Category: East Asia & Pacific

Turkish PM to raise Uighur mass killing in G8 summit

[ 09 Jul 2009 18:25 ]
Baku – APA. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will raise the issue of bloody events in Xinjiang-Uighur autonomous region of China in the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy.

On his departure for the G8 summit, Erdogan told journalists that he will raise the issue of mass killing of Uighurs to the G8 leaders, including the US, APA reports quoting Haberturk. “Our foreign ministry invited the Chinese ambassador and gave a notice to him. We demanded to end this wildness soon. I will discuss this issue with the world leaders. It is impossible for Turkey to keep silence toward this wildness”.

Erdogan said Turkey was ready to give a visa to the leader of World Uighur Congress Rebia Kadeer, who lives in exile in the United States, if she asks them for it. Chinese communist regime accused Kadeer in the masterminding of unrests and said she instigated the Uighurs in China.

July 9, 2009
Clampdown on Uyghur Cities

2009-07-09

Chinese security forces crack down on cities with large Uyghur populations.

AFP

Chinese paramilitary police trucks drive through downtown Urumqi, July 9, 2009.

HONG KONG—Chinese security forces imposed an uneasy peace on several major cities in the restive Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Thursday, with residents reporting a heavy security presence in Kashgar and Ili prefectures.

Police and armored vehicles were patrolling the streets of Gulja (in Chinese, Yining), capital of the Ili Kazakh Prefecture, residents said.

“Now the situation in Gulja city is very tense,” one Uyghur man said.

“When I went out this morning to buy cooking oil, I saw the streets were filled with fully armed police wearing helmets.”

“I personally saw five armored vehicles driving along the street. There were so many police cars on all of the streets,” he said.
He said the gates of government buildings in the city were under heavy guard by armed police.

“Since I was not able to enter from the front gate to the Ili Normal Institute where I live, I came home going through a gate behind the school that was guarded by our school security personnel,” he added.

Protests spread

Demonstrations spread out to other Uyghur cities in the region following Sunday’s deadly riots in Urumqi in which at least 156 people died and 1,080 were injured.

One Uyghur man who called a listener hotline said more than 300 people gathered around Kashgar’s Id Kah Mosque, Guze district, and People’s Square to demonstrate, but were quickly dispersed by security forces.

He said police were currently conducting house-to-house searches in the city. Detentions have been reported by residents in Yili, Dawan, and Tianshan.

Official media reported that tourism had been hit by the recent unrest, saying some travel agencies had canceled trips to Ili and Kashgar.

Police in Gulja recently detained a number of Uyghur youths in an anti-separatism campaign ahead of the sensitive 60th anniversary of communist rule, sources in the region said.

Overseas rights groups say untold numbers of people were killed in anti-China protests in Gulja in February 1997, in a crackdown that went largely unnoticed by the outside world.

Meanwhile, in Urumqi, thousands of Chinese paramilitary police rumbled through Urumqi’s riot-battered streets Thursday, blaring propaganda urging ethnic unity.

Uyghur residents said however that armed majority Han Chinese were still visible on the streets of the city Wednesday.

“The Chinese are on the streets, holding batons and clubs. They are attacking some shops. But I have not personally seen anyone injured or killed,” one Uyghur man said.

“When the Chinese came out with batons and clubs, there is no one to stop them. They are pretending to stop them, but they are not really strict,” he said.

“If the Uyghurs had come out with batons and clubs, they would immediately be fired upon.”

Media blamed

The Uyghur man, a university student, said the relative media freedom around the Urumqi violence still appeared to be inciting further unrest.

“I think the government and the media are instigating the Chinese to seek revenge,” he said.

“The government is trying to portray the conflict between itself and the Uyghurs as a conflict among the people.”

A Uyghur women in Urumqi said some Uyghurs were afraid of further attacks, while others were outraged at a perceived difference in treatment of Uyghurs and Han protesters and rioters.

“If the government was as cruel towards them as they were towards the Uyghurs, they surely would be able to take care of the problem in a moment,” she said.

She said many in Urumqi expected worse to come. “It seems that there are going to be big problems. Everyone is talking about it.”

A second Uyghur student said police had held two groups of Uyghur and Han Chinese students at two universities apart.

“Today there was some friction between the Uyghur and Chinese students at the Xinjiang University of Medicine and Xinjiang University of Economics (XUE),” he said.

