National Education” which was presented to all organizations and institutions in East Turkistan by Wang Lequan as an “active aid campaign by the central government to peoples education in East Turkistan”.

However, if at the University of East Turkistan the teaching language Uyghur is entirely replaced by Chinese, how can one then speak of an “active aid to education in East Turkistan”? What is really intended is the wiping out of the Uyghur language.

We cannot endure the extinction or assimilation of our people or the erasion of our mother tongue under pressure and reprisals of the Chinese government. We will also refuse the Chinese governments claim that our homeland is an inseparable part of their state. We note the tragic indifference of the UN Culture Education committee, EU Culture Education committee and the international Human rights organisations and associations who should as soon as possible make research on the pressure applied by the Chinese government to our mother tongue.

The above mentioned organisations should, while they investigate why the Chinese government directs so much pressure on East Turkistan also note that the Faculty of Education in Kashgar has been a thorn in the flesh of the Chinese government because of its research under the title “Chinese Government and its Aggression”. During the arrests and slaughters practised by the Chinese in this sacred place of knowledge and education in the south of our country, the blood of hundreds of our daughters and sons has been shed. According to news supplied to the East Turkistan Information Centre, only in the First College of Hotan six members of the teaching staff - Tursun Jelalidin, Mehmet Emin, Erzat Abla, Muhtar Abdu Memet, Abdurahman Abdukerim, Ablet Nizamidin – were put under observation and then removed from their posts as being politically problematic and therefore dangerous elements.

These teachers were aged between 36 - 44 years and were experienced in service and were most loved by their students. Removing teachers from many schools in a similar fashion and for no reason, the cruel Wang Lequan is replacing them with migrants from his native district Shangdong. The Chinese government forcibly collects books, magazines, reports and research theses of great material and spiritual value in Uyghur language and has them burned.

Where else on the face of the earth can such disgrace be witnessed? The reason for many countries and international organisations and institutions like the UN, the USA, the EU and Japan in aiding East Turkistan in educational affairs was to support children of families in rural areas, whose economic situation was insufficient to study their mother tongue.

Unfortunately the Chinese government is using these funds for its own schools. If these funds had reached their true addressees, tens of thousands of children in East Turkistan could have enjoyed proper education - of course, this is not in the interest of the Chinese - on the contrary, they have become victims of Chinese oppression. Are we to thank the Chinese for these tragic events or are we rather to oppose the attacks on our language, historic culture, our religion, identity, dignity and existence as a nation?

World public opinion must support and aid the survival and revival of the indigenous culture and education of an innocent people who are being denied education in their proper language and who are still in this 21st century being executed and subjected to genocide by a regime known for its racist discrimination, which is inexplicably welcomed into world trade priveleges, and whose crimes go unchallenged. What greater terrorism exists in today’s world?

4) The Oppression of the Chinese Government in the Field of Media, Press and Publications

The Chinese Government has decided to place all radio and television broadcasting and publication of newspapers and magazines in East Turkistan under strict control in order to achieve its aims. This facilitated for them both the dissemination of false and invented news and the labelling of the populations struggle and fights for freedom and independence as 'terrorism'.

The Chinese Government has formed a special Task Force group which has by now been granted full powers to rewrite the history of East Turkistan. They now present Chinese aggression and oppression as justified operations, as well as the abasement of the social life of the population, the disturbance of the friendship among the different ethnic groups and creation of unrest between them, the imposition of birth rate control on the indigenous people and thus inhibition of their natural growth, the forcing of the people into a slavish relation towards the Chinese, the definition of struggle for freedom and religious worship as terrorism and the distancing of people from the noble Deen of Islam, the changing of the ideas of people through the selling of millions of books and cassettes by force and the use of the income from that for the financing of their further work, the forcing of peasants to participation in gatherings for brainwashing purposes at times when they are most occupied.

We want to present here summaries from two articles from the Kashgar Newspaper and the Xinjiang TV Newspaper. These two articles were written by two munafiqun who have sold their country and people, whose aim is to gain a rank and personal benefit, who at the same time try to fool the Chinese Government and who will be mentioned along with curses on the records of the history of their people and their country: „For some time now separatist forces within and outside the country have tried to split China and to establish an independent state of East Turkistan and have pursued terrorist activities while at the same time trying to rewrite the history of East Turkistan.

Along with this, they collaborate with outside forces and abuse the national sentiments of the people and propagate a radical religiousness, thus disturbing the relations between us and the elder people.“ How can a people who suffer great economic difficulty, who have to strive hard in order to earn their daily food and suffer malnutrition and other illnesses even among the children and the old, and who have no idea of the worlds modern weapons technology and who are incapable of enough force to save their very lives, how can these people embark upon a war against China which is ranked among the most powerful in the world? To embark on terrorist activities or war against China, it would be necessary to have sufficient economic means and personnel.

How then can China define us as terrorists? That is like accusing a baby in the cradle of thievery. It would be therefore a grave mistake if world public opinion were to submit to the false propaganda of China and imagine the natural resistance of our people as connected to extremist Islamic movements! We would advise the concerned international institutions and organisations to examine the situation in East Turkistan. As for the accusation of rewriting history, historians and academics know the facts.

Even if the several thousand years long history of our country was to be rewritten, the archaeological artefacts remain a proof for our history. In the last years some literature has been published which, instead of reflecting the history, life and culture of the Uyghur people base themselves on the fraudulent documentation produced by the Chinese for their own interest.

We regard this as a lack of respect and insist that the concerned institutions and organisations act decently in their researches. In these articles it also reads: “In opposition to the religious policy of the government and acting against the peace between ethnic groups, they have destroyed signboards encouraging birth control and replaced them with placards frowning upon the laws of the state, and brochures with similar content were disseminated.

They have organised prohibited religious activities and increased the number of members committed to them. Religious activities were held in schools. Always in cooperation with independent forces outside the country, they have, by way of radio and internet tried to encourage the people to independence and have labelled the people who disapproved of such activities as traitors and spies working for the Chinese state. ... “ Since the 1930s, the Chinese Government has put restrictions on interior and exterior news communications so that their politics of aggression are not known and the population is not informed about what is happening in the world.

The anti frequency policy directed towards foreign radio broadcasts continues to this day. If we look at these more than 70 years and the criminal records in relation to foreign radio we find that death sentences, lifetime imprisonment, and death due to forced memory loss amounts to hundreds of thousands in number.

In a news published by the East Turkistan Radio and Television Newspaper from 4 8 August, the director general of the state radio and television, Zhang Haitao said that the regions East Turkistan and Tibet were sympathetic towards the democratic ideas of countries like the USA and the EU. He said also, “in the 21st century, enemy forces beyond our frontiers make use of radio and television broadcasting and have disturbed the normal and peaceful lives of the people in East Turkistan.

The Chinese Communist Central Committee and the Office of Prime Minister have immediately put forth the work with the East Turkistan and Tibet Radio and Television. Until this day 300 million Yuen have been spent on anti frequency activities and the receiving of foreign broadcasters like FAR, BBC, FAV has become impossible within East Turkistan.” In history, many injustices have come to an end simply by the passing of time and justice has come to replace them, and the Uyghurs are a patient people who have a historical background, literature and culture.

We let the extremist Islamic currents know that we will not give up our centuries long civilisation, culture and identity as a people. The Islamic beliefs of the Uyghurs, their Islamic civilisation and the independence movement of the Uyghurs are not as labelled by the Chinese – we have no ties and no relations with extremist Islamic groups. That a few among our people, 20 million in number, may have mixed with extremists can not be blamed on the whole of our people – and besides, it was only due to the desire for the independence of their people and the desparate desire to escape the enormous oppression by the Chinese Government.

The only cause for there being any extremist thought among some of our people is the heavy oppression and injustice inflicted upon the people of East Turkistan by the Chinese Government.
This is what the people of the world must understand.

5) The Oppression of the Chinese Government in the Field of International News Exchange and Internet Communications

Since 2003 until this day, the Chinese Government has increased its control and intensified its harsh attitude towards the people of East Turkistan regarding the viewing and hearing of satellite TV and radio programs and information exchange using the Internet.

The Chinese Culture Ministry has issued an order on 4 March 2003 “to supervise temporarily the information exchange regarding cultural matters through the Internet” and this order has been put into practice since 1 July 2003 (tianshannet.com – order of the Minister of Culture, Shun Jiajing from 16 June 2003). As a result, all Internet-cafes in East Turkistan run by Uyghurs have been forced to close and those who refused have been heavily fined or their computer equipment confiscated.

Some people were arrested with the charge of being “terrorists” and “radical islamists”. This is, as we have informed in the past, directed towards the blaming of the beliefs of the Muslim people of East Turkistan. According to the news of the East Turkistan Information Centre, the Chinese Government is causing great difficulties to the already poor people of Khotan in East Turkistan by way of heavy fines. In the Official Newspaper of the Regional Khotan Government, Nr. 88 from the year 1998, a decree was issued which places the following under strict prohibition: “Whoever listens to foreign radio or watches foreign TV, reproduces foreign brodcast recordings, accepts copies of such recordings, whoever distributes documents or brochures containing religious information will be fined with 10.000 Yuen.

