Uyghur Woman Faces Forced Abortion
2008-11-13



An ethnic Uyghur woman faces an imminent abortion of her third child.

AFP Photo

Uyghur women in Aksu, in China's western Xinjiang autonomous region, July 31, 2008.

HONG KONG—Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, is under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will because authorities say she is entitled to only two children.

As a member of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, Tursun is legally permitted to more than the one child allowed most people in China. But when word of a third pregnancy reached local authorities, they coerced her into the hospital for an abortion, according to her husband.

"Arzigul is being kept in bed number three," a nurse in the women's section at Gulja's Water Gate Hospital said in a telephone interview. "We will give an injection first. Then she will experience abdominal pain, and the baby will come out by itself. But we haven't given her any injection yet—we are waiting for instructions from the doctors."

China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese but allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
...They have to pay a fine of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it."

Family planning official Rashide
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband, Nurmemet Tohtasin, is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining] so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.

Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country, through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.

"My wife is being kept in the hospital—village officials are guarding her," Tohtisin said before authorities directed him late Thursday to switch off his mobile phone.

"When she fled the village to avoid abortion, police and Party officials, and the family planning committee officials, all came and interrogated us," he said. "The deputy chief of the village, a Chinese woman named Wei Yenhua, threatened that if we didn't find Arzigul and bring her to the village, she would confiscate our land and all our property."Steep fines.

On Nov. 11, Tohtisin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital.

There, Tohtisin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.

"The abortion should be carried out because according to the family planning policy of China, you're not allowed to have more children than the government has regulated. Therefore she should undergo an abortion. This is their third child. She is 6-1/2 months pregnant now," Rashide said.

"If her health is normal, then the abortion will definitely take place. Otherwise they have to pay a fine in the amount of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it," she added.

Arzigul Tursun's abortion was originally scheduled for Thursday, but hospital authorities said they had postponed it until Monday after numerous calls from local and exiled Uyghurs.

Officials then told her husband to switch off his mobile phone and stop making calls.

Carrots and sticks
According to the official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.

Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.

Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.

The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.

China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.

And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.

The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.

Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region.
Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.

Congressional appeal
Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, appealed on Thursday to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to intervene.

"Human rights groups and the U.S. government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family," Smith, senior member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement. "I appeal to the Chinese government not to forcibly abort Arzigul."

Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the Uyghur population have a long and tense history.

Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it regards as a war on Islamic terrorism.

It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.

Original reporting in Uyghur by Shohret Hoshur. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written and produced for the Web in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Edited by Joshua Lipes. #

From:http://www.rfa.org/english/

People’s Republic of China

-Report for the consideration of the Committee against Torture in advance of their session on the fourth periodic report to the Committee of the People’s Republic of China



3 – 21 November 2008

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) has prepared this report in collaboration with the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) for the consideration by the Committee Against Torture (CAT) on the eve of their session on the fourth periodical report submitted to it by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in line with the provisions as laid down in the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereafter “the Convention”). This report particularly focuses on the Muslim Uyghur population of East Turkestan (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, XUAR), considering the fact that minorities are at larger risk within the PRC of being subjected to torture[1]. The embracement of Islam makes the Uyghur population a simple scapegoat under the justification of the “war on terror”.



Article 1 – definition of torture

Despite recommendations made by this very committee, which have been echoed by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereafter “the Special Rapporteur”), the PRC has yet to bring their national law in accordance with the definition of torture within the Convention. A particular list of offenses has been deemed to relate to or result in torture, however, no overarching definition has been provided, leaving room for interpretation and loopholes for those that wish to do harm.



Article 2 – preventive measures – and Article 10 – education and information

With regards to the measures that the PRC is to take in order to prevent the occurrence of torture, it has become evident that law enforcement officers and other governmental officials burdened with the duties of maintaining public order are not sufficiently trained and penal measures against those that do inflict torture are not sufficiently in place[2]. A culture of oppression thrives in detention centres, police stations and prisons in XUAR and torture as a means of racial discrimination is not sufficiently prevented. Even if the national legislation has laws and regulations in place with the aim of eradicating and criminalizing practises of torture, the implementation on the local level is severely lacking. Strengthening of the regional institutions and addressing flawed procedures can improve the dire situation.



Article 3 – extradition in the face of torture

Apart from having an obligation under the Convention to prevent nationals from being extradited to states where they upon extradition may face torture, the PRC itself has instigated an active policy of forcefully returning Chinese nationals, even if they have received refugee status or asylum in another state. Upon return in the PRC national minorities, such as Uyghurs, are facing a severe risk of being tortured as a form of punishment in addition to sentencing those forcefully returned persons to long jail sentences of alleged crimes, usually relating to ‘subverting state power’, ‘separatism’, ‘undermining the unity of the country’ or involvement in the illegal communication of ‘state secrets’. Unfortunately, the PRC is not solely responsible for such acts, as other states, particularly those that are part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), wilfully cooperate with such practises even in the face of torture.

