- MUST READS
- PRODUCTS
- RESOURCES
- MULTIMEDIA
- ENFACTLOPEDIA
- FSM AUTHORS
- ABOUT US
- CONTACT US
- FSM BLOG
- DONATE
- PRESS COVERAGE
SEARCH FSM
- IN THIS SECTION
July 9, 2009
Exclusive: Uighur Unrest in China - What is Going On?
On Sunday, in the city of Urumqi (Urumchi) in the province of Xinjiang, northwestern China, violence broke out. The unrest led to the deaths of 156 people; 800 people were injured. The conflict has dimensions that are political, ethnic and religious. Because of the political aspects, the Chinese authorities have imposed censorship of the Internet, as well as introducing curfews in Urumqi. On Tuesday, some individuals tried to stage a repeat of Sunday's rioting, but were held back by armed police, apparently without injuries.
Accounts of how the unrest began are contradictory, though the forceful reactions by the Chinese authorities have led Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to announce that governments should "protect the life and safety of civilian populations, and their citizens and also protect the properties and the freedoms of speech, assembly and information."
Ban added: "This is the basic principle of democracy. That's what I am urging again to all the countries of the world." China, even after its economic revolution, can hardly be considered "democratic." This lack of democracy is clearly illustrated in outlying regions like Tibet and Xinjiang which are regarded by many indigenous citizens as being under Chinese "occupation."
Uighurs
As in Tibet, which adjoins this province, the region of Xinjiang has seen an increase of migration by Han Chinese. More than 7 million Han have migrated to the province since 1970. Before that time, only 200,000 Han lived in the region. The Han comprise the largest ethnic group in China, making up about 92 percent of the nation's demographic. Officially-sanctioned policies of migration are seen as deliberate attempts to gradually outnumber indigenous peoples. Among the 19 million population of Xinjiang, 41 percent is now Han Chinese; 45 percent are Uighurs.
The province of Xinjiang is officially called "Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region," though there appears to be little true autonomy while politicians in Beijing, some 1,875 miles away, decide its future. The Uighurs (Uyghurs) claim to be the traditional inhabitants of the province. Most of the Uighurs are Muslims. Many certainly resent the influx of Han Chinese to the region and feel they are being "crowded out.".= Many of the faces of the civilian victims of Sunday's unrest appear to be ethnic Han, and some have claimed on Chinese media that they were attacked by groups of vigilante Uighurs.
One unverified report from a person claiming to be an eyewitness appeared on the BBC website: "I saw a group of Muslim people who had caught two women, hit them until they fell to the ground and then attacked them with knifes. After I witnessed that, I just wanted to run away, to avoid being captured by them. That day I was going shopping. I saw hundreds of Muslims assembled in one place. They were looking in the crowd to identify anyone who is Han Chinese. Then they would attack and kill innocent passers-by."
Those who attempted to revive the unrest on Tuesday appeared to be ethnic Han, who wished to vent their anger on the Uighurs, whom they blamed for the rioting and killings on Sunday.
The situation in Xinjiang, the most serious civil unrest in China since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, reflects a tension that has been simmering for at least half a century. As in the case of Tibet, Chinese authorities blame the unrest on exiled leaders. Where the Dalai Lama was blamed for Tibetan calls for independence, the authorities now blame Rebiya Kadeer for inciting Uighur unrest. Chinese news agency Xinhua reported claims from police in Xinjiang that they had "evidence" that she masterminded the unrest.
Those claims are not supported by any documented proof. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Tuesday that "The violence is a preempted, organized violent crime. It is instigated and directed from abroad, and carried out by outlaws in the country." He added: "Rebiya Kadeer is also involved in serious economic crime."
Rebiya Kadeer (pictured) is head of the World Uyghur Congress, and calls for the region to gain independence from China, but she does not support violence. Kadeer was a successful businesswoman from Xinjiang who had been born in poverty. She was arrested in 1999 for "harming national security." Her "crime" was to send a press clipping from a local newspaper to other Uighurs living in exile. On March 10, 2000 she was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, but was released in March 2005 and allowed to travel to America for medical treatment. According to Qin Gang, Kadeer was allowed to leave on humanitarian grounds, after promising not to engage in actions endangering China's security.