Whoever establishes contact to religious institutions outside the country by way of radio, Internet or telephone will be fined with 3.000 Yuen. Whoever provides the possibility for teaching the Qur'an either in their homes or in other places will be fined between 3.000 and 5.000 Yuen. It is prohibited for state officials, teachers and students to participate in any religious activity or adhere to any religious beliefs. School direction staff and teachers who allow teachers and students to perform prayers, to fast and other religious acts will be removed from their offices and fined.”

Thus, the state is trying to crush the population and drive them to political crimes. These kind of rulings are not only effective in the Khotan region but all over East Turkistan. So it is that the Internet which is already considered to be an important part of everyday activities all over the world is being used by the Chinese Government as a dangerous instrument to cause terror against the people of East Turkistan.

The Japanese newspaper “Asahi” published an article on 16 January that an American human rights delegation issued a report on 15 January 2003 titled “China and Human Rights” stating that the 45 year old Tang Haidung had been arrested in the capital of East Turkistan, Urumchi, because of an article he had published through the Internet and had been classified as an element harming the integrity of the state. In fact, Tang Haidung had been arrested already 9 July 2002. In order that the different forms of oppression and the project of race extinction which the Chinese Government is pursuing not be deciphered as such, this state Internet terror is being practised in East Turkistan.

According to the Chinese State Institute there are more than 250 websites in the Uyghur language in our country. Out of fear that the oppression, torture and genocide practised by the Chinese Government would be made known world-wide through these websites, they are shut down one by one on superficial pretexts. At the same time, filtering programs have been placed on the servers of Internet service providers to prevent the sending and receiving of e-mails and the visit of foreign websites.

Many young people are today being held in prison and tortured only on account of having visited foreign websites. Among those arrested are state officials, teachers, students, technical engineers and medical doctors. Further, it was announced that anyone who participated in Internet forums and discussion boards would be arrested as “radical islamist” or “terrorist”.

Whenever there was a political incident or some move related to independence in East Turkistan, all Internet sites would be temporarily shut down on some pretext. The Chinese Government is using various means in order to monitor Internet and telephone communications using high technology equipment imported from France and other countries to apply restrictions like filtering, interception and blocking of access.

The state intelligence service, the police and the military police have hacked their way into the servers of free e-mail service providers like hotmail and yahoo trying to detect those people from East Turkistan who use these services and trying to get hold of their usernames and passwords in order to monitor their e-mail traffic and get hold of other private information about them.

At the moment, the only available information via the Internet in East Turkistan consists of false information provided by China, monitored chatrooms, truncated documents and declarations of the communist government.

According to the news supplied to the East Turkistan Information Centre by a newsagency inside East Turkistan the regional East Turkistan intelligence service and general police department in cooperation with some eight state departments have closed down on 25 July 2003 all Internet services for two weeks and have undertaken a “virus removal operation” and have established free-of-charge phone numbers for the population to report viruses. Further, activities like the installation of hidden cameras and voice recorders, arresting of suspects for 24 hours and rewards for denunciations were put into practice.

On the pretext of a fire in an Internet-cafe in Peking in July 2002 an operation was put into action to regulate all Internet-cafes. Thus, the Chinese government is trying to prevent the Uyghur youth from exchanging information in Internet-cafes.

It is also trying to place a civilian policeman in each Internet-cafe in order to monitor who is visiting Internet-cafes and what kind of websites are visited. In summary, the Chinese aggressors are exiling the Uyghur people forcing them to become refugees in foreign countries. The harm inflicted on us is not mainly done by tearing out of our hands the wealth and minerals of our country but by tearing from us our language, culture, indigenous education and religious beliefs. Our people who oppose this are arrested, tortured and executed. China is concealing all the shameful actions it undertakes to extinguish a people while continuing to force them to live under most oppressive conditions.

6) The Oppression of the Chinese Government in the Field of Religion:

We had reported on earlier occasions that the Chinese aggressors use international operations against radical islamists as a pretext to continue their oppression of the people of East Turkistan in the fields of religion, race, education and culture in spite of the warnings of the UN, the EU and other international organisations and institutions, which carry no weight because devoid of any financial sanction.

Towards the end of 2002 and beginning of 2003, the individual rights and human rights violations committed against the people of East Turkistan and Tibet were evaluated by the UN, Amnesty International, the EU, the USA and other democratic states and one after the other criticized the Chinese state on account of its transgression in this regard. Correct words but devoid of political impact. The Chinese state is producing false reports and news and is trying to deceive world public opinion.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua released a report on 22 May 2003 in which the Chinese Human Rights Committee and the General Directorate for Religious Affairs responded together to the annual report of the American “International Coalition for Religious Freedom”.

In the news it was reported that the American “International Coalition for Religious Freedom” had presented documents about oppression of religious rights and that it criticized the Chinese state and demanded that such violations not be repeated.

Not long after this, the Secretary Generals of the Chinese General Directorate for Religious Affairs, Shamsuddin and Chen Guangyen prepared and presented a report to world public opinion that the members of Islam, Catholicism, Buddhism and Taoism were free to practice their religious beliefs and that there was no oppression in this regard.

As reported in the 75th issue of our newspaper “The Spark”, the Chinese Central Government placed a group of some 800 specially trained people in East Turkistan to control the religious activity there. On 25 August 2002, the Secretary General of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Mrs. Robertson had criticized with a harsh language the oppression regarding religious freedoms carried out against the people of East Turkistan on the pretext of the fight against international radical islamists and international terrorists and demanded that all activity in this regard had to be stopped.

‘Human rights’ policies have proved utterly powerless. Our human survival, not rights, is the issue. On 31 May 2002 the Chinese government released news on tianshannet.com that it had achieved a success in East Turkistan against “radical islamic forces” and “terrorists” and that Chinese police had discovered more than 20 illegal organisations, more than 100 members of such organisations, 6000 items of ammunition, 140 arms, 10 explosives and that some 500 mosques were closed and religious books collected and burned and that nearly 40.000 people were placed under surveillance.

One must however note that the news and reports about “terrorists” and organisations mentioned in this news of the Chinese government are made up and false news and reports to give the impression of parallelism to current terrorist activities of those days. In truth there have never been terrorist incidents in East Turkistan. These operations are nothing but attempts to cause suffering to the innocent people and to break their hearts. Soon after this, the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Kong Quan announced to the media that a “East Turkistan Islamic Movement” had been identified and declared as an international terrorist organisation and thus presented such a claim before world public opinion, and that Chinese police had discovered another 44 terrorist groups (and this is pure suspicion – people who could not even have dreamt of the existence of such organisations were innocently placed under surveillance and those deemed most suspicious were made to suffer in prisons and some were even executed so that their families found themselves in a distressed state).

So it is that the activities of certain international institutions in favour of the Uyghur people do not benefit them but cause even more oppression.

That there is an “East Turkistan Islamic Movement” or that East Turkistan is part of other organisations is twisted information presented by the Chinese government to the world public opinion in a way that will be useful for themselves. If there were such organisations then there would be a different situation. On 23 May 2003 the Xinjiang News Agency reported that Chinese police had discovered and taken over military training camps north and south of the Tianshan Mountains and that 15 people being trained there were arrested.

Along with this news it was reported that many members of some religious organisation called “Bold State Hizbuttahrir”, of which no one had heard so far and nobody knew of, had been arrested and that this organisation had been about to embark upon activities all over East Turkistan very soon. But they did not state what the aims of this organisation were and what its story was and no details about it were given by the state. What we know is that there has never been such an organisation among the Uyghurs. And although the international organisations also do not know about this organisation and know it is a fake one, this does not stop the Chinese government from making it a pretext for arresting alone in the Hotan region around 700 young men and torturing them in prisons.

According to the decree mentioned in Part 5 which is in practice in the Hotan region, “whoever has the Qur'an taught in his home; state officials, teachers and students engaging in religious activities, like performing prayers or fasting will be heavily fined or imprisoned according to the extent of their crime”. The tens of thousands of our brothers arrested in a “cleansing operation” during April 2001 are nothing but young men and women who simply could not bear the oppression of the Chinese state anymore and none of them is a member of an organisation outside the country nor represents such a one. Since the year 2000 it has been made an obligation to display the communist Chinese flag at every Eid-salat in Urumchi.

This is a case rarely to be encountered over the world that the state flag is displayed at religious ceremonies by force. The Chinese who see this laugh about it but the Muslim population hate it. On 12 May 2002 there was a bloody fight between the people and state officials in a primary school of the town Kostagh in the Hotan district. On that day, Nimet Abdurrashid, a 22 year old teacher who had been removed from office on the pretext of having performed religious acts at the school, had come to complain to the state official who had denounced him. The Chinese government took this incident as an excuse and raided all schools in the Hotan region forcing denunciation of teachers who had performed religious acts. About 1500 suspected teachers and students both male and female were arrested and 10 of them were sentenced to death and executed immediately afterwards.

According to news of the Kirgiz News Agency from 23 May 2002, Memet Sadik and Memet Yasin were handed over to China on demand from the Chinese government as “international islamist terrorists”. On 19 May 2002, 300 people who had attended a funeral prayer which was held outside the mosque because there had not been enough space in the mosque, were fined with different sums because the prayer was held next to a primary school. The imam who lead the funeral prayer, Jelil Mahsuma was fined with 2500 Yuen and Aziz Mahsuma with 2000 Yuen and another 23 people each with 2000 Yuen.