Perhaps the most well publicized case of such force repatriation is Mr. Husein Dzhelil[3], an ethnic Uyghur who had obtained Canadian citizenship after being recognized as a refugee in 2001. When visiting family in Uzbekistan, Mr. Dzhelil was detained in March 2006 and extradited by Uzbekistan to the PRC in June of the same year, without contacting the Canadian authorities. Throughout his detention, PRC officials denied his requests for consular assistance by the Canadian corps diplomatique. Testimonials of Mr. Dzhelil reveal that in the first two weeks of his detention in the PRC he was deprived of sleep and food and that he regularly received threats to his life if he refused to sign an official document, which was later to be used as his ‘confession’ to the charges against him for ‘plotting a split of the country’ and ‘joining a terrorist network’. Even though the Convention states that ‘confessions’ obtained under torture cannot be admissible in a court of law as evidence, Mr. Dzhelil was convicted for these alleged crimes on the basis of this document. On 2 February 2007 Mr. Dzhelil faced trial and despite continued requests from his side, Canadian officials were not allowed to attend the trial. On 10 July 2007 Mr. Dzhelil’s life imprisonment sentence was finalized, as the regional court rejected his appeal.



Article 4 – criminalizing torture

Over recent years, the PRC has adapted its national laws in order to criminalize torture. However, UNPO believes that most of these legislative changes have been made in regards to heavily publicized events. As such, these pieces of legislation are very particular as to method and person and as such do not encompass complete criminalization of torture. The status quo seems to have lead to a national legislation in which torture is a criminal offense only in certain cases and inflicted by certain (groups of) people, which is conduct inconsistent with the Convention.

One example torture which is not criminalized and rarely prosecuted in the PRC is forced abortion. In particular relation to the Uyghurs, forced abortion is used as a tactic of maintaining and even decreasing the population size. Since 1984, the PRC has carried out a coercive birth control and forced sterilization policies amongst the Uyghurs. Since then, under the pretext of ensuring a steady growth in “minority population”, “improving the quality of minorities”, and “eliminating economic inequalities”, the PRC has launched a series of extensive birth control and forced sterilization campaigns all over Eastern Turkestan targeting Uyghur women. Officially, the one child policy only applies to the ethnic nationalities with a population of over 10 million in PRC. With a population of 8.6 million, the Uyghur are regarded as a “minority nationality” in their land and are in theory not subject to the provisions of family planning legislation in PRC. But in practice, the birth control and sterilization policies have been actively promoted and encouraged by the PRC government in the towns and villages of Eastern Turkestan. Clearly such policies are not only discriminatory, but also inflict severe suffering – both mental and physical – upon the victims. Thus far, little action can be taken by Uyghur women as the system for complaints and remedies is also heavily discriminatory and those who do press charges or complain usually face imprisonment with elevated chances of being tortured when incarcerated.

In addition, the Special Rapporteur has indicated that the Reeducation through Labour (RTL) constitutes a violation of the human rights to personal liberty and as such constitutes a form of inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment, which can even be considered mental torture, particularly in the light of the fact that RTL is used as a discriminatory punishment. Persistent reports have indicated that maltreatment is rampant in RTL facilities and that in particular ethnic minorities – such as the Uyghurs – are often targeted within these facilities. Furthermore, ethnic minorities are more often sentenced to serve time in such facilities for minor crimes then other Chinese citizens.


Article 11 – systematic review

Despite obligations under the Convention to conduct a systematic review of civil servants and their procedures with regards to suspects and detainees, reports received by UNPO indicated that such review – if conducted at all – is sincerely lacking. The bedrock for this lack of implementation is the lack of independence within the Chinese judicial system. Police, the office of the prosecutor and courts are functioning under the supervision of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and are as such not operating independently. In addition, reports from abuse and ill-treatment in the RTL facilities, as well as the lack of responsiveness from the PRC with regards to the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur in regards to the RTL, leads to suggest that these facilities are not subjected to regular intervals of independent review.



Article 12 – 14 impartial investigation

Due to the lack of impartiality within the Chinese judicial system, no investigations have been conducted to verify the use of torture within the borders of the PRC. This has been confirmed by continues report that UNPO receives of death penalty in custody in several state institutions, these include RTL facilities, police detention centres and prisons. Many of these deaths are the result of poor treatment and torture while in custody. On of the latest example is the death of Mutallip Hajim a wealthy Uyghur jade trader and philanthropist. In January 2008 Hajim was taken into custody by police in Hotan. On 3 March 2008 Hajim’s body was returned to his family. Police instructed his family to bury him immediately and inform no one of his death. Hajim was thirty-eight at the time of his death. Occasional reports in the Chinese media suggest that on rare occasions, perpetrators are punished for such violations, but in many more cases documented by networks of Uyghur human rights activists other NGOs, official investigations hardly take place and perpetrators are met with impunity. When an investigation does take place it does not meet the Conventions requirement.



Article 15 – exclusion of evidence obtained through torture from any proceedings



The Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) does not prohibit the use of confessions obtained through torture or poor treatment as evidence before the courts as required by the Convention. While revision of the law has been discussed, within China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress to this day has not introduced new laws that would explicitly prohibit the use of torture. The CPL has been amended over the years and should guarantee people no longer to be confronted with torture this i not the case. In several recent cases documented by UNPO, courts have ignored allegations made by defendants that they were subjected to torture or other ill-treatment in police custody. Most of these perpetrators enjoy impunity for their acts. The widespread use of torture in East Turkestan is confirmed by numerous reports based on interviews with Uyghur refugees who suffered torture.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] The authors of this report subscribe to the definition of torture as has been laid down in Article 1 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman of Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

[2] For more information on the lack of criminalization of torture, please see that paragraph on Article 5 of the Convention.