At his press conference on Tuesday, Qin branded her a liar. A local official claimed that Kadeer, who now lives with her husband Sidik Rouzi in the suburbs of Washington D.C., had used the Internet to orchestrate the violence that began on Monday.
Ancient Histories
The Uighur traditionally speak a Turkic language. Their current "autonomous" territory lay along the silk routes, and throughout history various peoples passed through on missions of trade or conquest. Islam officially came to be embraced by Uighurs of the region in 934 AD. Some Uighurs refer to their homelands in modern-day Xinjiang as East Turkestan or sometimes Uighuristan. Uighurs generally appear distinctly different from Han Chinese. Facially they are generally more similar to peoples found in neighboring Central Asian regions like Kazakhstan, and also Western Asia. Surprisingly, some have light brown or even blonde hair.
The ancestry of the people who call themselves Uighur shows them to be distinct from the ethnic Han. A large part of Xinjiang's geography is made up of the Tarim Basin, a depression that contains the Taklamakan Desert. The silk route traversed around the edges of this dry and inhospitable region. In the 19th century, documents were recovered from this area that showed an Indic script was in use during the 6th to 8th centuries AD. The language was named "Tocharian" and was clearly Indo-European. Northeast of the Tarim Basin lies Turpan where one version of this language (Tocharian A) was spoken. Murals at the Buddhist grottoes of Bezeklik were painted in the 10th century near Turpan. By this time Tocharian had been almost completely replaced by Turkic speech. Pictures from Cave 20 clearly show local merchants with features not associated with Han physiognomy. One (pictured) has a red beard and pale eyes.
Linguists argued about the Indo-European origins of the Tocharian language and it was generally assumed that the "Western" features of many Uighurs were the result of comparatively late migrants mixing their genes with local "Chinese" inhabitants. This story was questioned after mummified bodies were found at the edges of the Taklamakan Desert. These bodies were remarkably intact, considering they lay in the desert for 3,000 years. The most completely preserved mummy came from Cherchen on the south edge of the desert. His hair coloring and facial features appeared distinctly European (pictured).
Recent genetic examinations have shown that the vast majority of ethnic Uighurs (95 percent) carry haplotypes that can be found in either European or East Asian populations. Mixing of these genetic components appears to have taken place 110 generations and 129 generations ago (estimated at 2,200 and 2,580 years ago). The Uighurs have been part of this landscape for thousands of years.
Chinese census reports from the time of the Early Han Dynasty (208 BC to 8 AD) mention the Kucha State – which existed in an oasis on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Kucha, described as the largest of the 36 Western Regions, had a population of 81,317, with a quarter of these able to bear arms. Here, Tocharian B was spoken. There were numerous attempts by the Uighur peoples to free themselves from Chinese rule in the first centuries of the first millennium AD. In the 6h and 7th centuries, the Uighurs allied themselves with the Kok Turks against China. It is probably around this time that the Turkic language started to supplant the Tocharian languages as common speech. After the Kok Turk empire collapsed in 744 AD, a Uighur state was formed which stretched from East Turkestan (Uighuristan, or what is now Xinjiang) into Mongolia and to Lake Baikal.
Between 1759 and 1862, the Uighurs of East Turkestan were invaded and ruled by Manchurians. The Manchu dynasty lasted from 1644 to 1912. Though the Manchus were successfully driven off in 1862 and East Turkestan was briefly recognized by the Empires of Russia, the Ottomans and Britain, the Manchus again invaded in 1876. At this time, the region was called Xinjiang, meaning "New Dominion." This was annexed into the Manchu empire on November 18, 1884.
The version of history presented by the Chinese authorities implies that Xinjiang had been under continuous Chinese rule since 60 BC, with two brief interludes in the 1930s and the 1940s when independent "East Turkestan republics" were created.