“Today, the students at XUE were about to go out and confront the Chinese rioters, but the police surrounded them, and did not allow them to go out.”

He said all able-bodied Uyghur young men had been removed from Uyghur neighborhoods in recent days.

“It is as if there are no men on our streets. I hope these people don’t come to where we live,” he added.

Warnings posted

Authorities posted notices urging rioters to turn themselves in or face stern punishment.

Urumqi Communist Party chief Li Zhi said he would seek the death penalty for rioters who resorted to “cruel means” and murdered people.

The notices, posted on walls in the Chinese and Uyghur languages, said those who hid or protected “criminals” would also be punished.

The Chinese government has accused exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer of inciting the violence.

But exiled Uyghur groups say the Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority has long suffered ethnic discrimination, religious controls, and continued poverty despite China’s ambitious plans to develop the vast hinterland to the northwest.

Xinjiang is a strategically crucial vast desert territory that borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.

The region has abundant oil reserves and is China’s largest natural gas-producing region.

This week’s violence prompted President Hu Jintao to abandon a G8 summit in Italy, and he has returned home to monitor developments in Xinjiang where hundreds have been arrested in the ensuing crackdown.

Original reporting in Uyghur by Shohret Hoshur and Mehriban. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/clampdown-07092009101424.html

July 9, 2009
Demonstrators in Washington Protest Chinese ‘Terror’ Against Uighurs

By Laurel Bowman
Washington
08 July 2009

Passions flared in Washington Tuesday as ethnic Uighurs and their supporters marched through the streets.

They were protesting what they call the Chinese government’s rough treatment of ethnic Uighurs in western China.

Shouting “Shame on China,” supporters of China’s Uighur minority marched through the streets of Washington.

More than 100 people turned up to protest what they say is China’s brutal suppression of their friends and relatives in the western province of Xinjiang.

Rebiya Kadeer is a Uighur, an advocate for her people, and President of the World Uyghur Congress.

“We want to be the voices of Uighurs who are dying in Urumqi in Xinjiang. We want to be their voices and get their message across to you,” says Rebiya Kadeer.

Chinese officials have blamed Kadeer for the violence in western China, where Muslim Uighurs have clashed with Han Chinese, the country’s dominant ethnic group.

Chinese authorities say 156 people died Sunday when Uighurs took to the streets to protest a brawl between Han Chinese and Uighurs in Guangdong last month.

On Tuesday, Muslim women sobbed in the streets and argued with riot police.

Han Chinese men wielded clubs, shovels and knives; and the government declared a curfew.

Meanwhile, Kadeer says the official casualty figures are too low.

“Do you think out of all those demonstrations the only people who died were 156? I don’t think so. I believe that the upward number is 1000 and the lower number 500,” says Rebiya Kadeer.

Kadeer spent close to six years in a Chinese prison before being released in 2005 and coming to the United States.

“Uighur people consider me to be their mother and the leader of their democratic movement, and I will continue to lead them,” says Rebiya Kadeer.

Kadeer’s daughter, Kekenus Sidik, was also at the demonstration.

“My mother was in prison for six years, my father for ten years all for political reasons. I haven’t seen the rest of my family for over a decade. So I am a Uighur and this is the perspective I can give you,” says Kekenus Sidik.

VOA NEWS

Photos below are from Sincan

July 9, 2009
Uighur Protesters March in Washington

Associated Press
Tuesday, July 7, 2009; 5:00 PM

Video: Click on the Picture

An exiled Uighur leader accused by China of inciting ethnic violence says the Chinese government is responsible for the rising tensions.

Rebiya Kadeer spoke to Uighur protesters at a rally in downtown Washington on Tuesday. About 100 people are holding blue flags with a white crescent and chanting “Shame on China” as they march to the Chinese Embassy.

Chinese authorities have accused Kadeer of inciting violence between Muslim Uighurs and ethnic Han Chinese, in which at least 156 people have been killed. The riots broke out Sunday in China’s Xinjiang region.

Kadeer disputes the number of fatalities, saying she believes at least 500 people have been killed in the riots.

Kadeer says she’s seeking a stronger statement from the U.S. government about the violence.