[3] Also known as Huseyin Celil.

Bash Ménistir Angéla Merkél Xanim Béyjingda Uyghurlar Mesilisini Otturigha Qoydi


Obzorchimiz Perhat Muhemmidi
2008-10-27


Gérmaniye bash ministiri mérkél xanimning ötken peyshenbe küni bashlinip, shenbe küni ayaqlashqan 3 künlük xitay ziyaritidin kéyin, gérmaniye metbuatlirida bu qétimqi ziyaret we uning mezmuni heqqide küchlük talash - Tartishlar dawam qilmaqta.




Küchlük Dunya Lederliridin Möhtirem Angela Merkél Xanim

Mérkél xanim bu qétimqi xitay ziyariti jeryanida, tibet mesilisi bilen birge yene, uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq weziyitinimu alahide tilgha alghan shundaqla gérmaniye hökümitining bu ikki rayonning kishilik hoqoq weziyitige yéqindin diqqet qiliwatqanliqini eskertken idi.

Bu, gérmaniye tarixida bir bash ministirning tunji qétim " uyghur " dégen kelimini tilgha élishi, shundaqla xitay bilen bolghan muzakirilerde uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq mesilisini biwaste otturigha qoyushi bolup hésablinidu. Shunga, mérkél xanimning bu herikiti, chetellerde, jümlidin gérmaniyide paaliyet élip bériwatqan uyghur teshkilatlirini we uyghur siyasiy paaliyetchilirini cheksiz söyündürüpla qalmastin, gérmaniyidiki kishilik hoqoq teshkilatlirini we uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq weziyitige köngül bölüp kéliwatqan siyasiy partiyilernimu alahide memnun qildi.

Mesilen, xelqara kechürüm teshkilati gérmaniye shöbisining bash katipi barbara xanim 10 - Ayning 25 - Küni muxbirlargha qilghan sözide, mérkél xanimning bu qétimqi jesurane herikiti teriplesh bilen birge, xitay bilen bolghan muzakirilerde nöwettiki iqtisadi krizis bilen birge yene, kishilik hoqoq mesilisiningmu daim küntertipte bolushi lazimliqini, chünki tibetlikler bilen uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq weziyitining intayin nachar bir weziyette turuwatqanliqini tekitlidi.

Gérmaniye yéshillar partiyisi bolsa uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq weziyitige eng aktip köngül bölüwatqan siyasiy partiyilerning biri bolup, gérmaniyidiki uyghur teshkilatliri bilenmu yéqin dialog qurup kelmekte. Uyghur milliy herikitining rehbiri we dunya uyghur qurultiyining reisi rabiye qadir xanim bu yil 4 - Ayda bérlinda gérmaniye yéshillar partiyisining hazirqi reisi klaodia roht xanim bilen körüshüp, uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq weziyiti heqqide etrapliq söhbet élip barghan idi.

Gérmaniye hökümitide uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq mesilisini tunji bolup tilgha alghan eng yuqiri derijilik emeldar gérmaniyining sabiq tashqi ishlar ministiri we gérmaniye yéshillar partiyisining sabiq reisi fisher ependi bolup, fisher ependi bir qanche yil burun jenwede chaqirilghan birleshken döletler teshkilati kishilik hoqoq komitéti omumiy yighinida qilghan sözide, xitayning uyghurlargha qaratqan kishilik hoqoq tajawuzchiliq qilmishlirini qattiq eyibligen idi. Shunga, gérmaniye bash ministiri mérkél xanimning bu qétimqi xitay ziyariti jeryanida uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq mesilisini tilgha élishi, hazir gérmaniyidiki eng asasliq öktichi partiye hésablanghan yéshillar partiyisinimu memnun qildi.

Mesilen, gérmaniye parlaméntidiki yéshillar partiyisi parlamént ezaliri ömikining reisi wolker bekk ependi, 10 - Ayning 26 - Küni gérmaniye gherbiy jenub radiosida qilghan sözide, bash ministir mérkél xanimning kishilik hoqoq mesilisi jehettiki bu xil sezgürlükini üzüp qoymay dawamlashturushini ümid qilidighanliqini bildürdi we " iqtisadi krizis mezgilliride kishiler kishilik hoqoq mesilisige sel qaraydu, emma kishilik hoqoq mesilisige sel qarisaq, iqtisadni uzun muddet saghlam tereqqi qilduralmaymiz, shunga ikki mesilini her waqit parallil halda birge élip bérishimiz lazim " dep körsetti.

Wolker bekk ependi yene, olimpik sewebi bilen xitayning axbarat saheside bir az yumshash körülgen bolsimu, emma tibet bilen sherqiy türkistanda bu jehette héchbir özgirishning bolmighanliqini, bu ikki rayonning kishilik hoqoq weziyitining yenila intayin berbat bir weziyette turuwatqanliqini, köpligen kishilerning tutqun qilinip türmilerge tashliniwatqanliqini, shu sewebtin bu ikki rayonning hazir dunyaning diqqet - Étibarini qozghawatqanliqini eskertip kélip, " shunga bash ministir mérkél xanimning bu ikki rayongha qiziqiwatqanliqini, xitay dairilirige bildürüp qoyushi nahayiti muhim " dep körsetti.