Since 24 April 2002 in all the Hotan region, a general prohibition to recite Qur'an at weddings and circumcision feasts was declared and announced that everybody participating on these events would be fined. It is further generally prohibited that anyone under the age of 18 participates in religious acts whatsoever.

7) Restrictions and Destruction in the Field of Historical and Cultural Inheritance

According to news supplied to the East Turkistan Information Centre, the aggressive Chinese government is using every means to weaken the feelings of identity of the Uyghur people and their religious beliefs. Aimed at that purpose, historical monuments, witnesses of a great civilisation from the period when the Uyghurs accepted Islam, are being destroyed and at the same time monuments of the Buddhist religion are being restored.

The Central Bank of China is aiding this program with money and makes investments related to this activity. As reported by the Xinjiang News Agency, investments were made on 19, 21, 24 and 25 July 2003 in order to carry out construction works as to the above mentioned purpose in the Regions Börtala, Kutubi, Sanji, Manas, Kuchar, Altai, Balghuntai, Jeminey and Hotan in East Turkistan. The real aim of the Chinese government, who presents this project as “Restoration of Historical Monuments” is of course to destroy monuments that remind the people of Islam and to replace them with monuments related to the history of and typical to Central China.

Thus, the aggressive Chinese government is intending to deceive the world media and world public opinion and presents East Turkistan as always having been part of Chinese territory. According to a report from the Xinjian News Agency from 21 July 2003, the abundance of historical monuments in our country is drawing the attention of historians and archaeologists worldwide. There are more than 4000 historical sites in East Turkistan and 41 of them have been classified of first level importance by the state, 303 of second, and 1500 of third level importance.

The number of historical artefacts displayed in museums in various regions amounts to more than 230.000 and the oldest of them are 15 to 20 thousand years old while the others are evidence from the last 1000 years. We could describe the total of these artefacts as the greatest historical museum of the worlds Turks in Asia. Kashgar is one of the historical cities of our country and it has been the capital of the Hun Empire, the Great Uyghur-Kökturk Empire, the Uyghur Empire, the Uyghur Idikut Empiere, the Uyghur Karahan Empire, the Uyghur Kashgariya Kingdom and the Republic of East Turkistan and is one of the cities in which the historical and cultural inheritance of the Uyghur continues to be preserved in our days. Kashgar, with its Uyghur culture, handcrafts, agricultural methods, trade and as a place of gathering ethnic activities of many people is catching the attention of millions of tourists from within and outside China and has become a focal point for research by famous historians and archaeologists.

The aggressive Chinese government is destroying the preciousness of regions like Guldja, Börtala, Chöchek, Kumul, Turfan, Korla, Kuchar, Aksu, Atrush, Yarkent, Yenihisar and Hotan in order to settle Chinese migrants there thus causing the loss of historical sites and artefacts, witnesses to our peoples and religions history.

With the independence of our Turkish brothers in 1991, one after the other, China has begun to take measures so that the example of these countries is not repeated in East Turkistan and in order to exploit and transfer the mineral riches of the country into its own territory: the investments and the technological development was increased and so was the ferocity of the injustices inflicted upon the people of East Turkistan. An example of this is the extension of the railway which formerly ended in Korla until Kashgar and the construction of a motorway through the Taklamakan Desert to be able to exploit the petrol reserves faster and on a greater scale. Further, the transfer of Chinese from rural areas is adding to the destruction of historic sites and furthers assimilation.

Since 1990, the Chinese government has driven the Uyghur population of Kashgar from their residential quarters in Kashgar and forced them outside the city on pretexts like “cleansing from radical Islamic forces”, “eradication of nationalist separatists” and has at the same time implanted the “Chinese Liberation Army”, “Steel Forces” and “Armed Police Forces” in its aim of preventing innocent people from practising their religion, prohibiting them religious practices and to drive them away from Islam.

Two years ago, the Chinese aggressors have used the pretext of road construction necessities to destroy a graveyard next to the river Tümen in Kashgar where Uyghur heroes and the Sultan of the Uyghur Karahan Kingdom and the famous Shahid Arslanhan were buried, and constructed a road for Chinese migrants, and further destroyed historical buildings in the zone replacing them with Buddhist temples and buildings indicating Chinese culture.

The name of the river, for more than a thousand years known as “Tümen” was changed into “Donghu”. Eskishehir, centre of an Uyghur-Hun Empire two thousand years ago was completely erased from the surface of the earth and in its place residential areas for Chinese migrants were constructed and the name Eskishehir was changed into “Benchan”. This was a great loss also in terms of historical and archaeological research. Of course, these destructions have one main purpose, which is the destruction of the people of East Turkistan and to prove that these lands belong to China.

The people in East Turkistan are being arrested, tortured and made to suffer for years in Chinese prisons only on account of their desire to live out their Deen – and also anybody expressing demands of freedom or democracy is being executed without mercy. The assimilation policy of China prohibits the Uyghur, who constitute the majority of the population in East Turkistan to speak their language and to cultivate their culture.

The examples and news we have presented here, are news and information which we have been supplied with under the most difficult circumstances – they only reflect a portion of the present day realities in East Turkistan and the people of East Turkistan know this and the world public opinion is not unaware of it.

28-Sentebir,2003 Gérmaniye/Frankfurt
From: http://www.uygur.org/
http://hantengri.blogspot.com/2007/06/east-turkistan-genocide-prison-torture.html

2-Terrorist Actions of the Communist Chinese Regime in East Turkistan in the Area of Mass Media Channels

By Korash Atahan

(Full text of the interview with the long time correspondent of the Information Center Mr. Korash Atahan himself )

In the present fast changing world the role of the mass media has grown drastically. The Red Communist Chinese regime is doing everything possible to restrict the Internet access in East Turkistan in order to keep the Uyghur people off the feedback and meaningful information about the real situation in the world.

The Uyghurs, who also wanted to free themselves from foreign domination, staged numerous uprisings against Nationalist Chinese rule, particularly in recent years the new ideas of democracy and national independent has spread among the Uyghurs. The 30 million ethnic groups have developed elaborated religious, cultural and scientific concepts over this long period. The Chinese are trying their best to smother their culture, language and civilization. One of the strongest attacks was led against the national press and news agencies.

All present mass media channels in East Turkistan work under the Chinese control with the aim of refuting every national ideas, be it religious, cultural, linguistic or educational ideas. The ultimate purpose of these actions is to destroy the national culture.

We have had talked with our compatriot, Ertughrul Atihan, who worked in the mass media system for many years in East Turkistan:

Q: Is it true that you worked in the Homeland in the Chinese East Turkistan press and news agency?
A: Yes.
Q: Why did you immigrate?
A: I could not stand the unfair policies in the Homeland; I wanted to let the world know about the terrorist Chinese policies directed against my people.
Q: What was exactly your job in East Turkistan?
A: Editorship.
Q: What do you mean by “unfair” policies?
A: The mass media is a means of distributing information among people. My Motherland was occupied by the fascist regime; however the Chinese invaders try to deceive the world community about the nature of its oppression. If they meant to provide genuine conditions for Uyghurs they had to create all necessary provisions for true independence and self-government. This did not happen. The Chinese led the policy of assimilation, in the economic field – they depleted our natural resources. Under the pretext of DECREASING POLLUTION IN THE WORLD the Chinese brought in environment polluting facilities.
They conducted nuclear tests in this region, and generally speaking, the Chinese regime did everything possible to lower the living standard of our people to the base degree by low budgeting doctors and medical centers, by selling the human organs, by spreading infectious diseases etc.

They hold control of primary education and upbringing the children. The task of passing to secondary school from primary school, to university after secondary school etc. became very difficult for our children. Farmers are constantly forced to work overtime with no pay and do all kind of prohibited work to their masters. The national literature, education, cultural and other centers were closed in big numbers. Writers and journalists have been imprisoned for just expressing their views and beliefs. They were tortured, murdered and brought to insanity. If this is not unfairness then what is unfairness?

Q: We have heard that publishing books in the Uyghur language is now completely prohibited. Is it true? In reality they say there are many published books. How do you explain this fact?
A: It is true that still there are many books published in Uyghur language. However, 95% of these books are of Communist nature. These books hail the history of the Communist Chinese regime, eradication of national culture and values, religious concepts, democratic principles and so forth. Published books glorify the Chinese language and culture, and aim at cutting off the Uyghur civilization from the West and other Turkic people.
We cannot publish books dedicated to the national culture. All published materials undergo strict preliminary Chinese censorship.

