"Rigorous sanctions” in Urumchi feared – Uighurs suffer from massive suppression – Peking intends to tear down the traditional city of Kashgar

The outbreak of bloody disturbances in the province of Xinjiang/East Turkistan has led the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) to fear "rigorous sanctions” by Peking against the Uighur people. "The mass arrests which have now been announced will be just the beginning of much more rigorous sanctions”, warned the GfbV chair, Tilman Zülch, on Tuesday in Göttingen. No other of the 56 nationalities recognized has had to suffer as much as the twelve million Uighurs from the extreme use of the death penalty for "political crimes”. About 700 members of this Moslem Turkic people in the north-west of China have been executed since 1997.

The Uighurs have been victims of massive suppression policies for decades. With the object of wiping out their traditional cultural centre the Chinese authorities began in February 2009 to tear down the old town of Kashgar. Kashgar has the greatest name in cultural history in the whole of central Asia and is seen as the centre of Uighur resistance. The planned destruction of the old town is the subject of the new GfbV 30-page human rights report "Save Kashgar!”. In the past few weeks more than 2,100 monitoring cameras have been installed. A new security unit with a staff of 1,800 controls streets, internet cafés and other institutions.

Like the Tibetans the Uighurs are threatened existentially in their identity and culture through the influx of Han-Chinese into their provinces, which is furthered by the government. Their freedom of religion is massively suppressed by the Chinese security machine. Their ethnic provenance suffices to cut down severely the freedom of travel of the Uighurs throughout the whole of the People’s Republic of China. Restrictive language policies in East Turkistan – as the province of Xinjiang is called by the Uighurs – and massive discrimination in everyday working life lead to growing frustration.

Since the terror attacks of 11th September 2001 China has been trying to represent the persecution of Uighur civil and human rights activists as a contribution to the worldwide fight against terrorism. The Uighurs, who in the great majority are demanding their rights with non-violent means, are being stamped with the blanket label of "terrorists”on the charge that they are calling for a state of their own. The Chinese authorities strictly refuse any dialogue with Uighur opposition activists and human rights experts.

The charge made against the Uighur World Congress under the leadership of the human rights expert Rebiya Kadeer of stirring up the recent disturbance from exile is propaganda of the Chinese leaders. Peking also declared at the time of the disturbances in Tibet in march/April 2008 that "the Dalai Lama Clique” was at the root of the uproar.

Report in german (pdf format)