Wolker bekk ependi yene, iqtisadni tereqqi qildurush bilen, kishilik hoquqni yaxshilashning ayrim ikki mesile ikenlikini, iqtisadni tereqqi qildursamla hemme mesile ongshilidu dep qarashning xata ikenlikini eskertip kélip, " mesilen, putinning rusiyisi janliq bir örnek, putin rusiyining iqtisadini tereqqi qildurdi, emma rusiyining kishilik hoqoq weziyiti kündin - Künge nacharlishiwatidu " dep körsetti.

Gérmaniye metbuatlirining xewiride körsitilishiche, mérkél xanimning bu qétim béyjingda uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq mesilisini tilgha élishida, gérmaniye yéshillar partiyisining we gérmaniyidiki kishilik hoqoq teshkilatlirining oynighan roli chong bolghan. Ziyaret harpisida, dunya uyghur qurultiyi bashchiliqidiki uyghur teshkilatliri we tibet teshkilatliridin sirt yene, gérmaniye yéshillar partiyisi, xelqara kechürüm teshkilati, dunya xeter astidiki milletlerni qoghdash teshkilati, gérmaniye kishilik hoqoq teshkilati qatarliq köpligen siyasiy partiye we kishilik hoqoq teshkilatliri gérmaniye hökümitige we mérkél xanimgha murajetname we mektup yollap, xitay rehberliri bilen élip baridighan muzakirilerde tibetlikler bilen uyghurlarning kishilik hoqoq weziyitini küntertipke kirgüzüshni telep qilghan idi.

Gérmaniye metbuatlirida körsitilishiche, xitay hökümiti özlirining yawropa birliki bilen yaki gérmaniye bilen bolghan munasiwetlirini noqul halda, " peqetla soda - Sétiq munasiwiti " dep qaraydu, shunga yawropa birlikige eza döletler kishilik hoqoq mesilisini tilgha alghan haman xitay terep, " ichki ishlirimizgha qopalliq bilen arilashti " dep naraziliq bildüridu.

Ötken yili gérmaniye bash ministiri mérkél xanim bérlinda dalay lamani qobul qilip körüshkendimu xitay hökümiti, " ichki ishlirimizgha qopalliq bilen arilashti" dep qiyamet qopurup mérkél xanimgha qattiq hujum qilghan, mérkél xanim bolsa, " démokratik bir döletning bash ministiri bolush süpitim bilen, her qandaq bir milletning wekili bilen, her qandaq bir kishilik hoqoq jengchisi bilen körüshüsh hoququm bar " jawab bergen, bu sewebtin xitay bilen gérmaniye munasiwetliri bir mezgil dawalghushqa duch kelgen idi.

Emeliyette bolsa, yawropa birlikining xitaygha qaratqan omumiy istratégiyisining peqet soda munasiwetlernila emes, belki xitayning démokratiyilishishini ilgiri sürüsh, xitayni siyasiy, ijtimaiy,qanuniy, memuriy, medeniy - Maarip, muhitni qoghdash ... Qatarliq nurghun jehetlerde islahat élip bérishigha heydekchilik qilishtin ibaret köp tereplimilik mezmunlarni öz ichige alghanliqi shundaqla, kishilik hoqoq mesilisiningmu yawropa birlikining xitaygha qaratqan istratégiyisining muhim mezmunlirining biri ikenliki körülmekte.

Mesilen, ötkende byüriksélde élan qilinghan yawropa birlikining xitaygha qaritidighan istratégiyilik pilanida, yawropa birlikining kishilik hoqoq mesiliside xitay bilen bolghan söhbetlerni kücheytidighanliqi alahide tekitlinish bilen birge, "yawropa birliki, junggoning qanun we démokratik asaslargha tayanghan erkin bir jemiyetke qarap yüzlinishini ümid qilidu, junggo, yawropa birlikining sherqqe kéngiyishi jeryanidiki tejribe - Sawaqlirini qobul qilishi lazim, chünki ilgiriki köpligen sotsiyalistik döletler bu jeryanda özlirining qurulmisini tedriji halda yawropa birlikining ölchemlirige maslashturghan idi " dep körsitilgen idi. Yeni yawropa birliki xitayni sotsiyalizimdin waz kéchip, démokratik bir séstimigha köchüshke ashkara dalalet qilghan idi.

Menbe:http://www.rfa.org/uyghur/obzor/obzor-parhat-10272008205202.html/story_main?encoding=latin

Green Edge 5: Farm Aid in Islamic China

Posted August 5, 2008 05:08 AM (EST)

Not so very far from yesterday's bombing that killed 16 police officers, in a region subject to a recent Chinese crackdown to protect the Olympics, Martin Ma manages a program to improve the workplace conditions of Xinjiang cotton farmers. He is simultaneously seeking to remedy the environmental problems of pesticide and the deep poverty of the farm workers. He works for Social Accountability International (SAI) in New York City under a four-year grant from the Netherlands development agency Solidaridad, which tries out new ways to lift people out of poverty and danger wherever they live or work.