Q: How do they control published materials?
A: That’s quite easy. Previously the Chinese Communists deceived us Uyghurs with the socialist propaganda. Nowadays they bribe people so that they send their children to Chinese schools. Students undergo a thorough propaganda brainwashing. The Uyghur collaborationists serve their Chinese masters with awe; and inform them about anything going on among the Uyghurs. These mean people do not hesitate even to sell their relatives’ lives off the Chinese invaders.
Let me underline one thing: the Chinese society came along through its political and philosophical development. It is now searching new ways and look for innovations. Some of their administrative workers do their best for the sake of the Uyghur people, however, most of them only cause harm on our nation.
They have no choice of acting otherwise since they risk losing their precious positions. Let me give an example: One day I brought a brilliant novel of the young Uyghur writer to one of the censor agencies for approval. The official told me: “The author is quite young, if we publish his book with a picture of the 30 years of age, what would the people in their 50s and 60s think?” The Chinese block the young intellectuals’ chances of expressing themselves in public work. They are simply envious of the young writers’ talents.
We tried for many years to help young writers to publish their books. The Chinese regime does not give any financial support to them. The official whom I showed the manuscript to told me that it was full of bourgeois ideology.
The Chinese regime calls the black as white and the white as black.
Any literal work undergoes a 6 month long censorship and is sent from one censor to another in order to be labeled at the end as the separatist propaganda. The idea of portraying Sawut Damolla would make one think of the Uyghur national state, they say. The Chinese oppression is even stronger in the radio and television.
The government even restricts usage of the words such as Uyghur, Turkish, national education, East Turkistan etc. Every little Uyghur program undergoes big scrutiny. If the Uyghurs mention in their films any “wrong ideas” the film producers face serious punishments.
Editors lose their jobs, and producers face all kinds of allegations even weak image of party organs. The mass media are only supposed to glorify the Chinese Communist party. They serve as a tool of assimilation and degrading the national culture and civilization.

Q: What is the role of Uyghur language materials published in East Turkistan? How many magazines and journals published per annum?
A: Not more than 10 items. In each regional district there is one journal published included magazines in Kirghiz and Kazakh languages, however, most publications are in Chinese. This year around one thousand books and magazines were published. About 30-40% of all Uyghur materials get rejected due to censorship problems that I mentioned to you. Main mass media organs have been taken over by the Chinese. In the biggest publishing house there are nearly 500 employees where there are only 47 Uyghur associates. It is easy to calculate the ratio of Uyghurs involved in the process.

Q: What is the financial standing of the Uyghur language press in East Turkistan? What kind of book our people like?
A: The Uyghur language press is in dire straits. Over the last years the Chinese regime has put the Uyghur national press in extremely difficult situations. The number of national Uyghur magazines has been cut. All media organs fell under the Chinese control and censorship.
In many magazines many articles were prohibited and many topics were banned. The articles which mention richness of natural resources, of national culture and civilization are not permitted to be published. The media organs cannot publish their literary works and get sufficient financing.

When one journal asked the local government for financial support, officials replied that they should not bother them with such problems and should rather use their savings more economically. It is actually a dangerous signal to the learned man. This regime has grown fat with robbing our natural resources and exploiting our people, however, they happily spend extra money supporting the national culture! Robbing our natural resources is not enough for them – they want to rob our national culture! Materials in Uyghur language with true information do exist, it’s true. However, good books have to be translated – this is where problems arise. Our books in history, culture and arts have been many times falsified and distorted. Only then can they be published.

Q: We heard that the UN allocated a certain amount of money for development of the Uyghur culture, it that true? Were any books published from this money?
A: Yes, it’s true. But only a small part of the allocated money was spent on publishing books and materials. The rest disappeared. Generally, the funding was of no use for the following reasons:

1) The Chinese regime conducted the program of “renovation” the Uyghur textbooks. Old good textbooks published in 80s were banned and destroyed, they were replaced by the new textbooks, which glorify the Chinese Communist party.
2) Money was spent on developing ideas of socialism, communism, and “national unity” that is imperialism.
3) Money was spent not on literature for children but rather on Russian, Chinese and Uyghur Communist writers’ books with the ideas of “red rebel”, “steel hardening”, “Le Pin soldier”, “Ludungyi”, and other books of this sort.
4) This money is spent on bribing our brethren Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz – to turn them against us and to gain their support in oppressing our drive for independence.
5) Most of the finances allocated to the development of national culture are spent on Chinese literature. The Chinese regime publishes textbooks for us to spread their ideas. Other ethnic groups like Kazakhs, Mongols, Kyrgyz, Shive are used as a force against the Uyghurs.

Q: What kind of books do our people like? Is the number of published books sufficient to our people? How do you value the Uyghurs’ interest in books?
A: Our rich and ancient culture did not get much progress under the Chinese oppressive system.
The current ideological system of national education and culture serves the principles of the Communist regime. Teaching at schools, technical colleges, universities and institutes do not meet contemporary requirements.
Teaching such important subjects in social sciences like history, art, literature and national civilization is not carried out at adequate levels. Most books are of low level. Available materials do not provide modern knowledge and ideas.
The Communist oppressors promote literature with rusted ideology and outdated quotes. Official literature lies a lot about Islam, Uyghur history, history of East Turkistan revolution. There are few good books in technical sciences, but good ones are rarely available.
The Chinese oppressors have rather published many books with lies about the Uyghur history. Many people were forced to scratch money from their own low incomes to buy these propagandist materials.
The government imposed a special “book tax” on publishing houses. That’s how they make money!
The presses for youngsters promote Chinese and Communist values, atheism and party documents. Let me mention one strategy that happened in Kiriye Hotan. The brother and his sister had to pay 20 yuan each for their school expenses. Their parents, who worked arduously from dawn to dusk all year round, could offer only 20 yuan after paying off all kinds of fees and fines. The 13-year-old brother gave the money to his 10-year-old sister and said: ‘Study hard, my sister, you take the money and buy your books.' After sending his sister to the school, he went out of the village. Later, in the evening, people found his body hanging on a date tree. This is a real story published in the magazine: “Xinjiang Civilization” 5, (2001) in the article: “When the poet was suffering from the illne”. I also wept when I heard this story – in our potentially richest place in the world people live in such poverty! "

This is what has happened to poor East Turkistan people over the last 50 years. The Uyghurs’ natural resources are stolen from them and they remain poor and miserable.
These atrocities also take place in the 21st century. How can these people afford money for reading books?
Their culture is destroyed, their wealth is stolen, and their health is ruined by pollution, their lives broken by oppression.

Q: Are books not yet published in your Homeland?
A: Over 6 thousand years the Uyghurs have developed a rich culture and literature. We are proud of our culture and national roots. However under the Chinese ruling we cannot benefit from our ancestors’ rich cultural heritage.
Books and art pieces get confiscated, banned, locked in archives so our people get deprived of their national roots. All old books were inspected and many pages have been ripped off. The Chinese regime intentionally wants the local people be retarded and culturally backward. Our national culture might well cease to exist if such policies continue. We have to draw the world community’s attention to this fact. It is a crime against the whole of humanity.

The Chinese have ruled over our nation for 2 centuries. Our writers Nizari, Meshrep, Molla Musa Sayrami, Molla Bilal and others wrote great books; Then also Tejelliy, Qutluq SHewqi, Abduqadir Damolam, Abliz Mehsum, Abduhaliq Uyguri, Memtili Ependi, Memtimin Bughra, Quddus Hujam Yarof, Ziya semidi, Turghun Almas, Abdushkur Memtimin, Murat Hemrayof, to mention a few prominent writers.

Our writers suffer all kind of oppressions; many of them have been put in jail. We will continue our fight for national independence.

Q: How do you find the national officials who work in the field of culture and education in East Turkistan?
A: Whether one is hero, or traitor, or a regular man, any Uyghur has to submit to the rebels. There are traitors among rebels and rebels among traitors. Some part of Uyghur people is mean type of collaborationists. However, 90% of Uyghurs who work for the Chinese regime are in reality patriots who do their best for their people. We cannot regard all Uyghur workers in the Chinese service in the same way; we have to draw the line between a minority of traitors and majority of true patriots.

Patriots rejected the Chinese’s plan to eradicate our national alphabet. They play an important role in saving our culture and language. They do their best to create objective conditions for developing the national literature.

The Chinese invaders always treated these cadres with suspicion and censored them. Now they also create financial problems to them and their families. Uyghur employees cannot sustain their families regardless of how hard they work.

Now they lose their jobs. The government does not allow them to publish good books. Writers have to submit to government 85% of earnings otherwise they would lose their jobs. The Chinese officials restrict publishing materials in Uyghur language, lay off national cadres, and force the publishing houses to close.

Q: We constantly hear of great interest by our foreign friends in our rich national culture especially in relation to and overall to East Turkistan. Why not publish books on various topics about East Turkistan and improve the financial standing?
A: Good question. We wanted to do so. But we have no right of using freely our ancestors’ heritage. Again, the whole issue is tied to the question of national education system. First, there is no systematic teaching of our children of national values at schools. Second, we don’t have a sufficient number of national scientists. Thirdly, we lack national cadres. Fourthly, researche conducted by our scientists has been strictly controlled by the Chinese regime. Fifthly, many books and art pieces were not returned to Homeland from foreign libraries and museums. Sixth, the Chinese simply steal our national values. One example is when I was in Turpan in 1998 on a business trip. The regional government was selling the historical valuables to gain some finances.