The first of these experiments in independence emerged in 1933 while China was under attack from Japan, but was suppressed three years later. On November 12, 1944 Xinjiang became one of three districts to become incorporated into the Second East Turkestan Republic. This republic was founded with Soviet assistance, but it was dissolved by the Chinese Communists on October 20, 1949, who were supported in this by the Soviets.
Modern Rebellions
Under the Communist regime, there has been a continual struggle between those who want East Turkestan to be independent and those who want it to remain part of China. It has strategic importance, adjoining Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, and economically it may have exploitable oil reserves. Sixty percent of the region's GDP already comes from oil and gas.
The Chinese authorities frequently mention a terrorist group called ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement) and claim that his group has carried out deadly terror attacks inside Xinjiang. In 2002, the authorities maintained that since 1990 ETIM has carried out more than 200 terrorist attacks, causing the deaths of 162 people, and injuring more than 440 people. Between 1990 and 2005, a total of 41 metric tons of explosives had been seized from separatists, Xinjiang officials claimed.
On February 25, 1997, three bombs were set off in buses in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang. Nine people died and more than 70 were injured. A fourth bomb failed to detonate.
Though the numbers of people in ETIM are now said to be minimal, the group was once feared. ETIM was said to have links with Al Qaeda. The founder and leader of ETIM was Hasan Mahsum. Born in 1964 in the Kashgar region of Xinjiang, Mahsum was arrested in October 1993 by Chinese authorities. He was given a three year prison term, with hard labor, accused of terrorist offenses. He left China in 1997 and went to Afghanistan at the time that the Taliban had taken over. Here, according to the Chinese authorities, he helped to train terrorists. Mahsum publicly denied links with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
On October 2, 2003, Mahsum was killed by Pakistani military. He had been killed in South Waziristan in a military exercise to confront Al Qaeda.
Pakistan has officially maintained good relations with China, but some of its extreme Islamists have used the Uighur situation to attack Chinese civilians working in Pakistan. In October 2004, Pakistan Taliban leader Abdullah Mehsud kidnapped two Chinese engineers. Mehsud – whose power base was in South Waziristan – had been previously released from Guantanamo. The engineers had been working on the construction of a dam. One was killed during a rescue attempt. Mehsud blew himself up on 24 July, 2007, rather than be captured. His brother Baitullah now leads the local Taliban.
Some Uighurs have been involved in the Islamist operations. 17 individuals were until recently housed in Guantanamo. In June 2009, four of these were moved to Bermuda. The Pacific island of Palau has agreed to take in the remaining 13 Guantanamo Uighurs. All were arrested in Afghanistan, all protest their innocence.
The Chinese identify other separatist UIghur grups that it claims carry out terrorist attacks. These include the Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), which was founded in Turkey. Its leader is Mehmet Emin Hazret.
ETLO carried out assassinations of policemen and politicians inside Xinjiang and beyond. On June 29, 2002, ETLO carried out the murder of a Chinese diplomat in Bishkek in Kyrgystan. In 2000 they carried out assassinations in Kazakhstan. The Chinese claim that ETLO, like ETIM, ran terror training camps in Khost, Afghanistan until the fall of the Taliban. The funding for both groups is said to come from Pakistan.
In the period leading to the Beijing Olympics of 2008, Chinese officials were on high alert from the activities of ETLO and ETIM. In early January 2007, it was announced that a terror training camp had been destroyed. The camp, situated on the Pamir Plateau in the south of Xinjiang, was run by ETIM. Chinese media claimed 18 terrorists and one policeman had been killed in the raid, and 17 terrorists had been apprehended. More than 1,500 hand grenades, manufactured at the camp, were seized.
Before the Olympics began, the leader of ETLO had announced: "The Beijing Games are our one last golden opportunity to inflict such attacks on China. Even though we know we are weak like an egg on a stone, they will try to smear the stone."
On March 7, 2008, China Southern Airlines Flight CZ6901 left Urumqi in Xinjiang, bound for Beijing. Following an incident on the plane, the flight was terminated at Lanzhou. According to officials, a young Uighur woman tried to take gasoline into the rest room, apparently to cause a fire. Two people were arrested, with a third captured later.