For Solidaridad, the project is designed to improve the social and environmental standards of the supply chain for cotton to the Netherlands. It is pushing and helping Xinjiang smallholder farmers to form a cooperative, and pushing and helping a large farm to go organic to reduce chemical dangers to workers. The idea is that some day the farms will meet organic standards and be certified by the Dutch certification body SKAL, and meanwhile conditions for workers will improve.

The project is focused on a big farm with 50 farm workers in one village and on two neighboring villages with 1,250 residents of which 417 are local small farmers. The communities are Aksu, Kuqa and Korla, indicated by red dots on the map below, on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Western China. The project will work with the smaller farms as part of a long-term plan to allow expansion of production. Many workers migrate from Urumqi to the northeast, in East Turkistan (just east of the border with Russian Turkistan, which describes the five Turkic republics that were part of the former Soviet Union and are now independent), which the Chinese call Xinjiang or "New Frontier."

The area includes many migrant farm workers, and most of these are indigenous Turkic-speaking Muslims known as the Uighurs (pronounced Weegers), who remained behind after the many centuries of migrations of Turkic peoples toward the west. In addition, the area has some Yi people who have migrated from North Vietnam via train with the help of agents who are paid by the farm-owners and who bring the migrant workers in SUVs and trucks.

A farm owner was initially reluctant to sign up for the program, but was reassured when the contribution to the project of the funding sources was explained. The farm owner is an entrepreneur who saw the potential cost to himself of the project and was skeptical that the value to him of the project would exceed its costs. Then two farm workers on the next farm were killed by a tractor. This event shocked the farm owner into a greater appreciation of the dangers his own workers could be facing, and he signed up.

The August 4 Bombing. Kashgar, the westernmost city in China where 16 Chinese border police were killed yesterday, is southwest of the three sites where Solidaridad and SAI have their project to assist local farmers (see map). The two attackers were linked to the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a coalition (if it really exists -- some scholars question this) of Uighur advocacy groups that China calls terrorists. The United States reported in 2002 that al Qaeda was targeting the Uighurs and the London Times reports today that the Sunni group Hizb ut-Tahrir is doing the same.

The attack was not a total surprise. Last month, three people were executed in a town near Kashgar after being convicted of being ETIM members. A day earlier, five Uighurs died after a police raid on a middle-class home in Urumqi. Chinese officials have said that some local groups are tied to foreign Islamist extremists that are training Uighurs to bomb. The Public Security Bureau announced in April that it had arrested 45 people in two Uighur terrorist cells allegedly tied to the ETIM and plotting to disrupt hotels during the Olympics, for a total of 82 persons arrested as terrorists in Xinjiang through June. However, the province's vice-governor said last week there were "only a small number" of violent incidents in the region.

Human rights groups and some academics say the Chinese government exaggerates the threat to justify local crackdown and fails to distinguish among extremists, proponents of Turkic independence and advocates of Islamic culture. The Chinese Government forbids public display of the Uighur language or faith and Uighur defenders argue that violent incidents in Kashgar and elsewhere result from personal conflicts or security crackdowns, not terrorism. Prof. John Wang at California State University at Long Beach says the ETIM was much more active in 1993-1997 and since 2001 has retreated to Afghanistan and other places outside China. But the Olympic Games might have drawn them back.

Improving Uighur Productivity. The Uighurs are China's fifth-largest ethnic minority, with 8 million people concentrated in Xinjiang Province. Many of the Uighurs are unhappy over the growing migration to the area of Han Chinese ands their powerful and growing domination of business and local government in Xinjiang, a province that is described as "autonomous", implying that it is ruled by its own people. Han residents respond that Uighurs are not yet capable of managing the regional economy or administration.

The Uighurs are certainly poor. The 1,300 Uighurs who depend for their incomes on the farms in this project earn an annual income at current rates of exchange of $150. The official Chinese poverty line is $100 a year, which would imply 20 million poor Chinese people. If the line were raised to the $1 a day level used by the U.N., or $365 a year, the estimate for the number of poor people would rise to 140 million, more than 10 percent of the Chinese population. Either way, the Uighur farm workers live on very little.

The goal that Martin Ma (shown in front of SAI headquarters in New York City) is seeking to implement is to improve workplace conditions, productivity and pay of the Uighurs on selected farms in the area and also to ensure the organic quality of their cotton products. The brands that buy cotton from the area are willing to pay for conversion of the cotton crops to organic production, with Solidaridad covering some of the cost of conversion. For the organic component, the project has hired someone with 15 years' experience growing cotton used in natural-color textiles.

Protected Cotton. Cotton is protected by the Chinese government. In fact negotiations started in 2001 at the World Trade Organization on a new trade liberalization round have just collapsed in part because China did not want to give up its protection for agricultural goods. (See "The Doha Round... and Round... and Round," The Economist, July 31, 2008.) Agricultural trade accounts for only 8 percent of world merchandise trade but is the most heavily distorted by tariffs and subsidies. The 1994 Uruguay round required countries to convert their quotas and other barriers into straightforward tariffs, but countries were allowed to impose "special safeguard" duties to protect themselves. These duties have been relied on to protect politically sensitive commodities. China has decided that the best response to high food prices was to protect its own farmers.