We went to the Donghuang (“Thousand Houses”) historical site, but we were not permitted to the site by an official. We joined a group of foreigners. This time we were cordially greeted with false smiles.
Our guide who spoke English with a strong accent revised the Uyghur history 180 degrees around. He stated that these historical values were created by the Chinese in ancient times. These “examples of the rich Chinese civilization” were supposed to be “destroyed by the barbarians”. I was really upset and felt sorry for wasted money. At the end of the excursion I went to the other side – this place had a sign “No entrance” in English and Chinese languages. I went inside the site anyway. I saw a Chinese worker who was scratching with a scoop the paint from the ceiling. I looked more carefully and I saw that he was scratching an ancient painting from the ceiling. I shouted at him in Chinese:» what are you doing?” The guy was scared and looked with suspicion at a “foreigner” who spoke Chinese, and then he replied unwillingly “we are doing restoration work”. I told him “This is the way of doing things. I came here from Urumchi, I worked in the press, and I’ll publish an article about what’s going in here. The worker immediately realized that I was Uyghur and replied with no fear this time” OK, go and write! » I had no choice but to leave this place. I was humiliated like an animal.
I could not tell this story to anyone because I was afraid that it would reach the Chinese bosses. I told this story to one Uyghur scientist who said: “This happens all the time. They bring Chinese articles and bury them in East Turkistan. Then Chinese historians announce about “sensational findings”. They provide proof in this way that the Chinese lived in this region 2 thousand years ago.
In Aqsu they conducted this plot in order to claim that Aqsu always was a Chinese territory. If you wrote about this the government would simply annihilate you.”

Talking about our subject. The Chinese do want the Uyghurs to conduct historical research and to learn about their culture. They make use out of the general interest to the history of this region and got rich by selling invaluable pieces of our religious, scientific, poetic, historical, literature treasury. And the true possessors get only poverty and oppression.

The false propaganda books are published on glossy paper with color pictures. The amount of money spent on this trash literature is so big that Uyghurs could have bought instead the books published in Europe. If the government spent the money allocated by UN on publishing national literature, the great work of safekeeping the national culture and literature would be done to some extent.
Here is the list of some masterpieces: two thousand years old “Maytiri samit”, “Golden light”, “Avesta”, “Shahname”, “Dictionary of Turkic languages”, “Kudatgu bilik”, 300-500 year old “Hemse”, “Tarihi Reshid"; "Ezizane Kashigar", "Tarihi Hemidiye"; "Qisesul Enbiya” and other great works. These works were the basis of literature of Turks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and other 20 nationalities.
Al Farabi, Yusup Has Hajib, Mahmut Kashgari, Alisher Navoiy, Akhmad Yassavi and other renowned writers, poets, philosophers, linguists brought fame to our Motherland and our people. The Communist Chinese regime is working at the outset of 21st century to destroy this old and rich culture.

We have suffered all kinds of injustices. This will not last forever. The oppressors will ripe what they planted. Our sacred Book says: “I will fulfill my promise so that you will know”. We are not people that can easily be eradicated regardless of what the Chinese might think. We are entitled to the history and civilization not less rich than that of China. We will have a chance to get liberated.

Q: Do you know of any worthy books under process of publishing? Do you think the Chinese might abolish our alphabet? Will this really take us out of the world history scene?
A: Scientist Abdushukur Memtimin published “History of Turan” (ancient Central Asia), “Uyghur mukam treasure”, “Kudatgu bilik treasure”, “Overview of the Uyghur philosophy”, “Farabi and his philosophical system”, “Uyghur metallurgical art”, “Uyghur medicine and pharmacology”. Scientist Turghun Almas published, “Brief history of the Huns”, “History of the Uyghur classical literature”, “Uyghurs” and other books. There also bright works in the writing process. These work cover issues of great importance. The high style of authors confuses the Chinese censors who cannot understand many things. Authors use Greek, Russian, Arab and Chinese sources. They use archeological findings to prove their concepts.

It is not easy to destroy the collectivist spirit of our people. The Chinese try to destroy this spirit but to no avail. Our intellectuals have great responsibility upon their shoulders. They face all kind of hardships in using mass media organs for informing the public about their ideas. They can pretend to be working for the oppressors but they do an important job in maintaining our cultural values.
There are few good books published in China available to Uyghur readers. However, generally it is hard to publish books because it should get approval from: 1) chief editor, 2) administrative manager, 3) department manager. Then the meeting of managers is called which lasts for several days with big disputes about whether or not to publish the book. The books get “amended and corrected” seriously. Some get cut in the waiting list. The Chinese supervisors write their comments about the contents of the books.
New “corrections” are made continuously. At the end the last version is prepared. Books get translated into Chinese and sent to publishing houses. The books are held on waiting list for several months.
This is not yet official process of publishing. There are 2 following steps: 1) it undergoes strong censorship of chief editor, 2) overall censorship of the office, 3) a competent employee reads this book, 4) sometimes the censors’ bosses read the books, 5) publishing house’s editor reads and comments on the book, 6) a trusted government person reads the book and comments on it, 7) the book goes to the secret police for “inspection”, 8) the book returns to the publishing house in the dead status, 9) after the editor signs his approval, the book goes to the factory for publishing, 10) political supervisors watch very closely the process of typing and publishing books. Then the book goes to the factory.

After the book is published this is what happens during the next 1-3 months: following government offices checks 1) ministry of Xinjiang, 2) secret police of Xinjiang, 3) local agents, 4) literature office, 5) Academy of Social Sciences, 6) public security organs. If any problem arises the publishing and distributing of the book immediately stops. Responsible officials get executed. Instructions are published in thousands of pages and sent to all government workers who speak Uyghur language.

These instructions warn of possible political mistakes and have a very detailed list of required terms and phrases. They are disseminated among high-ranking party officials, security officers, chiefs of mass media, and government offices. They all watch closely for any published materials. The whole idea here is to weaken our national values to eventually assimilate us. Our society is turned into the prison beneath the open skies. From outside things seem to be going well, however, there is a mass human rights violation going on in China. We have prepared a report to the United Nations, European Union, and international organizations with a detailed count of all violations and abuses from the Chinese side.
The Chinese government lies about its actions. This is what the great and fascist Chinese regime is doing. In my opinion they want to deprive us of our rich culture, philosophy, history, literature and art.

The Chinese have restricted publishing good books of Uyghur authors. Now they are trying to deprive us of our national alphabet. They are really irritating a dangerous and angry wolf by doing so. Eastern Turkistan people have faced over 50 years of hardship that they do not intend to minimize. Intensified oppression only leads to stronger resistance.

If the Chinese continue their policies of replacing Uyghur language with the Chinese tongue, our people will not be able to educate their children in the national spirit. They will simply not educate their children. The reasons for this: 1) our people do not want their children to grow up into the Chinese, 2) our people are so poor they will not be able to afford sending their children to higher schools, 3) even if part of our children grow up amongst the Chinese they will have a moral trauma in their hearts which they will pass to their children, 4) our civilization beats the values and concepts expressed in the Chinese language. That is why the Chinese have bad thoughts of “outstripping in 5 years UK or US”.

They made up plans of assimilation the Hotan Uyghurs. So they opened mixed Chinese-Uyghur schools where Chinese now this time tried to “get Uyghurs”.
Why have the Chinese not accepted the Russians’ experience? What happened to the Russians policies of Russification of West Turkistan at the end? Wrong policies lead to failures. The Chinese regime chose wrong policies and caused themselves great troubles.

Their strategy always loses great battles. The Chinese regime’s anti-Uyghur terrorist policies and actions will eventually lead to its great failure.

They will pay a great price for all their atrocities made against our nation and our people. They will face international tribunals. There is no time limitation for calling for responsibility for grave crimes. The world community and our nation for their crime and brutality will hold them.

18/05/2002
Germany/Frankfurt

http://hantengri.blogspot.com/2010/03/terrorist-actions-of-communist-chinese.html http://utv.dyndns.org/enorg/h_rights/etic_report_june_2002.htmlb

3-VIOLATION OF THE UYGHUR PEOPLES RIGHTS OF FREE TOUGHT, FREE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT AND FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION

By Korash Atahan

1 - POLICY OF DOUBLE STANDARDS IN CHINA IN THE LAW
2 - CONTINUED VIOLATION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
3- COMPULSARY CHANGE OF UYGHUR EDUCATION TO BE IN CHINESE LANGUAGE
4 - VIOLATION OF THE UYGHUR PEOPLES RIGHTS OF FREE TOUGHT, FREE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT AND FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION
Since the Chinese Communist occupied East Turkistan in 1949, they continued with state terror and in breach of concepts adhered to internationally like defence of human rights, freedom and preference of democracy, the Uyghurs have in their own land been constantly deprived of natural rights like living in freedom, free expression of thought and self determination.

As a result, this situation is strongly objected by the Uyghurs living in East Turkistan. The confrontation on the national and ethnic level is increasing every day and the most basic human rights of the Uyghurs are violated in their own land. There have been significant restrictions especially regarding religious freedom, freedom of thought, the freedom to speak the mother language and education.
Thus, the abyss between China and the democratic states of the world has grown deeper.

Although there have been human rights consultations and discussion of related laws due to the increase in economical relations between the Chinese government and the states of the European Union and China has shown partial improvement in the field of human rights, the justified call of the people in East Turkistan, named “Xinjiang Autonomous Region”, for their rights is being suppressed with very harsh measures and therefore, differences regarding ethnic and cultural issues are increasing every day.

