___________In the Area of Mass Media Channels
By Korash Atahan
In the present fast changing world the role of the mass media has grown drastically. The Red Communist Chinese regime is doing everything possible to restrict the Internet access in East Turkistan in order to keep the Uyghur people off the feedback and meaningful information about the real situation in the world.
The Uyghurs, who also wanted to free themselves from foreign domination, staged numerous uprisings against Nationalist Chinese rule, particularly in recent years the new ideas of democracy and national independent has spread among the Uyghurs. The 30 million ethnic groups have developed elaborated religious, cultural and scientific concepts over this long period. The Chinese are trying their best to smother their culture, language and civilization. One of the strongest attacks was led against the national press and news agencies.All present mass media channels in East Turkistan work under the Chinese control with the aim of refuting every national ideas, be it religious, cultural, linguistic or educational ideas. The ultimate purpose of these actions is to destroy the national culture.
We have had talked with our compatriot, Ertughrul Atihan, who worked in the mass media system for many years in East Turkistan:
Q: Is it true that you worked in the Homeland in the Chinese East Turkistan press and news agency?
A: Yes.
Q: Why did you immigrate?
A: I could not stand the unfair policies in the Homeland; I wanted to let the world know about the terrorist Chinese policies directed against my people.
Q: What was exactly your job in East Turkistan?
A: Editorship.
Q: What do you mean by “unfair” policies?
A: The mass media is a means of distributing information among people. My Motherland was occupied by the fascist regime; however the Chinese invaders try to deceive the world community about the nature of its oppression. If they meant to provide genuine conditions for Uyghurs they had to create all necessary provisions for true independence and self-government. This did not happen. The Chinese led the policy of assimilation, in the economic field – they depleted our natural resources. Under the pretext of DECREASING POLLUTION IN THE WORLD the Chinese brought in environment polluting facilities. They conducted nuclear tests in this region, and generally speaking, the Chinese regime did everything possible to lower the living standard of our people to the base degree by low budgeting doctors and medical centers, by selling the human organs, by spreading infectious diseases etc.
They hold control of primary education and upbringing the children. The task of passing to secondary school from primary school, to university after secondary school etc. became very difficult for our children. Farmers are constantly forced to work overtime with no pay and do all kind of prohibited work to their masters. The national literature, education, cultural and other centers were closed in big numbers. Writers and journalists have been imprisoned for just expressing their views and beliefs. They were tortured, murdered and brought to insanity. If this is not unfairness then what is unfairness?
Q: We have heard that publishing books in the Uyghur language is now completely prohibited. Is it true? In reality they say there are many published books. How do you explain this fact?
A: It is true that still there are many books published in Uyghur language. However, 95% of these books are of Communist nature. These books hail the history of the Communist Chinese regime, eradication of national culture and values, religious concepts, democratic principles and so forth. Published books glorify the Chinese language and culture, and aim at cutting off the Uyghur civilization from the West and other Turkic people. We cannot publish books dedicated to the national culture. All published materials undergo strict preliminary Chinese censorship.
Q: How do they control published materials?
A: That’s quite easy. Previously the Chinese Communists deceived us Uyghurs with the socialist propaganda. Nowadays they bribe people so that they send their children to Chinese schools. Students undergo a thorough propaganda brainwashing. The Uyghur collaborationists serve their Chinese masters with awe; and inform them about anything going on among the Uyghurs. These mean people do not hesitate even to sell their relatives’ lives off the Chinese invaders. Let me underline one thing: the Chinese society came along through its political and philosophical development. It is now searching new ways and look for innovations. Some of their administrative workers do their best for the sake of the Uyghur people, however, most of them only cause harm on our nation.They have no choice of acting otherwise since they risk losing their precious positions. Let me give an example: One day I brought a brilliant novel of the young Uyghur writer to one of the censor agencies for approval. The official told me: “The author is quite young, if we publish his book with a picture of the 30 years of age, what would the people in their 50s and 60s think?” The Chinese block the young intellectuals’ chances of expressing themselves in public work. They are simply envious of the young writers’ talents. We tried for many years to help young writers to publish their books. The Chinese regime does not give any financial support to them. The official whom I showed the manuscript to told me that it was full of bourgeois ideology.
The Chinese regime calls the black as white and the white as black.