Because Chinese cotton is protected, it needs to sell overseas as a premium product, which adds to the importance of certification according to organic and decent workplace standards. The project provides technical assistance for conversion to organic production, workplace certification and ethical trading. It also offers the farmers a market analysis. In the meantime the project is seeking to show the workers that it can deliver for them by working immediately on compliance with decent workplace standards. It is obtaining social insurance for farm workers and is making basic improvements such as installing running water and toilets, and providing daycare assistance for women who would otherwise bring their infant children to work with them in the fields.

Solidaridad's Role. Solidaridad is behind it all. Its approach is to use global market forces (for example, the influence of brands over their suppliers) as leverage for ambitious social change projects in developing nations, spending time organizing buyers in Europe and relying on existing well-known social and environmental standards like SA8000 and Fair Trade as evidence of compliance by farms overseas. It focuses on the product quality and therefore seeks to organize small farmers into cooperatives for mutual support. Sometimes Solidaridad creates its own brands, such as Oke fruits and Kuyichi jeans, and then makes these businesses independently. It also stresses farm ownership -- for example, both AgroFair and Kuyichi are partly owned by farmers in Latin America and Africa.

The fair-trade component is a hallmark of Solidaridad's programs. A director of Solidaridad, Nico Roozen, is a Dutch economist who with Frans van der Hoff was a key figure in launching Max Havelaar, the first ethical trading certification. Roozen helped convince major Dutch retailers to offer fairtrade-labeled goods, which contributed to the commercial success of fair-trade certification. He is also a member of the SAI Advisory Board.Solidaridad has been represented in China by Jeroen Douglas, who previously worked on fair-trade bananas (branded as Oke) in Honduras and Nicaragua. He made a trip to Chinese farms to survey their social conditions in 2005 and the following year Solidaridad invited SAI to co-manage its program in China. Under the Made-By name, Solidaridad is seeking to create a flagship fashion chain in China embracing its three themes -- ecological cotton, fair-trade and responsible workplaces.

Edwin Koster works with Douglas as Solidaridad's manager for the textile and fashion sector and is an alternate member of the SAI Advisory Board. His responsibility is, in collaboration with Made-By, to develop sustainable fashion chains that can benefit the environment, farmers and workers, and has visited China to move the project along.

By addressing in the same location both extreme poverty and acute environmental stress, this project can demonstrate how to create a decent workplace. Doing this will improve life for hundreds of families, and give their children some hope of a better future. Is it too much to think, that this project will also help reduce causes of conflict and reduce the ability of terrorists to recruit new members?Full disclosure: John Tepper Marlin has been married for nearly 37 years to Alice Tepper Marlin, who is the President of SAI.

Menbe:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-tepper-marlin/green-edge-5-farm-aid-in_b_116930.html

China releases "terror" blacklist in Olympic plot

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer

In this combo made from photos released on Tuesday, Oct 21, 2008 by China's Public Security Ministry showing 7 of the 8 Chinese nationals accused of plotting terror acts targeting the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. From top left Memetimin Memet, Emet Yakuf, Memettursun Imin, Xemsidinahmet Abdumijit and from bottom left Akrem Omerjan, Yakuf Memet, and Tursun Tohti. Photo of the eighth accused Memettursun Abuduhalik was not made available. Chinese police on Tuesday called for the arrest and extradition to China of the eight alleged Islamic terror group leaders and core members accused of targeting the Beijing Olympics. (AP Photo/China's Public Security Ministry, HO)

BEIJING (AP) - Chinese police called Tuesday for the extradition of eight alleged separatists accused of plotting a campaign of terror to coincide with the Beijing Olympics _ a scheme that reportedly included bomb attacks within China and in unspecified countries in the Middle East and South Asia.

A Public Security Ministry spokesman said the eight men, all Chinese citizens, were believed to have financed, incited and organized attacks during and around the Aug. 8-24 games as part of an ongoing insurgency against Chinese rule in the traditionally Muslim west.

Wu Heping told reporters at a news briefing that the men were members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a murky collection of extremists believed to be based across the border in lawless areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The eight "seriously threatened the security of the Beijing Olympic Games and China's social stability, while at the same time composing a threat to the security and stability of relevant countries and the region," Wu said.

Wu did not say in what country the men were suspected of hiding and left the briefing without taking questions.

He said one of the men planned to bomb a supermarket popular with Chinese business people in an unspecified Middle Eastern country ahead of the opening of the Olympic Games. Another suspect had prepared to attack a Chinese club in a South Asian nation, he said, without giving details.

The men also organized numerous attacks within China but it was not clear from Wu's statement if any of them were carried out.

After years of relative quiet, the western region of Uyghuristan/Xinjiang was rocked in August by a series of guerrilla-style attacks and bombings that killed 33 people.

Wu did not say if the eight men were thought to be behind those attacks.

The violence was reportedly carried out by radicals among Uyghuristan/Xinjiang's native Uighur ethnic group, Muslims whose language, culture and religion are distinct from China's Han majority's. Like Tibetans, many Uighurs complain of a colonial-style Chinese presence on their territory, chafing under tight religious and cultural strictures and complaining that economic development has disproportionately benefited Chinese migrants.