1 - POLICY OF DOUBLE STANDARDS IN CHINA IN THE LAW

After the terrorist acts of 11 September 2001, the Chinese government used terms such as "cooperation in the war on terror" as pretexts, and under the motto “striking hard on three kind of forces” which was turned into a political move and by which countless innocent Uyghurs were sentenced using pretexts as the above. Since the whole force of the state structure is directed to strike the Uyghurs politically, the crime rate is grooving at high speed in the region and civil security is severely disturbed by this.

For instance, according to the state controlled “Tian Shan News Net”, the Ministry of Civil Security of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region held a meeting on 17 January 2004, and initiated a one-year-plan. It was emphasised that in the year 2004 the fundamental task of civil security forces was “to strike nationalist separatists and illegal religious elements”.

According to this news, in 2003, 92796 criminal cases occurred in East Turkistan. This was an increase of 20.2% compared to last year. 77.7% of those cases were cases of theft and burglary and the success ratio in solving the cases was around 50%.

In capital city Urumchi where the Chinese population makes up to 90% of the whole population, theft, burglary, murder and fraud make up 90% of total criminal cases.

According to another news in “Tian Shan Net” (February 18, 2004) in Urumchi alone 32191 criminal cases occurred during the previous year and compared to the year before, this meant an increase of 6.1%, however, only 15547 cases were solved. Only 5512 criminals were arrested and 4653 criminals sentenced. In the same year, only 12 cases of “separatist and illegal religious activities”, as the Chinese government calls them, were recorded during the initiative “to strike hard on three kind of forces” directed towards the local Uyghurs. If one compares the number of 32191 criminal cases against the 12 cases of “Nationalist Separatists”, it is not difficult to see who endangers the security of Urumchi. It is further clear that most of the criminals who are committing theft, robbery and murder in Urumchi are Chinese. Against this background it is ridiculous that in the Beginning of this year, at the “Meeting on the Duty of Political Laws in the Urumchi Region” it was declared that “the main responsibility of the law enforcement units in 2004 should aim at maintaining an ongoing suppressing and striking hard against nationalist separatists, terrorists and fundamentalist religious forces, the ‘three kind of forces’”.

The law enforcement units have left aside to deal with the thieves, robbers and murderers who are occupying all quarters of the city and are mobilised to strike on the in reality non existent “nationalist separatists and extremist islamists”. These kind of policies by the Chinese do not take serious the increase of criminal cases in East Turkistan among people of Chinese origin, and that by this increase the security of the people and their property is seriously threatened. That the Chinese government is constantly neglecting criminal cases as mentioned above and do not cease to oppress and violate the rights of the Uyghur people, shows also that the Chinese do not comply with their own laws and that their political desires are more important to them than adhering to the law.

The Chinese government is treating the Uyghurs who are demanding to live under human conditions without mercy. On 19 July 2004 the Qarghilik district court held a closed trial for 20 Uyghurs who were accused as “separatists” and sentenced to imprisonment, one of them sentenced to death.

A 29-year-old person, Idris Qadir, was accused of producing illegal arms and trying to break the unity of the state and sentenced to death and executed. The other 19 of them were sentenced from three years to ten years imprisonment. There was one woman among them by the name Rabiye Turup. She was accused of being a contact person for separatists and providing sustenance for them and was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Apart from the above mentioned, the Chinese government arrested Abdulla Halil from Atush City, Abdulla Reyim from Kuchar, Ablikim Qurban from Aqsu as suspects to have connections to the East Turkistan Islamic Party. The Chinese government is oppressing even prisoners who had already accomplished prison terms, after their release. For example, according to news in “Tian Shan Net” from the beginning of this year titled “Toksun district strikes hard on three kind of forces”, since the beginning of the 2004, Toksun district police forces inspected 195 Uyghurs who “have the potential of being separatists” and put them under observation and forbade their free movement. Thus, since 1990, 115 prisoners who had been released from prison have been arrested again. Another example is that according to news in the newspaper “The Spark” from 28 August 2004, issue 103, Eysa Husen, the leader of the East Turkistan Justice Party, who had been arrested in August 1994 and sentenced to nine years imprisonment, then released in August 2003, was arrested again in August 2004 for no reason in the Toksu district.

Officials of the police have enforced that the work contract of an Uyghur named Eysa Yüsüp, who had been arrested because of political activities and began to work after he was released from prison, has been terminated. In this manner, they are releasing communiqués not to employ Uyghurs who had been in prison because of political activities and are thus closing all possibilities for these people for a living.

The incidents reported above are those that have occurred in only one district of East Turkistan. There are more than 80 districts in East Turkistan and it is possible to encounter these kinds of incidents in all of them.

For example, according to news on the website “Website of Tian Shan”, the court of Tokkuzak in the Kashgar province has accused 10 Uyghurs including İslam İsmayil and Eziz Hesen in an open trial on 19 January of conducting “nationalist separatist” activities and sentenced them to long term imprisonment.

According to another newspaper, the “Agricultural Reform Paper” the High Court of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region has sentenced a young man in October 2003 with the charge of “separatist activities” and “playing a crucial role in the Ghulja incidents” to the death penalty and executed the sentence immediately.

It is known by the public that the Chinese government is establishing propaganda centres in many places in China and is settling thousands of Chinese immigrants in East Turkistan every year under the slogan “Opening the Great West”. It has become a fundamental social problem that Uyghurs who even have university degrees are not able to find a job, let alone ordinary people. The local people are strongly objecting to this policy of double standards applied by the Chinese government regarding employment discrimination.

For example in the document “Set of Rules for the Method of Distributing University Graduates in our Autonomous Region to the four Districts of South Xinjiang, the Provinces, Counties and Villages” issued on 23 March 2004 by the Ministry of Peoples Affairs of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region and send to many provinces and districts that in order to strengthen the village based cadre line, it was planned to elect 700 university graduates and to send them to villages and towns in places like Hoten Kashgar, Aqsu and Atush. Among these 700 graduates, two hundred jobs were assigned for minority nations and their age had to be less than 25 years and had to fulfil the following conditions:

1. They must strictly hold to the four basic principles, must protect the unity of the state and must stand against separatism and illegal religious activities.

2. They must have a sophisticated political mind, must have not any separatist activities or ideologies in their relatives or family background, and they must not adhere to any religious beliefs.

3. They must have been member of communist party or cadre of students or they must have been awarded with the title of the 3 best students.

It has been demanded from all employment offices in all provinces and districts that all the above conditions be complied with.

After the above-mentioned document was issued and became known, there was strong objection to it among the Uyghurs, especially among Uyghur graduates. Some Uyghurs said, that under these conditions no Uyghur graduates would be able to find a place to work, since no Uyghur would write in his employment document that he is an atheist. This is one of the traps that the Chinese government has set up in order to divert the Uyghur youth to atheism.

2 - CONTINUED VIOLATION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The Chinese government continued to violate the religious freedom of the people of East Turkistan since the occupation of East Turkistan. The Chinese government also continues to publish human rights reports hiding its violations and deceiving the public opinion.

In the white book called “Human Rights Developments in China in 2004” it reads, “The religious beliefs of Chinese citizens are under the protection of the Chinese law. The law will protect the religious organisations of the citizens, religious meetings and gatherings, the rights of the members of religious groups and the acting out of accepted religious practices.” It reads in the white book further: “In the year 2004, for the first time in China, Guo Wu Yan has legitimised religious freedom in a general manner in China”. A “Guide for Religious Affairs” was published and it reads therein, “‘Activities of religious organisations and religious scholars are encompassed by this and they have rights like establishing religious schools, publishing religious books, administrate the property and possessions of mosques, extend their religious activities to the exterior and complete their exterior relations. These rights are supervised by local administrations and the activities of people of Chinese origin and the activities of religious organisations are conducted under the protection of the laws.” (From the Shinhua News Network) Rights as the above mentioned, however, only remain written on paper and there is no development in that regard in the practise. The Chinese government has not lifted its terrible injustice and oppression of religion from the people of East Turkistan.

For example booksellers of religious books have been arrested and imprisoned as from 10 November 2004. At this present day, it is impossible to find any booksellers for religious books in Urumchi.

In the newspaper “South China Morning News” an article on the religious freedom of the Uyghur was published by Nailene Chou, after a visit to Kashgar. The author praises at the beginning of the article the Heytgah Mosque and many more historic sites and sceneries in Kashgar, but states that the Chinese government is strongly oppressing any religious activity by the Uyghurs. In the same article it was also mentioned that despite the strong oppression of religious freedom there are many religious schools operating in the underground. It was also mentioned that this was a typical example of the move to “strike hard” taking advantage of the pretext of fighting international terrorism to increase actions to come down on the Uyghurs. In the same article it was mentioned that in order to oppress the Uyghurs China was strengthening its relations to neighbouring countries, and that there are worries that the Uyghurs might demand more religious freedom parallel to the increase in the salaries of Chinese officials.

This is the eyewitness account of someone who has been travelling in Uyghur lands and is a clear proof of the religious oppression and prohibitions which the people of East Turkistan are confronted with.

According to the news of the East Turkistan Information Centre from 19 May 2005, the famous religious scholar Abdul Ahat Barat Mahdum from Hoten was arrested recently and sentenced to five years in prison. According to this news, Abdul Ahat Barat Mahdum Hajim was arrested on 2 January 2005 accused of “religious activities by running an illegal religious school”. As it became clear, this person was the nephew of the late Mehmet Emin Bughra, the author of “The History of East Turkistan” and one of the leaders of the East Turkistan Movement. According to the East Turkistan Information Center and the relatives, the 74-year-old Mahdum Hajim was sentenced by the Hoten Province Court to a five years term of imprisonment.

