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SPEAKING
FREELY
Uighurs feel China's
squeeze
By Alim A Seytoff
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here
if you are interested in
contributing.
WASHINGTON - There
is no doubt that the terrorist attacks on the
United States on September 11, 2001, have changed
America's perception of its new enemies after the
end of the Cold War in 1991. Justified by such an
unprovoked and unprecedented attack on the
continental United States, the George W Bush
administration declared the global "war on
terrorism", aimed at rooting out terrorists,
terrorist-training camps, and the states that
sponsor terrorism around the world. Many nations
sincerely supported this global war following
Bush's call to fight this new, shadowy enemy. But
some supported the war for their own reasons, with
the specific purpose of eliminating their
opponents as "terrorists" by fabricating all kinds
of allegations linking them to international
terrorist groups.
China is one of the most
prominent authoritarian states to have
successfully asserted such opportunistic claims in
the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks
on Washington, DC, and New York City that killed
more than 3,000 Americans. The main reason is that
prior to September 11, Beijing had failed to
silence the legitimate resistance of the Uighur
people in East Turkestan (known as Xinjiang or New
Territory in Chinese) in northwestern China.
The area, twice the size of California,
was occupied by the People's Republic in 1949, a
year before its annexation of Tibet. The Uighur
people have been demanding self-determination, if
not outright independence, from China since Mao
Zedong's Red Army occupied this resource-rich
land. Since the Uighurs are Muslims, September 11
gave Beijing the perfect excuse to eliminate the
Uighur freedom struggle against Chinese rule under
the guise of the global "war on terrorism".
With such an ulterior objective in mind,
the Chinese government expressed its immediate
support of the Bush administration's global "war
on terrorism" and claimed that those Uighurs who
opposed Chinese rule were "terrorists". Speaking
at the 56th General Assembly of the United Nations
exactly two months after September 11, former
Chinese foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan condemned
terrorism and pointed out that, "terrorism not
only threatens the US" but China as well. [1] To
back this claim Tang said, "The 'East Turkistan'
terrorist forces have long received training,
financial aid and support from international
terrorist groups ... 'East Turkistan' is downright
terrorism and a part of international terrorism
and should be resolutely fought against." Id.
This was the first time China took the
East Turkestan issue before the United Nations,
asking for its help to eliminate the freedom
struggle of the Uighur people. Before September
11, China never admitted the existence of the East
Turkestan issue. To bolster its claims that the
Uighur freedom movement is "downright terrorism",
and that Xinjiang has been part of China "since
ancient times", China issued its first White Paper
on the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on May
26, 2003. [2] The paper, "History and Development
of Xinjiang", attempted to convince the
international community that the Uighur people who
have been demanding freedom from China do not have
a legitimate cause since "Xinjiang is an
inseparable part of China since the ancient
times". Although, the name Xinjiang literally
means "new territory" in the Chinese language and
was adopted only at the end of the 19th century.
The paper also didn't address why this area was
called East Turkestan before, and why that name
was still used by the indigenous people. Many
Uighur organizations believe this paper was
written to isolate the Uighurs and justify the
Chinese crackdown in the name of fighting the
global war on terrorism. The paper, besides making
fictitious claims, didn't generate any
international interest or support for China's
positions on the East Turkestan issue.
Obviously, Beijing didn't stop there. In
December 2003, the Chinese government released
"The First Batch of East Turkistan Terrorists and
Terrorist Groups" [3]. On this list, four Uighur
organizations and eleven individuals were
included, one of which, the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement (ETIM), was indeed designated as a
foreign terrorist organization by the Bush
administration in August 2002 upon Beijing's
demand. Many think-tanks and political analysts
believe it was a quid pro quo on the part
of the Bush administration to gain Beijing's
support of the US invasion in Iraq, because there
was no evidence that members of the ETIM actually
committed acts of terrorism in Xinjiang. In
designating ETIM as a terrorist organization, the
US State Department cited verbatim the Chinese
report on the ETIM without providing any
additional information. In fact, the Chinese
claims on ETIM were completely untrue because they
attributed all acts of protest, unrest, and
bus-bombings that occurred in the 1990s to ETIM
alone.
ETIM was founded by Hasan Mahsum, a
religious Uighur man from Kashgar, but this
organization didn't come into being until the
later half of the 1990s. According to Uighur
organizations in Central Asia, ETIM members were
mostly young Uighurs who feared for their lives
upon return to China from Central Asian states
because the Chinese government summarily executed
more than 200 Uighurs after a peaceful
demonstration turned into a riot in Ghulja City,
East Turkestan, in February 1997. [4] As a result,
Uighurs who went to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or
Uzbekistan to study or do business, and who
subsequently became critical of China's treatment
of Uighur people in Xinjiang, were afraid to
return for fear of torture and execution. Very few
Uighurs managed to go to Europe, while most were
left in these Central Asian states having nowhere
to go. These three Central Asian nations, as
active members of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, stymied peaceful Uighur political
activities and rounded up Uighur dissidents upon
Chinese demands. After China secretly executed
Uighur political activists Kasim Mahpir, Ilyas
Zordun, and Zulfikar Memet, who were extradited
back to China by Kazakhstan in 1999, [5] Uighurs
fearing the same fate had no choice but to flee to
Afghanistan for their personal safety.