Radical Uighurs opposed to Chinese rule have long waged a low intensity campaign of bombings and assassinations against Chinese officials. But terrorism experts say the struggle has taken a deadlier, more radical turn in recent years through exposure to global terror groups such as al-Qaida.

Seventeen Chinese Uighurs have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since their capture in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001 despite having been deemed unthreatening and cleared for release.

China has demanded the detainees be repatriated, but Washington has refused to do so because of fears they will tortured and executed. Albania accepted five Uighur detainees in 2006 but since has balked at taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China.

China claims that it foiled a number of terrorist plots this year before they could be carried out, including an alleged attempt by a 19-year-old woman to blow up a Beijing-bound plane with liquid explosives in March. But it has provided little direct evidence to support claims that Islamic Movement leaders based across the border ordered the attacks.

Overseas Uighur activists say such accusations are politically motivated and designed to justify strict curbs on religious, political and cultural rights in Uyghuristan.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said Tuesday's announcement was part of an attempt to provide legal cover for a wide-ranging crackdown on Uighurs that followed the Olympics.

Business security consultants International Risk said the Chinese crackdown was likely to continue.

"In the aftermath of the Olympics, the Chinese authorities have quietly stepped up their crackdown in Xinjiang," the Hong Kong-based company said in a report on global terrorism issued this month.

A news release issued at Wu's press conference offered basic biographical information about the suspects and photographs of seven of the eight men.

It identified one man, 37-year-old Memetiming Memeti, as the leader of the ETIM movement, saying he had joined the group in an unidentified South Asian country after leaving home in 1998 and assumed the leadership after its former chief was killed in a skirmish with security forces in Pakistan in 2003.

The statement said that under Memeti's guidance an unspecified number of terrorists sneaked into Uyghuristan and other Chinese areas with plans to "sabotage the Olympic Games by conducting terrorist attacks within the Chinese territory before the Games opened."

He also allegedly "sent dozens of terrorist teams to some Middle East and west Asian countries to raise funds and buy explosive materials for terrorist attacks against Chinese targets outside Chinese territory."

Others accused include 33-year-old university graduate Tuersun Toheti, an alleged bomb maker blamed for planning attacks on Chinese targets outside the country.

Li Wei, a counterterrorism expert at a Chinese government-backed think tank, said Tuesday's announcement was a sign of China's sustained commitment to defeating the extremists following the end of the Olympics.

"China's major investment in Olympic security has helped them apprehend evidence of potential terrorist activity," he said.


(Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

From: www.wtop.com/?nid=385&pid=0&sid=1500980&page=1

Hunt is on for Uygur eight

Wednesday, October 22, 2008



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Beijing has published a list of eight men from its Muslim northwest who it said are terrorists and had threatened the Beijing Olympics in August and appealed to other countries for help in finding them.
"All the eight terrorists listed are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement," Public Security Bureau spokesman Wu Heping said.

"And they all took part in plotting, organizing and executing various terrorist activities targeting the Beijing Olympic Games."

The movement, listed by China, the United States and the United Nations as a terrorist organization, has been striving for many years to create an independent homeland in the Muslim-populated Xinjiang region.

Xinjiang is a vast area of mountains and deserts that borders central Asia. Many of its 8.3 million Uygurs, a Muslim minority speaking a Turkic language, say they have suffered decades of repression under communist rule.

Further, Uygur dissidents and rights groups claim Beijing has exaggerated the terrorism threat in Xinjiang to justify a harsh security crackdown there.

Wu appealed to other countries for help in capturing the eight: "We hope the governments of relevant countries and law-enforcement agencies will track them down, immediately arrest them and hand them over to China so that we can hold them responsible for their crimes."

All eight are Chinese nationals with Uygur names. Wu alleged some of them organized terrorist training, recruited members, raised funds for terrorist activities and manufactured poisons and explosives. Others participated in militant training.

China reported a wave of violence before and during the Beijing Olympic Games in Xinjiang and laid much of the blame on militant Uygurs. Authorities said more than 30 people died in violence in Xinjiang during August.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

From:http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=3&art_id=73248&sid=21097081&con_type=1&d_str=20081022&fc=4

New Land Clash in China
2008-10-15
A new clash erupts in southern China over the value of farmland slated for development.

Images from a video sent by a witness of clashes in Guangning county, Guangdong province.

HONG KONG—Police fired tear-gas and detained more than a dozen villagers in China’s southern Guangdong province during a clash with hundreds of demonstrators protesting what they describe as inadequate compensation for their farmland, witnesses said.

A witness surnamed Li said violence broke out Tuesday when villagers from Guangning county tried to stop construction workers from filling in their farmland with soil for the building of an industrial park.

“Hundreds of us villagers tried to stop the equipment from reaching the farmland. They mobilized more than 1,000 police and used tear-gas on us. The villagers were incapacitated. Then they threw rocks at the villagers and beat them,” Li said.

Police moved into the villages and rounded up participants, he said. “The police have cordoned off the villages and many are unable to leave the villages. More than a dozen from Hebu, Chayuan, and Mabu villages were detained."
Watch the video on YouTube
A video sent by a witness acting as a citizen journalist in Guangning county, Guangdong province.



Another witness, a woman surnamed Xie, said scores were injured in the incident, including many elderly villagers. “There were between 1,000 and 2,000 police. Many villagers were beaten,” Xie said.

