Turkish Forum

Category: East Asia & Pacific

  • Uyghur Evictee Detained

    Uyghur Evictee Detained

    2010-08-10

    Chinese authorities hold an elderly Uyghur farmer in Beijing.

    RFA

    Abdurehim Mollek says his land in Onsu county was sold to a resettled Han Chinese farmer by local officials.

    HONG KONG-Authorities in Beijing are holding an 84-year-old Uyghur farmer after he traveled to the capital to lodge an official protest over the loss of his farmland, the man and his son said.

    Abdurehim Mollek, a Muslim Uyghur from Aksu prefecture in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, was being held by police after being taken from his motel room in the eastern Beijing suburb of Weigongcun, he said.

    Traveling with his 29-year-old son, Abdurehim Mollek said Sunday he had already been detained without trial for two years by authorities in Aksu’s Onsu (in Chinese, Wensu) county after he tried to petition over the actions of local officials.

    “We are in the Xinjiang Affairs Department’s motel with dozens of other Uyghur petitioners. I am allowed go out to the yard of the motel, but my father is not. There are two guards at the motel door who are always watching us. Probably in the next few days the police will come from Aksu to return us there,” his son said.

    “The Xinjiang Affairs Department usually holds us until the local officials come to take us away. That’s how it has worked most of the previous 10 times,” he said, referring to earlier trips his father had made to Beijing to petition.

    Abdurehim Mollek’s son said they had been planning to petition publicly at Tiananmen Square or at an international news bureau to make their voices heard.

    An officer who answered the phone at the Wanshousi police station in Beijing confirmed Abdurehim Mollek’s detention.

    “Yes, yes, that’s right … He is a petitioner. It says so in the system,” the officer said. “The system has identified him as a key petitioner.”

    Taken from motel

    He described their detention Monday by regular police officers at their motel in the capital.

    “Three Beijing policemen came to our motel room in the morning [at 9 a.m.] and checked our documents,” Abdurehim Mollek’s son said.

    “Abdurehim Mollek showed the police our IDs and papers about our case. Then the police took us to their office.”

    “They asked no questions and conducted no investigation. We were not allowed to have any food to eat. We were finally released at 6 p.m.,” he said.

    The father and son were placed in the custody of two police officers, a Uyghur and Han Chinese, who brought them to the Xinjiang Affairs Department and placed them, under guard, in a motel room at the department’s headquarters.

    “Regardless of whether the authorities agree to solve our problem, we will stay here. If we go back [to our hometown], we might be detained or sentenced. The last time [my father] was brought back home, he was detained in a mental hospital for 60 days. [The police said] if we petition again, we will be detained in a mental hospital permanently,” his son said.

    Years of petitioning

    Abdurehim Mollek has been petitioning ever since local officials in Kizil [in Chinese, Qingnian] village took over 220 mu (36 acres) of his farmland in 1997.

    His property was part of a total 3,000 mu (494 acres) of land which belonged to 20 Uyghur farmers, taken by local officials and sold to a Chinese farmer surnamed Chen who had recently settled in the village from another province.

    The land was later resold to another Chinese farmer surnamed Lu, who is the current owner.

    Abdurehim Mollek said the two Chinese farmers are close relatives of village chief Han Guoming, although calls to the village office to confirm this went unanswered.

    After being provided only a portion of his promised compensation, Abdurehim Mollek petitioned local and provincial authorities for 10 years.

    In 2007, he began to petition the central government and has since traveled to Beijing 11 times to plead his case.

    In 2008, he was held without trial in a detention center in Onsu county for two years. His most recent visit to Beijing was his second trip in three months, and the second since his release.

    After his previous trip to the capital, Abdurehim Mollek was forcibly repatriated to Aksu prefecture and held in a local mental hospital for 60 days.

    He has been returned to Xinjiang under police guard nearly every time he has petitioned the central government.

    Other petitioners targeted

    Mamut Rozi, a Uyghur from Yarkent county, in Xinjiang’s western Kashgar prefecture, is also currently in Beijing petitioning the central government over the forced sale of his land by local officials to a resettled Chinese farmer.