These Uighurs had neither love for the
Taliban nor any interest in the al-Qaeda terrorist
network founded by Osama bin Laden. They went to
Afghanistan solely because it was the only country
that didn't require a visa for their entry. And
they could stay there as long as they wanted
without being extradited to China. They never
anticipated that al-Qaeda terrorists would attack
America, and as a result, that Afghanistan would
become the frontline of the global war on
terrorism. They never imagined becoming the
"enemy" of the United States or "terrorists", as
China labeled them after September 11. They were
at the wrong place at the wrong time for the
reason of saving their lives. This has been proven
by the US decision not to return them to China
since they never posed any threat to US interests.
[6] Yet, their unfortunate presence in Afghanistan
was aggressively exploited by the Chinese
government to justify its own "war on terrorism".
Citing the presence of these Uighurs, and
especially those arrested by the US forces in
Afghanistan, Beijing claimed that these Uighurs
were members of the ETIM, closely linked to the
al-Qaeda network.
In a report released by
China's State Council on January 21, 2002, the
Chinese government claimed "The 'East Turkistan'
terrorist organization based in South Asia has the
unstinting support of Osama bin Laden, and is an
important part of his terrorist forces." [7] This
report, "East Turkistan Terrorist Forces Cannot
Get Away with Impunity", made a swift conclusion
that, "Since the formation of the 'East Turkistan
Islamic Movement,' bin Laden has schemed with the
heads of the Central and West Asian terrorist
organizations many times to help the 'East
Turkistan' terrorist forces in Xinjiang launch a
'holy war,' with the aim of setting up a
theocratic 'Islam state' in Xinjiang." Contrary to
China's claims, in none of his public speeches or
declarations, did Osama bin Laden ever raise the
issue of East Turkistan or the suffering of the
Uighur Muslims at the hands of Beijing.
As
a matter of fact, the Chinese government had a
long-standing military relationship with the
Taliban regime, which was supported by bin Laden
himself. According to Seeds of Fire, [8] a
book written by Irish investigative journalist
Gordon Thomas, on September 11, the day terrorists
attacked America, a Chinese delegation had gone to
Afghanistan to sign a deal with the Taliban -
reportedly brokered by bin Laden - to provide the
radical regime with missile-tracking technology,
state-of-the-art communications and air-defense
systems. In return, writes Thomas, the Taliban
would order Uighur separatists in northwest China
to stop their activities in Afghanistan. The
Washington Times reported on December 21, 2001,
that the Chinese government supplied Kabul with a
shipment of China-made SA-7 shoulder-fired
missiles a week after September 11. [9] The paper
said coalition forces also found huge amounts of
Chinese ammunition in the caves of Tora Bora,
where bin Laden was believed to be hiding with his
lieutenants after the fall of Kabul.
The
Bush administration has been aware of Beijing's
motive in supporting the global war on terrorism
since the very beginning. Hence, it reminded the
Chinese government again and again that it had no
right to persecute the Uighur Muslims as
"terrorists". President Bush, while attending the
Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) Summit in
Shanghai in October 2001 said, "No government
should use our war against terrorism as an excuse
to persecute minorities within their borders.
Ethnic minorities must know that their rights will
be safeguarded ... We must respect legitimate
political aspirations, and, at the same time,
oppose all who spread terror in the name of
politics or religion." [10] In a joint press
conference in Beijing in December 2001, US
Ambassador on counter-terrorism Francis X Taylor
said, "[T]he US has not designated or considers
the East Turkestan organization as a terrorist
organization." [11] Taylor also pointed out that,
"[T]he legitimate economic and social issues that
confront people in northwestern China are not
necessarily counter-terrorist issues and should be
resolved politically rather than using
counter-terrorism methods." Id.
Yet,
despite such warnings by the Bush administration,
and despite the fact that Xinjiang Party Secretary
Wang Lequan told a group of Hong Kong investors a
week before September 11 that "Xinjiang is not a
place of terror", [12] the Chinese government
immediately hijacked the war on terrorism after
September 11 and used it as a cover to crack down
on legitimate Uighur dissent to its authoritarian
rule as "terrorism". Today the Chinese government
continues its own "war on terrorism", even after
it has been unmistakably established by US
government reports and international human-rights
watchdogs that it is fictitious.