On Monday August 4, 2008, a terrorist attack took place at a police barracks in Kashgar (Kashi) in Xinjiang. Police officers were jogging when a truck was driven into them. The two Uighurs left the truck and started throwing explosives. The assailants then attacked the victims with knives. 14 police died at the scene, and 18 others were injured. Three of the wounded would later die.
The two attackers were arrested: 33-year-old Addurahman Azat was a taxi-driver, and 28-year old Kurbanjan Hemit was a vegetable seller. They were sentenced to death on December 17, 2008, and on Thursday April 9, 2009 they were executed.
On August 10, 2008, a week after the police barracks attack, bombings took place in Kucha (Kuqa) in Xinjiang. A dozen bombs were set off in four government buildings. One official was killed. Two attackers died during the attacks, with five killed later.
The Current Climate
There is no evidence so far that this past weekend's events have anything to do with terrorism. Though the Chinese authorities have been more forthcoming than usual in allowing news to be reported, there is still censorship. The official story appears to be that Uighurs rioted and attacked Han civilians, and then took on armed police. Uighur sources, unverifiable in the current climate of curfews and internet black-outs, claim that the death toll for the Urumqi unrest exceeds 600, due to Chinese security forces shooting indiscriminately.
It is certainly true that Uighurs were angered by events that took place on the night of Thursday June 25, 2009 in the province of Guangdong in southern China. Here, Han Chinese in Shaoquan City set upon Uighur migrant workers. The Uighurs were employed at a toy factory. Two of the Uighur workers were killed, and more than a hundred were injured. 16 of the injured had serious wounds. Four days after the attacks, 60 remained in hospital.
It has been suggested on BBC's "Newsnight“ that the events in both Guangdong and Xinjiang have been triggered by economic desperation, with ethnic resentments thriving in a climate of economic crisis.
What is worrying is that the Chinese authorities can now use the recent incidents as an excuse to once again crack down on the freedom of Uighurs in Xinjiang. It is unlikely that the Uighurs will ever be granted their own nation. It is doubtful that they will be granted any of the autonomy alluded to in the province's official name.
The Uighurs are among the poorest people in China. Their brand of Sunni Islam has not previously been considered radical or threatening. Existing Chinese attempts to force Uighurs to abandon their own language are culturally oppressive, and any attempts to curtail their religious freedoms could be seen as encouraging Islamism and terrorism.
Already innocent Han Chinese who work in nearby Pakistan have been made into victims by Islamists, apparently to punish the Chinese for their treatment of Uighurs. In July 2007, just before the infamous Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) complex was attacked, Islamic fanatics from the complex kidnapped seven Chinese nationals. These were accused by the Islamists of running a brothel.
At the same time, three Chinese workers were killed in Peshawar, in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (pictured). One Chinese individual survived the attack. Pakistan played down the incident, claiming it was a robbery, but Xinhua News quoted a witness who said the attackers were shouting religious slogans.
In February 2009, Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami Party (JI), which supported the Red Mosque Islamists, as well as the Taliban and other violent Islamist groups, signed a deal with the Chinese authorities. A delegation from the Islamist party signed a "memorandum of understanding" in Beijing, promising to respect each others' interests. The agreement confirmed that the JI would not involve themselves with Uighur separatist groups.
The Jamaat-e-Islami Party has a history of tacitly supporting terrorists, and even when in Pakistan's government they called for revolution and implementation of sharia. Hopefully it will abide by its agreement. Already, the Islamists of Hizb ut-Tahrir have been involved in attempts to destabilize Central Asian states, and some Uighur separatists have tried to reach out to them.
The problems for Xinjiang's Uighurs, and for Han Chinese, are already exacerbated by ethnic and political differences. What no side needs is for Uighurs' legitimate demands for a better life to become hijacked by foreign Islamists who wish to turn Xinjiang into a new battleground for their global Jihad. The citizens of this region need practical and peaceful solutions to their problems.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Adrian Morgan is a British-based writer and artist who has written for Western Resistance since its inception. He also writes for Spero News. He has previously contributed to various publications, including the Guardian and New Scientist and is a former Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (0)
| Print This E-mail This |
|