    In a telephone interview, Mamut Rozi said he feared being forcibly repatriated to Yarkent by local authorities.

    Two of his Uyghur roommates in Beijing were arrested by Xinjiang provincial police and taken to Aksu prefecture.

    The roommates, former workers at an Aksu sugar factory, had been chosen as representatives by a group of 200 workers recently fired by the plant to petition authorities in the capital over the loss of their jobs.

    “[The police] said to my roommates, ‘Why are you organizing others to petition? Why don’t you just take care of your own case? We’re arresting you for illegal organizing,’” Mamut Rozi said.

    “I couldn’t hold back my tears as I saw them handcuffed by the police.”

    ‘Cause for concern’

    Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, said petitioners like Abdurehim Mollek are highly vulnerable to arbitrary detentions by Beijing authorities if they try to complain about their local government in the capital.

    “And after they get sent back [to Xinjiang] they become a real cause for concern,” Raxit said.

    “Every time a Uyghur is sent back to Xinjiang, they are either sentenced to labor camp, or they suffer some kind of economic punishment.”

    Dilxat Raxit said this is routine. “All Uyghurs in this situation who get sent back home end up suffering for it to a greater or lesser degree.”

    “Many petitioners who travel to Beijing to complain from all over China are picked up by officials from their hometowns, who run representative offices in the capital for this purpose, and are escorted back home, where they can face beatings, surveillance, and further detention.

    China’s army of petitioners say they are repeatedly stonewalled, detained in “black jails,” beaten, and harassed by authorities if they try to take a complaint against local government actions to a higher level of government.

    Millions of Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate Central Asia and Xinjiang.

    Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China’s ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

    Those frustrations erupted in July 2009 in deadly riots that left nearly 200 people dead, by the Chinese government’s tally.

    Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

    Original reporting in Uyghur by Shohret Hoshur and in Mandarin by Qiao Long. Translated by Luisetta Mudie and Shohret Hoshur. Written in English by Joshua Lipes and Luisetta Mudie.

    https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/farmer-08092010142338.html

  • Iran buys gasoline from Turkey, Chinese sellers

    Iran buys gasoline from Turkey, Chinese sellers

    Iran is buying around half of its gasoline imports in July from Turkey and the rest from Chinese sellers, oil traders said.

    Many gasoline sellers have stopped trading with Iran due to US sanctions on those that supply the Islamic Republic, making it more expensive for Iran to meet its import needs.

    Iran would import around 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline in July, steady from June, oil traders said.

    www.iranoilgas.com,

  • US State Dept downplays spy case fallout

    US State Dept downplays spy case fallout

    medyedev obama

    By Robert Burns

    New Zealand Herald

    10:57 AM Wednesday Jun 30, 2010

    WASHINGTON – The scandal over an alleged Russian spy ring erupted at an awkward time for a White House that has staked its foreign policy record on improved cooperation with Moscow, but it appeared unlikely to do lasting damage to US-Russian relations.

    The administration sought to dampen tensions, while the Russian government offered the conciliatory hope on Tuesday that US authorities would “show proper understanding, taking into account the positive character of the current stage of development of Russian-American relations.”

    The White House response was notably restrained following the dramatic announcement that 11 people assigned a decade or more to illegally infiltrate American society had been arrested. They are accused of using fake names and claims of US citizenship to burrow into US society and ferret out intelligence as Russian “illegals” – spies operating without diplomatic cover.

    White House spokesman Robert Gibbs laboured to show that the arrests were a law enforcement matter – one not driven by the president, even though President Barack Obama was informed – and played down any political consequences.

    CCID: 31622

    Obama was asked about the matter by reporters twice on Tuesday. He declined to comment both times.

    Gibbs said Obama was aware of the investigation before he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the White House on Thursday, although Gibbs said he did not know whether Obama knew then that the arrests were imminent. The two leaders did not discuss the issue, Gibbs said.

    Officials in both countries left the impression that spy rings remain a common way of doing business.

    Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered a message of restraint during a meeting at his country residence with former President Bill Clinton, who was in Moscow to speak at an investment conference.