According
to the "2004 Annual Human Rights Report", released
by the State Department on February 28 this year,
the Chinese "government used the international war
on terror as a pretext for cracking down harshly
on suspected Uighur separatists expressing
peaceful political dissent and on independent
Muslim religious leaders". [13] In its report
released on May 11, the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom said, the Chinese
"government has used concerns about international
terrorism as a pretext for the ongoing crackdown
on Muslim religious leaders and activities since
September 11, 2001."
According to
"People's Republic of China: Uighurs Fleeing
Persecution as China Wages Its 'War on Terror'", a
report released by Amnesty International last
July, following the attacks in the US on September
11, 2001:
The Chinese authorities have
actively sought to justify their crackdown in
the XUAR [Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region] as
part of the international "war on terror" in an
attempt to garner international support for
their actions. Since then, the Chinese
authorities have widely publicized the
occurrence of a number of explosions and other
violent activities attributed to armed Uighur
nationalist groups during the 1980s and 1990s
and used this as a pretext to justify the
government's crackdown in the region in terms of
"counter-terrorism". [14] The report
also says, "The Chinese government's use of the
term 'separatism' refers to a broad range of
activities, many of which amount to no more than
peaceful opposition or dissent, or the peaceful
exercise of the right to freedom of religion." Id.
Human Rights Watch, in its most recent
report called "Devastating Blows - Religious
Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang", said "since
September 11, 2001, China has attempted to
position its repression of Uighurs as part of the
global 'war on terror.' [15] The report declares
that "By exploiting the climate that followed the
attacks on the United States and the fact that
some Uighurs were found fighting in Afghanistan,
China has consistently and largely successfully
portrayed Uighurs as the source of a serious
Islamic terrorist threat in Xinjiang." Id. It
states that, "China has opportunistically used the
post-September 11 environment to make the
outrageous claim that individuals disseminating
peaceful religious and cultural messages in
Xinjiang are terrorists who have simply changed
tactics."
All of these official reports
demonstrate that the Uighur people who the Chinese
government has been accusing as "terrorists" since
September 11, 2001, are not really terrorists but
the real victims of the global war on terrorism.
As a matter of fact, they have not committed acts
of terrorism or been linked to international
terrorism as Beijing purports. They have been
demonized, and subsequently victimized by the
Chinese government only because Uighurs believe in
Islam. The crime of the Uighurs is not that they
are terrorists but that they are Muslims. There is
no doubt that China will continue to hijack the
global war on terrorism to further persecute the
Uighur people, despite their outcry. However, the
international community should be extremely
careful with the claim of authoritarian regimes
such as the Chinese government to fight its own
"war on terrorism", because not all the
governments supporting the global war on terrorism
are fighting terrorists, and not all the Muslims
fighting for human rights, religious freedom, and
democracy are terrorists. And Uighurs are
certainly not terrorists.
Notes
[1] Statement by Foreign
Minister Tang Jiaxuan at UN Security Council
Ministerial Meeting on Counter Terrorism, November
12, 2001.
[2] History and Development of
Xinjiang. May 26, 2003.
[3] China Seeks Cooperation Worldwide to
Fight 'East Turkistan' Terrorists.
December 15, 2003.
[4] AI: Gross Violations of Human Rights in
the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
October 1, 1999.
[5] AI: China: Further information on
Torture / Health Concern /Unfair Trial /Fear of
Execution. June 16, 2000.
[6]
Chinese Muslim Terror Suspects
Cleared; Fearful of Going Home. October
29, 2004.
[7] East Turkistan Terrorist Forces
Cannot Get Away With Impunity. January
21, 2002.
[8] Gordon Thomas, Seeds of
Fire, Dandelion Books Publication. November
15, 2001.
[9] "China-Al-Qaeda Nexus", The
Washington Times. December 21, 2001.
[10]
President says terrorists tried to
disrupt world economy, Shanghai, China. October
20, 2001.
[11] Press conference of
Ambassador Francis X Taylor, Beijing, China.
December 6, 2001.
[12] Wang Lequan says
Xinjiang is not a place of terror, Ta Kung Pao
(Hong Kong newspaper). September 2, 2002.
[13] US 2004 Annual Human Rights Report. February 28,
2005.
[14] AI: People's Republic of China-Uighurs
Fleeing Persecution as China Wages Its 'War on
Terror. July 4, 2004.
[15] HRW:
Devastating Blows - Religious
Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
April 12, 2005.
Speaking Freely is
an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say. Please click here
if you are interested in
contributing.
Alim A
Seytoff, gereral secretary, Uyghur American
Association.
(Copyright 2005 Alim A
Seytoff)
Speaking Freely is an Asia
Times Online feature that allows guest writers to
have their say. Please click here
if you are interested in
contributing. |
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