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As it happened to Palestine and
Kashmir, the world has ignored the plight of persecuted Uighur Muslims in
China’s Xingjian region where the people started their struggle to win back
their political, economic, religious and cultural rights ever since Red Army
occupied the area in 1949.
China’s vast and
strategically important Western Xingjian region, once called Eastern Turkistan,
has been the homes for predominantly Uighur Muslims who once ruled the Silk
Road cities and are ethnically Turkic speak a language akin to Turkish.
They have lived in the region for more than four millennia and
played an important role in the cultural and mercantile exchanges between the
East and West.
Located beyond the natural
boundary of China on the ancient caravan route Uighur has been an integral part
of the history of Central Asia. Xingjian Uighur Autonomous Region is the
name given to Eastern Turkistan by the Chinese government and this has been the
cause of much resentment – a legacy of their former Manchu rulers, who invaded
Eastern Turkistan in 1759 and incorporated it into China.
Xingjian, containing a large
portion of the nation’s mineral resources, including 38 percent of the coal
reserves and 25 percent of the petroleum and natural gas reserves, is China’s
largest province, accounting for sixteen percent of the landmass.
Though home to only 1.6
percent of the population, Xingjian has tremendous strategic significance for
China, which conducts nuclear tests at the Lop Nor range. (As a policy, both
former Soviet Union and China always used Muslim populated areas for their
nuclear tests despite the fallout, resulting in the wide-scale contamination of
water sources and land, in turn, causing a disproportionately large number of
cancer cases, congenital birth defects, and various other related diseases
among the Uighur population).
Despite the mineral wealth of
Xingjian, more than ninety percent of local Muslims live below the poverty
line. Late Chairman Mao Tse-tung designed an aggressive population transfer
policy that has seen the rapid growth of the Han community in Xingjian – from
an original six percent in 1949 to forty percent in 1978 – and has effectively
made the Uighurs second-class citizens in their own country.
Today ratio between the
Uighur and Han populations has gone from being 9:1 to 1:9. China gives
preference in employment and the best jobs to ethnic Han Chinese migrants who
were mostly benefited by the money China pours into the province for
investment.
Inevitably, animosity is rife
between the two communities.
This growing rift between the
government and the Uighur Muslims took on new impetus with the dissolution of
the former Soviet Union and the emergence of independent Central Asian
Republics across the border. Encouraged by this trend in Central Asia, Uighur
Muslims too started their freedom struggle demanding their political and
religious rights for which they have vowed to fight to the finish in a
do-or-die struggle.
In response the Chinese
authorities subjected Uighur Muslims to unbelievable oppression and torture
besides executing a number of people linked to Muslim resistance. Even
occasional bombings or shootings have been met with terrible fury. There were
frequent reports of arrest, trial and execution of Uighur Muslims.
China signed agreements with
several Central Asian countries to gain their cooperation to crush the
separatist struggle in Xingjian.
All recent human rights
reports point to a drastic escalation of persecution and repression against the
Uighur minority.
Exploiting the US-led global
war against terrorism, since 9/11 tragedy in New York, Beijing arrests Uighur
Muslims in large numbers, concludes trials within days, often resulting in the
death sentence, which is often meted out on the same day that it is handed
down. The Uighurs are now “afraid to talk, not just to foreigners, but even to
each other”.
Religious Restrictions
Islam, inextricably linked to
their culture and identity, came to the region in 934 AD and
Kashgar became one of the major centres of Islam. According to statistics,
there are over 23,700 mosques in the region. But in Beijing’s resolve to
destroy this very identity, the Chinese government has placed strict
restrictions on the practice of Islam.
This repressive policy, which
began during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, continues to date. A Human Rights Watch
report tells of how the Uighurs were forced to breed pigs and mosques were shut
down and occasionally used as pork ware houses.
The Islamic clergy has been
subjected to heavy scrutiny and “political education”. According to official
sources, around 8,000 Imams were “trained” to give them “a clearer
understanding of the communist party’s ethnic and religious policies”. Some
Muslim clerics have been detained for teaching the Quran.
Under this campaign,
religious schools are banned, many mosques closed and the building of new
mosques restricted. Imams, indoctrinated in communism, deliver Friday sermons. Private
religious services cannot be held without the permission of the Communist
Party. The police raid peaceful religious gatherings and those found to be
leading the gatherings have been sentenced to long-term imprisonment.
Government employees risk being fired if they go to mosques.
Reiterating this in its
report, the London-based human rights watchdog, Amnesty International (AI) said
“fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was banned.
These draconian measures to
stamp out any manifestations of religious sentiment include night time patrols
of student dormitories to ensure that there were no prayers taking place,
outlawing of Quran study meetings and religious schools, the identification and
surveillance of religious leaders and the banning of history books that do not
conform to the “accepted” version of history.
Preaching or teaching
Islam outside government control is considered subversive and several hundred
Uighurs accused of such activities have been executed while thousands more have
been detained, imprisoned and tortured.
Cultural Crusade
Chinese authorities have
stepped up their control of Muslim religious and folk customs.
Accordingly stepped up surveillance on weddings and funerals as
well as circumcision ceremonies, house-moving rituals and the wearing of
earrings. Uighur government and party officials have been told to seek
permission before attending any such festivals or ceremonies and report back to
the government upon the completion of their activities.
Explaining their plight, a
prominent Uighur leader said, “The Chinese have likened the Uighurs to pandas –
a species on the edge of extinction”.
Torture
Amnesty has recorded hundreds
of executions and extra-judicial killings of Uighurs. China applies incredible
torture methods to stop them from fighting for their freedom, and commonly use
painful and brutal torture methods never used before.
The former
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson, once warned
during a visit to Beijing that they should not use the war on
terror as an excuse for widespread repression in Xingjian.
The Amnesty Report also spoke
about recent amendments to the Criminal Law which was interpreted
to suit the government.
But this is a conflict China
is anxious to hide from its people and from foreign governments, overseas
investors and tourists. Beijing has effectively pre-empted often weak Muslim
countries, which rely on China for political, economic and military assistance,
from speaking out against its repression of their fellow Muslims in Xingjian.
Diplomats are kept under close watch and foreign journalists are allowed to
visit only in the company of escorts.
Under the circumstances,
China’s notoriously repressive birth control policies, including, but not
limited, to forced abortions, would seem to suggest that Xingjian is one of the
worst places in the world to be a Muslim right now. This is especially so in
the context of the ongoing global war on Islam and the fast growing relations
between China and Israel.
With US led Britain, Europe, Russia
and Israel virtually destroying Muslim countries Uighur is likely to join the
list of forgotten Muslim freedom struggles like Palestine and Kashmir. (by
Latheef Farook)
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