    “I understand that back home police are putting people in prison,” Putin said, drawing a laugh from Clinton. “That’s their job. I’m counting on the fact that the positive trend seen in the relationship will not be harmed by these events.”

    The administration has made a high priority of improving relations with Russia.

    At stake in the short term is a newly concluded nuclear arms control deal, dubbed New START, which requires a favourable vote in the US Senate and approval by the Russian legislature.

    More broadly, Obama wants to build the foundation for a strategic partnership with Moscow – to increase security and economic and other cooperation with the former Cold War foe.

  • European countries provide most of PKK’s weapons

    European countries provide most of PKK’s weapons

    Intelligence sources indicate that the biggest arms suppliers of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are allies of Turkey that are also members of NATO. Recently drafted General Staff reports say that many mines planted by the PKK were obtained from Italy and Spain.

    Turkey is ready to start a new round of diplomatic initiatives to stop countries that supply the PKK with arms. Turkey has undertaken similar initiatives in previous years.

    Over the past few months, the PKK has relied on arms from Mediterranean countries, intelligence reports indicate. The roadside bomb that exploded in Halkalı on Tuesday was of Portuguese origin, intelligence sources said, adding this country to the list of countries that supply arms to the terrorist organization. That attack was carried out by the PKK’s urban offshoot, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK).

    The most crucial question is how the PKK is able to bring these arms supplies it obtains from Mediterranean countries to northern Iraq. US journalist Seymour Hersh claimed in 2007 that this was done via Israel.

    The General Staff has seized PKK arms and ammunition originating from 31 different countries. However, NATO-member countries have been the biggest suppliers. Most of the arms and ammunition seized are of Russian, Italian, Spanish, German and Chinese origin.

    In 2007 Turkey questioned the countries where the arms used by the PKK — particularly the heavy artillery the terrorist group uses — are mostly manufactured on how the PKK could have obtained these weapons. These diplomatic attempts must have produced some sort of a result, as all PKK weaponry seized in the past three years have had their serial numbers erased. The military has noticed that the PKK now generally erases serial numbers, especially on explosives. However, most of the time the origins of the ammunition can still be traced. Turkey is concentrating on finding the sources of not the lighter arms but of heavy artillery such as heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, mines and hand grenades.

    According to data from the General Staff, the Kalashnikovs used by PKK terrorists are from Russia and China. The rocket launchers, mines, hand grenades and heavy machine guns so far seized from the organization appear to have been manufactured in Italy, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic and Hungary.

    The organization uses a third country to bring the weapons to northern Iraq and then into Turkey. What disturbs Turkey most is that the mines that have killed more than 100 Turks recently were all obtained from Italy.

    Another issue is that the PKK, which had been rather sloppy in using remote-controlled mines until 2008, has become more of an expert at such attacks. Terrorism experts say the PKK has been given special training, with many suspecting Mossad agents. In 2009, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay claimed that some Mossad agents had gone to northern Iraq and given training on remote-controlled explosives.

    According to documents from the General Staff, 72 percent of the Kalashnikovs used by the PKK are from Russia, 15 percent from China and the rest from Hungary and Bulgaria.

    In 2007, it was reported that more than 170,000 weapons donated by the US to the Iraqi army had ended up in the PKK’s hands. The US Defense Department started an investigation after Turkey’s discovery of this fact.

    Turkey is making a point to not publicly announce how it suspects these weapons are being brought into northern Iraq. Pulitzer-winning journalist Hersh, in an interview with the Takvim daily earlier this month, said Israel helped the PKK base in the Kandil Mountains bring in arms and supplies on helicopters.

    He said that Israel gives extensive support to the PKK and the related Iranian organization Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), especially in terms of arms supplies. He also said that Mossad operatives are active in the area, noting that Jewish Kurds who left northern Iraq 50 years ago returned to the region after the 2003 US occupation. He argued that most of these people are cooperating with the PKK and the purpose of these developments will become clear to all in the near future.