Washington Post

July 8, 2009
Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “Brutality against Uighurs must be prevented”

Baku – APA. Turkish Prime Minister Racab Tayyib Erdogan took stance on bloody events taking place in Xinjiang-Uighur autonomous region of China, APA reports quoting Haberturk.

Turkey is closely following the developments there: “Our Uighur brothers living in Turkey and Turkish people feeling this pain in their hearts hold protest actions condemning these events. We have always seen our Uighur brothers as a bridge between Turkey and China, the country we have always had normal relations with throughout the history. Necessary measures must be taken to prevent this brutality. We are temporary member of the UN Security Council for 2009-2010. We will also take these events into consideration there”.

08 Jul 2009

APA

July 8, 2009
Chinese Authorities Blame Internet for Fanning Uighur Anger

Chinese authorities blame foreign activists for inciting violent protests this week in Xinjiang, and say the Internet enabled them to do it. Uighur groups have used the Internet to rapidly get out images from what they say was a provocative government crackdown on a peaceful demonstration.

Following Sunday’s violence in Xinjiang region, Chinese authorities were hasty to point fingers.

At a news conference Monday, Xinjiang’s police chief Liu Yaohua blamed the World Uighur Congress, an international Uighur rights group.

Liu accused the organization of distorting China’s ethnic and religious policy to stir up conflict. But he especially singled out the Internet, describing it as the main medium that foreign forces use to communicate with Uighurs in China.

Uighur activists say a peaceful demonstration Sunday in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, turned violent after police began cracking down. Chinese authorities accuse groups like the World Uighur Congress of masterminding a riot from afar, in an effort ultimately aimed at creating an independent Xinjiang.

Twitter disabled

The government has acted quickly to block access to information. Authorities acknowledge that Internet service in Urumqi has been interrupted, but they do not say how long it will be out. They say the interruption was done legally, and is necessary to maintain social stability.
In Beijing, the Twitter messaging system, which protesters in Iran recently used to report on police crackdowns there, has been disabled. And while cell phone connections in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, still operate, getting a call to the city, or making an international call from there, is proving difficult.

Xiao Qiang teaches journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. He also edits China Digital Times, a round-up of Chinese-language content on the Internet.
Internet is playing a bigger role this year,” Xiao noted. “Partially because what happened in Urumqi was immediately exposed by lots of cell-phone cameras, digital cameras, videos – there’s a lot of witness(es), people [who] immediately wrote and sent out video images on the Internet.”

Internet gains importance

Xiao compares what happened in Urumqi to the events last year in the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, when scores of Tibetans clashed with security forces there. He says Internet use in Urumqi is much more than in Lhasa.

He says Chinese authorities immediately began removing all Internet references to the Urumqi protest, and blocking social networking sites.

There are ways of getting around Web restrictions. Xiao says Chinese Internet users have been engaging in a tactic called “tomb digging.” Users on a bulletin board forum post an up-to-date response to an older post that mentions Xinjiang and has not yet been deleted.

“It’s basically a covered-up way to discuss those banned issues, under the nose of the editors of those forums, and it could be very effective,” Xiao said.

What caused violence?

Xiao says the opinions on Internet forums are much more varied than those in official Chinese media. Some support the government and the use of force to crack down on chaos. But other users are mistrustful of the government’s handling of the situation and are more reflective about the cause of the violence.

The Uighurs are a mostly Muslim ethnic group with cultural and linguistic ties to Central Asia. For years, many have complained that country’s ethnic majority, the Han, are taking over their traditional home, Xinjiang, in western China, and that they face government discrimination.

University of Washington Chinese studies Professor David Bachman says the images of the crackdown he has seen show the use of force has been “extensive” and “in some ways merciless.” Despite the government’s criticism of the Internet, the wide dissemination of pictures like those also helps spread Beijing’s stern warning.

“Clearly, the Chinese government is saying to Uighurs and to others in Xinjiang and to Tibetans and other minority groups, or for domestic protesters in the heart of China, that protests will be met with strict and harsh measures. Don’t even think about it,” Bachman said.

Possible solution

Bachman says cracking down – on both a restive minority and on public access to information – may solve short-term problems, but will only breed more resentment and opposition in the long run.

He says there is no quick fix to the long-standing tensions between Han Chinese and Uighurs. He says any efforts to make the problem better, though, should first focus on deeper issues, such as trying to alleviate perceived imbalances, discrimination and inequality.

Voa News

July 8, 2009