In June and July 2004 a wide scale operation of “cleansing and arresting” was carried out where many underground schools were raided and many religious scholars and Uyghurs sympathetic to the idea of independency were arrested. 75 people suspected of having established underground schools and underground religious teaching, three people running organisational matters under the lead of Erkin, seven teachers, five people who had aided these and 16 people with the task of finding members were arrested along with 32 pupils. Among the pupils were 27 of the age between 7 and 15, 16 of them being girls. These arrested students had come from different cities like Hoten, Kashgar, Ghulja, Turpan and Urumchi by intermediation of relatives and friends. The parents of these students were people who in the past years had suffered political mistreatment by the Chinese government, labelled “participating in illegal religious activities” and sentenced to “Re-education by Work”.

It becomes clear from all this, that the demand of the Uyghurs for religious freedom is very much connected to their demand for political rights. However, the Uyghur are not engaged in terrorist activities as claimed by the Chinese. As the Chinese government itself declared in the news on “Xinjiang Television Channel”, in the last three years the Chinese government opened 10 different courses and has trained 7465 Imams in the politics and ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. As was underlined in this news the Communist government gave great importance to political education. It has been outlined during these courses with 13 political points how the verses of the Noble Qur’an had to be interpreted.

In the same news it was stated, “During the extensive educational activities for Imams in the Uyghur regions, the awareness of religious scholars regarding national separatism was increased”.

As we all know, the issue of political education of religious scholars in the Uyghur lands is a matter much criticised by international human rights organisations. The fact that courses are initiated to educate Imams in Communism and thus brainwashing them is a clear example of how religion is oppressed in East Turkistan.

Not only that the dictatorial Chinese government is playing the games described above, it is also prohibiting the Uyghurs to undertake the Hajj-journey to Mekka. For example, in a news from 28 April 2005 by Radio Free Asia, it was reported that the Chinese government arrested in Aktu near the town of Atush during this years Hajj season 43 Uyghurs who wanted to travel to the Hajj with state permission. They had been planning to travel via Pakistan but after becoming aware of this plan, the Chinese government disliked this and thus arrested the people whom it had granted permission before.

According to news of the French news agency, a policeman from Aktu confirmed that 31 people were arrested at the border near Kashgar.

Fearing that the religion of Islam will become strong in East Turkistan, the Chinese government is prohibiting in different ways that Uyghurs can undertake the Hajj-journey. It has for example stopped the issuing of passports for those who apply for it in order to travel to Saudi Arabia. Further, the applications of people who want a passport to visit their relatives abroad are rejected. All this is further indication that the justly demanded rights of Uyghurs are being disregarded.

One of the points that must be stressed is that the education of children is a tradition from ancient times and that religious education always began in the families. Uyghur women consider this teaching in the family to be a vital part of the education of their children and a vital part of the religious education and their being thought good manners. The Chinese government is declaring this practise illegal and is arresting women who act in this way.

For example, the office of civil security in Shahyar has arrested on 25 March 2005 Aynihasan Muhammet, a female teacher in religion along with their five students. As it has come to be known, the children taught by Aynihasan were between the ages 12 to 20. It has also come to be known that the Chinese government accused Aynihasan of not having used the books that were made compulsory by the Chinese political offices. (RFA)

It becomes apparent that the “Guidelines for Religious Activities to be adhered to by Chinese Citizens” is nothing but a pretext for the prohibition of religious freedoms of Chinese citizens by way of law.

3 - COMPULSARY CHANGE OF UYGHUR EDUCATION TO BE IN CHINESE LANGUAGE

The Chinese government, since it has not been able to break down the people in East Turkistan through long-term oppression and punishments and make them obedient, has now turned to attack the mother language of the Uyghurs under the pretext “necessities of the age”. They have turned the Chinese language into the most decisive element of life in China and have tied the success of the Uyghur generations to the language. This has led to more strong objections of the people towards the Chinese government and has given rise to serious worries about the future of coming Uyghur generations. Language is one of the vital elements of the inheritance of a people and for their participation in actual history.

The Uyghur people, considered uneducated by the Chinese government are now engaged in preserving and rescuing their language. The Chinese government had announced its intention of conducting Uyghur education in Chinese already in 1998. The first place to manifest action in this regard was to be in the Xinjiang University, the symbol of Uyghur thinking and policies. All of a sudden, lectures that so far had been in Uyghur language, were to be held in Chinese. Earlier, only some lectures in natural sciences were held in Chinese. The Uyghur students used to learn both languages. When suddenly it was announced that lectures in Uyghur literature and Uyghur history would be held in Chinese, the people began to express their objections to this practice. Many of those who expressed their objection were thrown out of work or placed under observation. Our people have ever since educated their children in their mother language and there have always been Uyghur speaking intellectuals at universities, and so, this sudden leftist policy puzzled the Uyghur intellectuals and was a hard blow against them. The Union of Educators examined the laws regarding autonomy and brought examples from it and discussed the issue in open forums but the government did not regard these kinds of demands whatsoever. The present day Chinese government has declared a merciless war on Uyghur education.

In order to enforce the Chinese language, the government has been using the trick of qualification tests against Uyghurs and refused to grant to whoever did not pass these tests the status of “qualified personnel”. Minorities who prior to these tests have been fulfilling the responsibilities of their work were now regarded unqualified.

For example, the Xinjiang University has from March this year on accepted the Chinese Language Qualification tests as an absolute necessity and thus, many gifted Uyghur teachers and lecturers have been excluded. As was reported by trustworthy sources, Güljemal Memtimin from the Faculty of Philology, Osman Ismayil und Eneytullah Kurban and some more, eight people in total have been suddenly removed from office with the explanation that they did not reach Level Eight in the Chinese Language Qualification tests.

Güljemal Memtimin is female, 38 years old and has a master degree in Uyghur Literature. She has a long term experience as a lecturer and an experienced researcher. She has been publishing scientific articles in important magazines in the Peking District and has also had significant contributions in the field of research. She is an enduring and struggling lecturer. She is also capable of reading works of Classical Uyghur Literature and translates into present day language. She has been interested in Uyghur Literature since long and has also acquired thorough knowledge of the Persian language and literature.

Osman Ismayil is male, 42 years old and has a title as doctor in social sciences from Kazakhstan and is experienced as a teacher, lecturer and researcher. He has written numerous investigative articles and many books on Uyghur folklore. He is interested in a broad range of topics. He speaks very fluent Russian. He has no difficulties in examining and making use of Chinese material.

Enaytullah Kurban is male, 45 years old and a successful prose writer and researcher for contemporary Uyghur literature. He is an experienced lecturer for higher education. He is a learned man who has compiled, ordered and structured lists of contemporary Uyghur literature and has also presented many works himself, and he is a man of literature known to all Uyghurs. There is no room whatsoever to doubt the command of Chinese this person has. This man has always been aware of contemporary Chinese literature both regarding the lectures he gave and his own prose writing. Here, there is the necessity of relating these new developments and research results to Uyghur students in their mother language. The lecturers mentioned here are people entitled to lecture and research in their mother language. But according to the Chinese, those who do not teach in Chinese are without niveau.

When these respectable lecturers withdraw fom their offices, what is then to become of the mother language of the Uyghurs and their literature? These kinds of practices are nothing but intents to turn Uyghur education into Chinese.

The Chinese government is initiating manifold activities in order to change Uyghur education into Chinese. While the places of higher education are in the situation described above, examination classes are being established in middle and primary schools and gifted students from the minority areas are being taken into inner regions of China with the pretext of receiving sophisticated education and thus Uyghur children are taken out of Uyghur lands and are deprived of learning their literature and history as has been taught since ancient times and thus, feel and think like Uyghurs. Uyghur lessons are being closed down so that Uyghur children have no opportunity to learn their language. For example, in 1998, one Wednesday, all of a sudden, after a seminar of political education, it was announced that the Uyghur classes would be closed. Although the families of the concerned students insisted that these classes should not be closed, these requests were not accepted since the order came from high positions. Taking the Xinjiang University as an example many classes for the Uyghur language were closed throughout the Urumchi district. It is now impossible to find any Uyghur language classes in the Urumchi district. Activities to change Uyghur education into Chinese are carried at rapidly also in the other districts of East Turkistan. According to news of the East Turkistan Information Center in Germany dated 27 April 2005, 70 teachers at the Karamay City Technical School were removed from their posts with the excuse that they did not reach Level Eight in the examinations for the Chinese Language Qualification tests and instead they were assigned tasks like doorkeepers, lawnmowers or cleaning the building. According to the information of the East Turkistan Information Center, there were two Chinese Language teachers among them, but on the above-mentioned pretext they were assigned to cleaning the toilets of the school. One of them is Gülnaz Tohniyaz and the other Aygül Hüseyin. The school administration has warned them that they had to pass Level Eight at the Chinese Language Qualification tests because otherwise their employment at the school would be terminated.