    Although this interview has attracted the attention of Turkish security units, there is a visible effort to avoid making any official statements at this point. Turkey recently made a decision to start diplomatically lobbying countries that supply arms to the PKK. If these countries fail to cut the support they provide for the PKK, then they will be warned openly in the international arena.

    24 June 2010, Thursday
    ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA

    www.todayszaman.com, Jun 26, 2010
  • ‘Mossad Chief to leave post’

    ‘Mossad Chief to leave post’

    By JPOST.COM STAFF
    06/26/2010 00:21

    Report claims Meir Dagan’s request to keep his job was rejected.

    sadmos
    Photo by: AP

    Mossad Chief Meir Dagan is to leave his post in three months, Channel 2 news reported on Friday.

    According to the report, Dagan, who has been head of the Mossad for the last eight years, requested to work another year in the role, but was refused.

    Dagan was appointed to the position in 2002 by former prime minister Ariel Sharon.

    Since then his appointment has been extended twice and is due to expire at the end of 2010.

    The decision not to renew Dagan’s appointment is likely related to the fallout from the recent attempt to assassinate Hamas commander Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai.

    A number of states who are normally friendly towards Israel were offended by the use of their passports in the killing. Britain has stopped issuing passports in Tel-Aviv and diplomats were expelled from Britain, Ireland and Australia.

    Source:  https://www.jpost.com/Israel/Mossad-Chief-to-leave-post

  • China ‘arrests Xinjiang plotters’

    China ‘arrests Xinjiang plotters’

     

    Ethnic Uighurs accuse Beijing of marginalising them in favour of Han Chinese migrants  [File: AP]

    Chinese police have arrested more than 10 “hardcore terrorists” who allegedly planned to carry out attacks in the Xinjiang region during unrest between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese last year, officials said. 

    Wu Heping, a spokesman for the ministry of public security, said on Thursday that the suspects were linked to the banned East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

    “The uncovering of this major terrorist group again proves that the ETIM
    and other terrorist organisations constitute the gravest terrorist threat
    that our nation faces at this present time and in the future,” Wu said at a news conference.

    Wu said that the members of ETIM, a banned group that advocates independence for Xinjiang, had fled to different parts of China and overseas after last July’s violence.

    Although he did not specify what countries they fled to, he said three of those whose arrest was announced on Thursday were among a group of Uighurs deported back to China in December. 

    Cambodia repatriated 20 Uighurs in December, saying they had entered the country illegally, but it was not clear if any of them were those referred to by Wu.

    Wu did not disclose any dates of the arrests and or any reason for why his statement was issued now. 

    ‘Politically motivated’

    Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, which is based in Europe, said the timing of Wu’s announcement was politically motivated.

    IN depth
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    “Announcing this now just before July 5 [the anniversary of the ethnic unrest] shows China wants to push the perception that all Uighurs and all Muslims are terrorists,” Raxit told the AFP news agency.

    Raxit has also told The Associated Press news agency that “China associates all Uighur causes with the ETIM, although no one seems to know what this group is or where they are located”.

    Among those detained were the group’s alleged ringleaders who are accused of launching attacks against against police and paramilitary troops around the time of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

    Wu said those who fled last July had subsequently travelled through China preaching religious “extremism”, recruiting members, raising funds, and rehearsing further planned attacks.

    Xinjiang tensions

    Simmering tensions between Han Chinese migrants and the Turkic-speaking majority Muslim Uighurs over the government’s allegedly discrimnatory policies spilled over into violence that left at least 200 people dead. 

    However, many analysts have said that ETIM is significantly less influential in the western region than the Chinese government suggests.

    Nicholas Bequelin, a senior Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch and an authority on Xinjiang, said there were some in region advocating violence but that links between individual acts were likely limited.

    “It mostly looks like these events [in Kashgar and Kuqa] were the product of very heavy pressure ahead of the Olympic Games prompting people to try and bring attention to the situation in Xinjiang,” he said.

    “But it doesn’t mean there is a link behind them, the only link to me is that the government has a theory that it faces separatist, extremist, terrorist groups and lumps it all together to make it look like it’s a conspiracy.”