Category: East Asia & Pacific

An image released by the U.S.-based Uyghur American Association of the clashes in Urumqi on July 5.

Current and former Uyghur activists abroad have rejected Chinese officials’ accusations of involvement in weekend violence that has left 140 people dead and hundreds injured in Xinjiang province, a heavily Uyghur swath of western China where ethnic and social frustrations run high.

Chinese officials have blamed “separatists” in the Xinjiang autonomous region and Uyghur plotters abroad — including the World Uyghur Congress — for rioting that broke out on July 5 and quickly escalated before thousands of additional security troops were dispatched to get a handle on the unrest.

Uyghur exiles have rejected Chinese officials’ claims of a plot and said the unrest was caused by police opening fire on a peaceful protest. The exiles said the riot was an outpouring of anger over government policies and Han Chinese dominance of economic opportunities.

Police and other security forces continued their stepped-up presence on July 6, and reports suggested the streets were largely quiet.

In a telephone interview with RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service from his home in Germany, the vice president of the World Uyghur Congress, Asgar Can, downplayed Chinese allegations of involvement by his group in the unrest.

“If any protest appears in East Turkistan [the Xinjiang region], the Chinese government always blames the World Uyghur Congress for allegedly arranging those protests,” Can said. “Instead of blaming us, the government should listen to the problems of Uyghurs in the region and give what our people demand from the government, and this kind of protest would never happen.”

Can accused Beijing of persecuting Uyghurs through suppression of their Turkic language as well as religion and speech, population-control measures, and nuclear tests in their historical homeland.

“This protest is just a response to the inhuman treatment of Uyghurs by the Chinese government,” Can said.

His group issued a statement condemning “China’s brutal crackdown of a peaceful protest in Urumchi.”

Major Minority

Uyghurs are thought to compose roughly half of the Xinjiang region’s population of around 16 million.

In a historical context Xinjiang (New Frontier) is widely regarded as a part of Central Asia and, specifically, a region known as Eastern Turkistan. It became a tense hot spot following the implosion of the Soviet Union and newfound independence for five Central Asian republics in 1991.

As a result, clashes between the most outspoken Uyghur proponents of independence and Chinese authorities have been a frequent occurrence over the past 15 years or so.

Speaking after the latest unrest, Rozimukhamet Abdulbakiev, a former Uyghur activist in neighboring Kygyzstan, suggested the woeful rights situation was to blame for the kind of deep resentment that might have sparked the bloodshed.

“When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uzbek states became independent, the Uyghurs became especially eager [to pursue] their independence with a new strength — this is what we’re seeing today,” Abdulbakiev, a former head of NGO Ittipaq (Unity) in Kyrgyzstan, told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service in Bishkek.

“If the Chinese government were democratic and if it carried out political reforms, then this kind of harsh resistance would disappear,” he added.

Abdulbakiev called the unrest “a political and social matter” with roots in Beijing’s treatment of a beleaguered minority.

“Even though China granted Xinjiang the status of an autonomous Uyghur region, there is no sign of autonomy there. There are no rights for Uyghurs there — nothing,” Abdulbakiev said. “The Chinese totalitarian regime has suppressed all freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of personality, freedom of conscience [for Uyghurs] — that is why, of course, people have risen against it.”

Xinjiang is a major corridor for Chinese trade and energy ties with Central Asia, and is itself rich in gas, minerals, and agricultural production.

Other International Reaction

The latest violence followed a June clash between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the southern Guangdong province in June that reportedly left two Uyghurs dead.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon responded to the violence by saying differences must be resolved peacefully through dialogue. He also urged governments to protect the lives and safety of civilians, as well as freedoms of speech, assembly, and information.

Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano brought up the question of human rights at a press conference with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, in Rome. He said both sides agreed that “economic and social progress that is being achieved in China places new demands in terms of human rights.”

In London, a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged restraint from all sides.

written by Andy Heil and RFE/RL correspondent Antoine Blua with contributions from RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz and Tatar-Bashkir Services

https://www.rferl.org/a/Kyrgyz_Uyghur_Sees_Roots_Of_China_Unrest_In_Beijing_Policies/1770623.html

2009-07-05

China blames overseas Uyghurs for inciting rioting in the northwestern city, saying at least 140 people died in the violence.

Sent by a witness

On this picture sent to RFA by a witness, cordons of Chinese riot police face up to demonstrators on July 5, in Urumqi.

Armored police car in an unknown Urumqi street, on July 5.

A young Uyghur man is being taken away by two helmeted Chinese policemen in an Urumqi street, on July 5.

Smoke rise above Urumqi from a location near South Gate (Nan Min) on July 5, as demonstrators clashed with police.

Screen shot from a message board in Uyghur showing a message in an image, calling for a demonstration in Kashgar, in front of the mosque, on July 6.

Demolition has begun in parts of Kashgar’s Old City.

The ancient Silk Road trading hub of Kashgar, in China’s northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is being threatened by an ambitious government redevelopment plan that some say has a hidden political agenda.

Kashgar’s old city has survived the centuries, and remains an important Islamic cultural center for the Uyghurs, the Turkic ethnic group living in Xinjiang.