In an official declaration from 16 March 2004, the Chinese have decided that the 600 teachers in the Gulja district would be taught Chinese language and that within six years a body of politically trained and Chinese speaking teachers would be formed selecting every year 10 teachers from among the minorities. According to this document it was decided that until 2010 the teachers in the 73 schools of this district should be politically trained, Chinese speaking, well educated and well informed. What the Chinese government is really intending by this is assimilation politically and regarding the language. That the Chinese government is considering such long-term activities and is making the Chinese language compulsory serves nothing but the turning of Uyghur education to be in Chinese.

In commanding that the Chinese language should be the sole means of education in all districts, towns and villages, the Chinese government is conducting a severe attack to the natural way of life of the Uyghur people.

4 - VIOLATION OF THE UYGHUR PEOPLES RIGHTS OF FREE TOUGHT, FREE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT AND FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Among the rights of the Uyghur people constantly violated during the decades long domination by the Chinese government are the rights of free thought and free expression of thoughts and to inform themselves through the world news sources. In the 21st century, when human rights are emphasised all over the world and hymns of peace and freedom are echoing everywhere, the Uyghur people are living in a situation where free access to information is denied, the freedom of thought is ever suppressed. Some Uyghur youth who desire renewal and are somewhat concerned about the future of their people are imprisoned for no reason and have to endure brutal torture by the Chinese government. As reported by the East Turkistan Information Center on 19 April 2005, the young poet and writer and a voice of freedom, Nurmuhammet Yasin (pen name: Oerkesh) has been secretly arrested. Nurmuhammet Yasin had been arrested by the Chinese government for having published a story about freedom titled “The Wild Dove” in “The Kashgar Literature”, Issue 5 from the year 2004. The Chinese government defamed Nurmuhammet as “inciting separatism and independence”. “The Kashgar Literature” had been printed 2000 issues and the Chinese government had assigned a special “Armed Confiscation Group” to collect the magazine from the people and has employed the Kashgar Civil Security Office and the State Security Office for this purpose, and further, the staff of the Office of Cultural Affairs was forced to take part in the confiscation. The confiscated magazines were stored in the office of the responsible officer in the police department.

Nurmuhammet had entered the literature scene under the pen name “Oerkesh” when he was 12 years old. His poems, stories, prose and pieces for theatre like “Where Are The Children Who Want To Play”, “Mysterious Night”, “My Weeping Heart”, published in magazines and newspapers like “The Rosebuds of Tarim”, “The Kashgar Literature”, “Yarkent Newspaper”, “The Kashgar Newspaper”, “The Civilisation of Xinjiang”, “The Arts of Xinjiang”, the magazine “Bulak”, the newspaper “Workers Times”, “The Xinjiang Youth Magazine”, “Urumchi Evening News” are well known by our people and he is a country loving, justice loving young writer. The people working in “Radio Free Asia” have telephoned the Police Department of the Kashgar Province, the Maralbashi District and the People’s High Court of the Autonomous Region to get information about the state of Nurmuhammet Yasin but were only told that he has been arrested and that he had been spreading ideas of separatism and independency. The ferocious government is hesitating to give information about the situation of Nurmuhammet Yasin and are trying to hide their own terror from the public and the people of East Turkistan.

The pressure on all who are engaged in the news and information sector is very heavy and those who observe the real state of affairs and speak the truth are faced with heavy imprisonment sentences by the Chinese government. The Uyghur reporter Abdugeni Memtimin is a typical example for this. Abdugeni Memtimin is a male, 38 year old Uyghur with higher education, a cultured person and teacher at the Textile Industry School in the Kashgar province. He has been put under observation on 26 July 2002 and has been arrested under the current laws on 30 August 2002.

Abdugeni Memtimin has been sentenced to nine years of imprisonment and deprived of all political rights for three years on accusation of illegally sending secret state information to abroad. His term of imprisonment will end 25 July 2011. During his trial Abdugeni Memtimin has not been allowed a lawyer to defend him and although he defended himself, his defence was not regarded in any way and he was found guilty according to Chinese law and sentenced to imprisonment. The guilt of Abdugeni Memtimin has been the change of his ideas after having discovered the newspaper “The Spark” of the East Turkistan Information Center via the internet and with the help and under instruction from Abduljelil Karakash he has been working fore the East Turkistan Information Center, and has been sentenced to imprisonment because of sending news by means of his computer via the internet, news like, “Human Rights Violations in East Turkistan”, “Teacher fired because of illegal activities in the Peyzavat District and three people sentenced because of providing assistance”, “Ideological Resistance against Separatism continues”, and forwarding the words of the President of the Communist Party in the Kashgar Province, Zhang Jian, “To preserve integrity and to stand against separatism is a long term duty” by use of his computer.

As can be clearly seen from these examples, this is the situation of Uyghur intellectuals who want to preserve their human dignity and protect their rights despite the many ways of oppression from the Chinese government and the situation of Uyghur youth who want to inform others about the suffering and the situation of their people.

The Chinese government has closed five magazines which reflected and discussed sensitive political issues in the Uyghur lands. The Office of News and Publications in the Uyghur Autonomous Region has since the beginning of 2005 ordered the closing of magazines like “The Leader in the Capital City”, “Living Well”, “The Cart Man”, “Colourful Life” and “Jiu Shang”, which discussed political issues that were of concern to the society. (ETIC, 26 April 2005)

Although the Chinese government has established a compulsory rule in the Uyghur lands by means of numerous political tricks, the people have never inclined to this fascist government because there has never been any cultural or ethnical similarity. This being the case, the Chinese government began to rewrite the “General History of Xinjiang” according to its political desires, a history which belongs to the people. On 1 January 2005, the “Tian Shan Internet Website” has released the news that a meeting of authors to write the “General History of Xinjiang” had assembled in Urumchi and thus “the most comprehensive compilation of history ever in the history of Xinjiang” had begun. The Member of the Chinese Central Government Political Bureau and Secretary of the Communist Party for the Uyghur Region, Wang Le Quan said recently: “The history of Xinjiang is a serious matter. Separatists inside and outside the country are twisting the history of Xinjiang and are using political and historical arguments in order to separate Xinjiang from our homeland. Therefore I am hoping that there will be a book that documents that Xinjiang is an inseparable part of our homeland. It is a necessity of our political struggle that we stand against the separatists and protect the integrity of the homeland.” 1990, the propaganda section of the Chinese Communist Party in the Uyghur lands had openly criticised three books written by the Uyghur historian Turgun Almas, “Short History of the Huns”, “The Uyghurs” and “Declarations on the History of Classical Uyghur Literature” and held a gathering of critique and evaluation and finally prohibited the circulation of these books and assigned a special unit to write a “Short History of the Uyghurs” and a “History of Xinjiang”.

Since the beginning of 2005, the Chinese government is conducting a cleansing of illegal publications. According to Nur Bekri, the Assistant of the Secretary General of the Communist Party in the Uyghur Autonomous Region, the cleansing of illegal publications was part of the “Resistance to Separatism” and “Resistance against Infiltration”. Until now, 450 publications have been confiscated. Among these were religious books, political books, magazines and audio and video tapes. According to news from the Uyghur lands, the movie “Braveheart” which tells the story of the independence fight of Scotland has been banned. Further, internet service centres have been designated as places which need to be cleansed as well. (RFA)

In the five years since the Chinese government has been conducting its operations of ideological resistance against separatism and striking hard on separatism, many patriots, intellectuals, writers and members of the teaching staff of higher schools have come under serious psychological pressure and many have become ill on account of that situation. A typical example of this is Tursun Kurban, one of the leading lecturers at the Xinjiang University, who is the teacher for Children’s Literature and Theory of Literature at the Faculty of Literature. This teacher has under the attacks and the pressure from the Chinese government become partially paralysed due to increase of tension and is now a pensioner. Tursun Kurban was one of the most successful teachers at the Xinjiang University and taught for many years Children’s Literature and did much research in this field. He had deserved to stand in the rank of those who contributed to the education and deserved to spend the rest of his life under pleasant circumstances. This lecturer had drawn the attention of the Chinese government because he always spoke about the people in his lectures, analysed their situation correctly and inspired students in their forming aims and goals for themselves. When in 1990 the Soviet Union broke up and there were serious changes in the world taking place, Tursun Kurban was inspired by these changes and he explained to his students what effect the formation of independent Turkic states could have on the Uyghur region and on account of this, he was removed by Chinese authorities from his post as lecturer and was placed under observation for nine years assigned to the supplies section of the faculty.

In the year 2001, during the “Movement for Resistance against Ideological Separatism” the above-mentioned activities of Tursun Kurban were brought up again and he became the subject of heavy interrogations. These had a heavy effect on him and shortly afterwards he became ill due to high blood pressure and a tense state, and shortly later he got bleedings in his brain. After the operations he had to undergo he survived, but part of his body became paralysed. It is impossible to say that the severe Chinese treatment was not the cause of his illness.

Just like this lecturer there are many other middle aged and young lecturers who suffer from psychological problems, high blood pressure and heart diseases. There are many more pressures on the Uyghur lecturers and their distress is growing every day.

24/05/2005 Germany/ Frankfurt
http://hantengri.blogspot.com/2010/03/violation-of-uyghur-peoples-rights-of.html
http://utv.dyndns.org/enorg/h_rights/report_2004_2005.html

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