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Washington betrays China's
Uighurs
By Erkin Dolat
The
United States government has officially placed the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an obscure group even
most Uighurs know nothing about, on its Foreign
Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. US Deputy State
Secretary Richard Armitage on Monday announced this
decision in Beijing, saying that the US government had
put ETIM on its terrorist list after "careful study".
In Washington, State Department spokesman
Richard Boucher said that although the US would freeze
ETIM's assets, a decision had not been made on whether
to designate this group officially a terrorist
organization.
On the surface, this move appears
to be a small concession by the United States to reward
the Chinese government for its support of the
anti-terror war and for issuing new export controls on
missile technology. However, the political implication
of this decision is disastrous to the Uighur freedom
movement worldwide and to the ever-deteriorating
human-rights situation in East Turkestan. This decision
by the United States will justify China's claim since
September 11 that "East Turkestan terrorist forces" are
part of an international terrorist network, and
legitimize China's aggressive clampdown on any form of
Uighur dissent, no matter how non-violent and peaceful
they may be.
By including ETIM on the list of
Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the United States has
in effect betrayed the Uighur freedom movement and
opened the floodgates of Chinese persecution against the
Uighur people. It is a strategic mistake on the part of
the United States in order to get some short-term
benefits out of China. While the United States seems to
have conceded little to Beijing, in fact China has been
given the license to nip the Uighur freedom movement in
the bud. This will result in more arrests and executions
of the Uighurs by the Chinese government in the future
by linking them with the so-called East Turkestan
Islamic Movement.
China, which has been
aggressively demonizing and discrediting the East
Turkestan freedom movement since September 11, now has a
free hand to strike a harder blow against the Uighur
population in the country's west in the name of fighting
against "East Turkestan terrorist forces". Now China can
practically label any Uighur dissident a "terrorist" who
has links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement or
other "terrorist" organizations. Basically, the United
States has given a green light to whatever China wants
to do with those Uighur people who are opposed to the
authoritarian Chinese rule in East Turkestan unless the
US directly confronts China on its violations of Uighur
human rights.
Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Kong Quan, welcoming the US decision on
Tuesday, said: "China and the United States shared
extensive common interests in the field of
anti-terrorism. For a long period of time, ETIM and
other East Turkestan organizations had joined other
international terrorist forces in creating many violent
terrorist incidents inside and outside China, posing
grave threats to regional security and stability." Kong
Quan emphasized at the end of briefing, "Facts have
proven that 'East Turkestan' organizations are part of
international terrorist forces and constitute a scourge
of the international community that all nations should
join efforts to combat."
While the executive
order of US President George W Bush only authorizes
economic controls over ETIM, the Chinese government is
saying that all the East Turkestan organizations are
"terrorist" organizations and is urging the
international community to combat them. This means all
the democratic Uighur organizations that promote
non-violence and dialogue in Central Asia, Turkey,
Australia, Europe and the United States are "terrorist"
organizations and that the respective countries should
join efforts to combat them. Apparently, the
interpretation of ETIM's inclusion on the FTO list is a
totally different thing to the US and China. China wants
the US decision to serve its political ends, which is to
eradicate permanently Uighur opposition to the
tyrannical Chinese rule in East Turkestan since 1949.
Armitage while in Beijing emphasized to Chinese
officials "the absolute necessity to respect minority
rights" as the country moves forward with "a very
difficult, anti-terrorism, counter-terrorism fight with
ETIM". China will definitely fight against ETIM
"terrorists" but without any regard to the fundamental
human rights of the Uighur people, who basically have
had no rights at all since September 11. It is
politically naive on the part of the United States to
assume that China will somehow respect the rights of the
Uighur population in its fight against the Uighur
"terrorists". The cold fact is that China has hardly
respected the inalienable rights of Uighurs and will
continue to violate them as long as the United States
and the international community justify China's
heavy-handed policy against the Uighur people.
The US decision to include ETIM on its list of
foreign terrorist organizations came as a shock to the
Uighur people in East Turkestan and the Uighur diaspora,
because the United States had earlier consistently
rejected China's claim that the East Turkestan
organizations were "terrorist" groups. Bush, attending
the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last
year in Shanghai, said the war on terrorism should not
be used as an excuse to persecute minorities. Francis
Taylor, director for counter-terrorism at the US State
Department, said last December in Beijing, "The US
doesn't designate or consider the East Turkestan
organization as a terrorist organization. The legitimate
economic and social issues that confront the people in
Western China are not necessarily terrorist issues and
should be resolved politically rather than using
counter-terrorism methods."
Apparently, the
current US position on the issue has shifted
dramatically to the opposite pole because of its
national interests and political needs. According to the
Wall Street Journal (August 27 edition), China and the
US are trading concessions as part of their common fight
against terrorism. And the Los Angeles Times says the
move against ETIM pleased Beijing, which is anxious to
portray its crackdown on restive Uighur Muslims in
Xinjiang as part of the global campaign against
terrorism. The Washington Post says the Chinese
government has been pressing Washington for months to
include the group on the terrorist list, an act that
triggers financial sanctions and immigration controls.