I cannot make calls to the outside, but outside people can call me...Other villagers can make only local calls."


“Villagers in their 70s and 80s marched ahead of the crowd. They didn’t want their children and grandchildren to lose the land. The police pushed them, they fell. The young ones went up to help them. And the police started beating people,” she said.

Ma Meiju, a woman in her 50s from Chayuan village, was beaten by armed police and admitted to Guangning county hospital for treatment, her son said.

When her husband, Li Hairong, and younger son, Li Jincai, tried to intervene, the two were arrested on charges of obstruction of official business.

“Three or four armed police pushed my mom down in the woods and beat her over the head with a wooden stick. They also kicked her in the stomach and the leg,” Ma's elder son said.

“My dad and brother went up with a couple of bottles containing gasoline and were detained on charges of obstruction of official business. Who could stand by and watch when their mom and wife are beaten? Something is wrong with police beating a woman,” he said.

On Wednesday, villagers said hundreds of police remained on alert and were searching for three people identified as protest ringleaders, identified as Li Fujing, Li Qiaozhong and Lu Dahua.

A Dong, a resident of Cha Yuan village, said police had posted “wanted” photos of three people accused of “obstructing government work” and urged residents to share information about them. “We’re still wondering what crimes they are accused of committing,” he said.

Officials have warned residents that they must submit land compensation claims by Oct. 22.

Car torched

Villagers said that police had searched the home of one of the wanted men, Li Fujing, and that unidentified people set his car on fire. Another witness reported seeing four vehicles ablaze around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

“The fire broke out suddenly…Many people woke up and tried to put out the fire. There are many residential houses nearby,” one villager surnamed Li said.

Another villager surnamed Xie said Li’s home “was searched and somebody set his personal property on fire. I think they just want to smoke them out to turn themselves in."

Checkpoints, phone trouble

Another villager surnamed Lin returned home Wednesday after leaving briefly to avoid trouble with the police. He said many villagers’ mobile phones weren’t working and police were out in force.

“Many armed police are standing guard at every entrance to the village and roadblocks have been set up too,” Lin said. “Passengers in cars are subject to ID checks. I saw hundreds of police just in our village—and lots of plainclothes police around all the affected villages. “

Officials at the county police station hung up the phone when contacted by a Hong Kong-based reporter.

“I cannot make calls to the outside, but outside people can call me,” one villager said. “And other villagers can make only local calls. I first noticed this problem on Oct. 13.”

Villagers 'causing trouble'

A Wuhe township government official who refused to give his name and job title acknowledged that efforts were made to expropriate farmland on Monday, that police were called in to maintain order, and that some villagers had been detained.

“On Monday a small number of villagers caused trouble. We requested assistance from police to maintain order. After the crowd was dispersed on Monday, the construction went ahead as planned today,” the official said.

He declined to say exactly how many villagers had been detained.

According to the Wuhe township government official, the industrial park requires the expropriation of more than 1,000 mu (67 hectares) of farmland.

He said the villagers had been compensated at an above-market rate and only a small number had resisted the land expropriation because of their belief in fengshui, an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to create harmony through physical surroundings.

“The industrial park is a municipal-level priority project. The entire expropriation process was conducted in accordance with the law, but some villagers refuse to turn the land over because of their superstitious belief in fengshui,” the official said.

The villagers claim that they were only offered a one-off compensation scheme at the rate of 16,000 yuan (U.S. $2,344) for each mu expropriated. Many were unhappy with the offer and said they had signed several petitions during the last year.

Intimidation tactics

One woman, surnamed Li, said that the authorities pressured villagers to sign the land-sale agreement, and in late September even began to intimidate their children.

“The kids came home from school and said they were forced to sign statements vowing not to cause trouble. It’s the right thing to do for farmers to protect their farmland. We never signed the agreement to sell the land,” she said.

“But they carried out the scheme anyway. And now they are after those of us who petitioned our case. The people’s police [are] in full gear, including bullet-proof vests, and with police dogs,” Li said.

Villagers said that as of late Tuesday between 40 and 50 villagers were still under surveillance.

Some were taken away and their whereabouts are unknown. They said that when reporters from the Zhujiang Daily, a local newspaper, tried to go to the protest site, the trip was inexplicably cancelled.

Land protests spreading

Land disputes have spread across China in recent years, with local people often complaining that they receive only minimal compensation when the government sells tracts to developers.

In June, 900 vegetable farmers in China’s central Hubei province were involved in violent clashes with police over the course of ten days when authorities tried to seize their farmland for redevelopment.

The local government attempted to develop the land despite the fact that the farmers had rejected a compensation package that many said was too low. Scores of farmers were detained during the protests and at least one was detained.

In April, one villager was killed and five critically wounded when armed police opened fire on up to 100 protesters demanding a halt to the building of a mine in China’s southern Yunnan province.

Villagers had refused a compensation package offered by the mining company for the tract of land and were angered when the company proceeded with construction plans.

Original reporting by Ding Xiao for RFA's Mandarin service and Fung Riu Yau for RFA's Cantonese services. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Written and produced for the Web by Joshua Lipes and Sarah Jackson-Han.

From:http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/landprotest-10142008172014.html