According to Matthew Hu Xinyu, an adviser to the nongovernmental Beijing Cultural Protection Center, the densely packed houses and narrow lanes of old Kashgar are the best-preserved examples of a traditional Islamic city in all of China.

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Province in northwest China

But the government’s reconstruction plan, Hu says, is threatening to destroy the picturesque labyrinth that makes up old Kashgar.

“Last fall, I heard that the plan would be carried out through the next three years. I thought we would have some time to organize experts or architects to work on a constructive plan — to suggest a more conservative plan — so that the city’s heritage can be preserved,” Hu said. “But early this year the total investment for the plan has been increased to [$440 million], and the demolition of the old houses started very quickly.”

City officials have been moving a number of families out of Kashgar’s city center, saying they need to rebuild old, dangerous houses and improve infrastructure. In total, the government says it plans to renovate or reconstruct more than 5 million square meters of old homes and resettle some 45,000 households.

Officials say the project is necessary because an earthquake could destroy old buildings, putting residents at risk. Indeed, earthquakes frequently rock Xinjiang. In 2003, a quake killed some 270 people.

Reports say wrecking crews razed the historic Xanliq madrasah, one of the province’s protected cultural sites, on June 15. Mahmud al-Kashgari, the 11th-century scholar, is believed to have studied at the madrasah.

Traditional Lives

Dominated by a gigantic statue of Mao, old Kashgar has seen many changes in recent decades, including the construction of a main street running through the old town center. Cars, buses, and trucks clog the city streets.

Still, many residents manage to live a far more traditional life. They live in tumbledown mud-brick rentals or two-story homes that open onto courtyards. Artisans hammer metal bowls, pans, and pots, carve wood, and hone brightly decorated knives.

Street vendors sell hand-made candy, fresh mutton, or hand-sewn skull caps. Donkey-cart drivers navigate the narrow streets.

It’s unclear what will remain of the design and way of life of the city, which is hundreds of years old, after the reconstruction project is completed. The city says important buildings will be preserved, while many homes will be rebuilt to better withstand earthquakes while still preserving Uyghur building styles. However, several sectors are expected to be rebuilt with modern apartment buildings, public plazas, and schools.

Officials say infrastructure such as water, electricity, and sewers systems also will be installed.

No Details Forthcoming

The Beijing Cultural Protection Center says nobody denies Uyghurs the right to development, modernization, and security. But the center worries that it has been unable to obtain any details of the reconstruction plan, which Hu says should ensure the preservation of the city’s unique heritage.

A gate in Kashgar’s Old City

“If we look at every single one of these Uyghur people’s homes [individually], it’s not significant, [although] some of them have very interesting carvings on the door frame or on the architecture, the wooden parts,” Hu says.

“But this group of [homes] shows a way of life [and] a way of urban planning — how the city can be organized around different mosques. If we have the houses removed and rebuilt, then this layout will disappear, and the significance of the city will disappear,” he said.

China and Central Asian states support a plan to propose major Silk Road sites for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List, an incentive for governments to preserve areas of historical and cultural significance.

Beijing, however, has not included old Kashgar in its list of proposed sites.

Henryk Szadziewski, manager of the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington, D.C., taught for several years in Kashgar in the 1990s. He tells RFE/RL that there’s no clear indication of what is going to be done with the remaining old city.

“As far as we understand the project, a remainder of the old city would be left, I imagine, to attract tourists. But who is going to manage that area and profit from the tourist revenue?” Szadziewski asks. “The tourist industry is worth about [$90 million] a year in Kashgar. We also have to remember that we have no indication that there was any meaningful participatory process that meant that the old city residents were party to the decision making.”

Political Aspects Seen

The preservation of Kashgar’s old town is facing challenges similar to those facing the preservation of other Chinese cities. But many see a political aspect to the redevelopment project in Kashgar, which Chinese officials consider a breeding ground for Uyghur separatism.

Chinese officials in recent years have alleged that Kashgar harbors terrorist cells. Uyghur extremists were blamed for a fatal attack on border police; two of the alleged organizers were executed this spring.

Uyghurs at a bazaar in Kashgar

Many see the Kashgar project as an attempt to remove the cultural roots of Uyghur separatism.

“There’s definitely a difference between what’s happening in eastern China and in Kashgar. That’s largely due to the sensitivity over the Uyghurs and their particular concerns over human rights issues,” Szadziewski says.

“The [Kashgar] project appears to be a tool to assimilate Uyghurs and to actually stifle peaceful dissent by putting old city residents from an organic living arrangement into a regimented, government-organized living arrangement. The [Chinese] authorities are able to monitor the activity of any peaceful dissent among Uyghurs,” he says.

Szadziewski says the assimilation process is taking place on many different fronts.

“One particular area is language, and we’ve seen a marginalization of Uyghur language in the economic sphere and the educational sphere,” he says. “A ‘China Daily’ report said that learning Mandarin Chinese will help fight terrorism. The statement in itself may cast a sort of aspersion on Uyghur language itself, that it was a suspect language.”

Critics accuse Beijing of using claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment and expressions of Uyghur identity.