According to the Wall Street Journal, diplomats in
Beijing say the group's ties to terrorists are sketchy.
All of these prove that the US decision to include ETIM
on its FTO list is more a political tradeoff with
Beijing than a reflection of political reality.
Hasan Mahsum, leader of the East Turkestan
Islamic Movement, in a rare interview with Radio Free
Asia Uighur Service on January 22, denied that his group
had any connection with al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Mahsum
said, "The East Turkestan Islamic Party hasn't received
any financial assistance from Osama bin Laden or his
al-Qaeda organization. We don't have any kind of
organizational links with al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Involvement by some Uighur individuals with the Taliban
doesn't mean that the East Turkestan Islamic Party has
relations with the Taliban."
The New York Times
on August 27 reported that the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement was virtually unknown until last winter, when
China asserted that it was linked to al-Qaeda. The paper
said the group has played at most a small role in the
simmering ethnic unrest in Xinjiang, where Muslims of
the Uighur ethnic group, few of whom are
fundamentalists, chafe at China's stringent rule. It
concludes that the certified condemnation might help
China describe its often heavy-handed repression in
Xinjiang as a necessary flank in the global anti-terror
campaign, not as an issue of human rights.
This
is bad news for the Uighur people both in East Turkestan
and abroad. This means the Uighur issue will no longer
be looked at as a human-rights issue but as a terrorism
issue. This also means the US will mute its criticism of
China's violation of Uighur human rights in its fight
against the "terrorists" of ETIM.
The Uighur
people will pay the price of this betrayal by the United
States government. This is, of course, not the first
time that the Uighurs have been betrayed by a foreign
power for its own national interest. In 1949, as most
Uighurs still remember, the Soviet Union betrayed the
independent East Turkestan Republic into the hands of
communist China.
The Uighur people understand,
as longtime victims of the Great Game, that politics is
filthy, especially when a great power betrays an
individual, group or even a state for its own national
interest. This time, the Uighur people have seen how
dirty it can get when the US sacrifices them for getting
some short-term benefit from China. In the past, the
Uighurs have seen the United States as the beacon of
democracy and bulwark of human rights and freedom. The
Uighurs have also considered the United States as the
only power on Earth that can truly challenge and
pressure China in terms of human rights and religious
freedom. However, the US decision to include ETIM on its
FTO list has proved that the opposite is sometimes also
true.
The majority of Uighurs are opposed to
terrorism and violence. They don't believe that they can
justify their legitimate struggle against China with
violence or armed resistance. That is why they strongly
sympathized with the American people when terrorists
rammed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center
towers in New York City and the Pentagon near
Washington, DC. As a matter of fact, the Uighur people
have been victims of systematic Chinese state terrorism.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have cited
Chinese mistreatment of Uighurs, including torture,
arrests, disappearances and summary executions. Both
organizations accuse China of fully taking advantage of
the US war on terror to legitimize its crackdown of the
Uighurs. Amnesty says China singles out Uighur political
prisoners for execution. In China, the label of
"terrorist" or "terrorism" is specifically reserved to
the Uighurs.
The Uighur struggle against Chinese
rule is as legitimate as the Tibetan struggle. Both
peoples have suffered Chinese persecution and both of
their countries were occupied by China at almost the
same time. The Uighurs believe in Islam while the
Tibetans believe in Tibetan Buddhism. This is probably
the main difference between these two groups of distinct
and indigenous peoples who want to separate from China
and form independent states. It is obvious that religion
is quite significant in international politics, since
the association of one religion may negatively affect
one's freedom cause while the association of another can
actually become a blessing. This is the case with regard
to the Uighurs and Tibetans. Since the Uighurs are
Muslims and have a separatist cause, they can be easily
demonized as "terrorists" while the Tibetan Buddhists
are looked at with a different light.
But both
groups may have to pay the price of betrayal to some
degree. The US government, by legitimizing Chinese
suppression of the Uighur people, can't avoid
legitimizing Chinese suppression of Tibetans, for
Beijing looks at both groups as having the same
separatist tendencies. The green light given to China to
crack down the Uighurs will be looked at as a yellow
light in Beijing to clamp down on the Tibetans. The
Tibetans will feel more or less the same heat of the US
decision to allow China to suppress the Uighurs, who,
like Tibetans, have greatly suffered under communist
Chinese tyranny for the past five decades.
The
US decision to allow China to crack down on the East
Turkestan "terrorists" has left the Uighurs alone in the
world without a friend to turn to for help and without
an option to deal with Chinese tyranny. This decision
will further alienate them and push them to desperation.
This move may force some non-violent Uighurs to believe
that armed struggle is the only way to resolve the East
Turkestan problem. This is the danger that many Uighur
organizations see in the West. As a self-fulfilling
prophecy, the US justification of Chinese persecution of
the Uighur people will probably radicalize even the
moderate Uighur Muslims who otherwise will look at
America as a light of hope.
Erkin
Dolat is the editor-in-chief of the Uyghur
Information Agency.
(© 2000-02 Uyghur
Information Agency. All rights reserved.)
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