Any literal work undergoes a 6 month long censorship and is sent from one censor to another in order to be labeled at the end as the separatist propaganda. The idea of portraying Sawut Damolla would make one think of the Uyghur national state, they say. The Chinese oppression is even stronger in the radio and television.
The government even restricts usage of the words such as Uyghur, Turkish, national education, East Turkistan etc. Every little Uyghur program undergoes big scrutiny. If the Uyghurs mention in their films any “wrong ideas” the film producers face serious punishments.
Editors lose their jobs, and producers face all kinds of allegations even weak image of party organs. The mass media are only supposed to glorify the Chinese Communist party. They serve as a tool of assimilation and degrading the national culture and civilization.
Q: What is the role of Uyghur language materials published in East Turkistan? How many magazines and journals published per annum?
A: Not more than 10 items. In each regional district there is one journal published included magazines in Kirghiz and Kazakh languages, however, most publications are in Chinese. This year around one thousand books and magazines were published. About 30-40% of all Uyghur materials get rejected due to censorship problems that I mentioned to you. Main mass media organs have been taken over by the Chinese. In the biggest publishing house there are nearly 500 employees where there are only 47 Uyghur associates. It is easy to calculate the ratio of Uyghurs involved in the process.
Q: What is the financial standing of the Uyghur language press in East Turkistan? What kind of book our people like?
A: The Uyghur language press is in dire straits. Over the last years the Chinese regime has put the Uyghur national press in extremely difficult situations. The number of national Uyghur magazines has been cut. All media organs fell under the Chinese control and censorship.In many magazines many articles were prohibited and many topics were banned. The articles which mention richness of natural resources, of national culture and civilization are not permitted to be published. The media organs cannot publish their literary works and get sufficient financing. When one journal asked the local government for financial support, officials replied that they should not bother them with such problems and should rather use their savings more economically. It is actually a dangerous signal to the learned man. This regime has grown fat with robbing our natural resources and exploiting our people, however, they happily spend extra money supporting the national culture! Robbing our natural resources is not enough for them – they want to rob our national culture! Materials in Uyghur language with true information do exist, it’s true. However, good books have to be translated – this is where problems arise. Our books in history, culture and arts have been many times falsified and distorted. Only then can they be published.
Q: We heard that the UN allocated a certain amount of money for development of the Uyghur culture, it that true? Were any books published from this money?
A: Yes, it’s true. But only a small part of the allocated money was spent on publishing books and materials. The rest disappeared. Generally, the funding was of no use for the following reasons:
1) The Chinese regime conducted the program of “renovation” the Uyghur textbooks. Old good textbooks published in 80s were banned and destroyed, they were replaced by the new textbooks, which glorify the Chinese Communist party.
2) Money was spent on developing ideas of socialism, communism, and “national unity” that is imperialism.
3) Money was spent not on literature for children but rather on Russian, Chinese and Uyghur Communist writers’ books with the ideas of “red rebel”, “steel hardening”, “Le Pin soldier”, “Ludungyi”, and other books of this sort.
4) This money is spent on bribing our brethren Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz – to turn them against us and to gain their support in oppressing our drive for independence.
5) Most of the finances allocated to the development of national culture are spent on Chinese literature. The Chinese regime publishes textbooks for us to spread their ideas. Other ethnic groups like Kazakhs, Mongols, Kyrgyz, Shive are used as a force against the Uyghurs.
Q: What kind of books do our people like? Is the number of published books sufficient to our people? How do you value the Uyghurs’ interest in books?
A: Our rich and ancient culture did not get much progress under the Chinese oppressive system.
The current ideological system of national education and culture serves the principles of the Communist regime. Teaching at schools, technical colleges, universities and institutes do not meet contemporary requirements.
Teaching such important subjects in social sciences like history, art, literature and national civilization is not carried out at adequate levels. Most books are of low level. Available materials do not provide modern knowledge and ideas.
The Communist oppressors promote literature with rusted ideology and outdated quotes. Official literature lies a lot about Islam, Uyghur history, history of East Turkistan revolution. There are few good books in technical sciences, but good ones are rarely available. The Chinese oppressors have rather published many books with lies about the Uyghur history. Many people were forced to scratch money from their own low incomes to buy these propagandist materials.
The government imposed a special “book tax” on publishing houses. That’s how they make money!
The presses for youngsters promote Chinese and Communist values, atheism and party documents. Let me mention one strategy that happened in Kiriye Hotan. The brother and his sister had to pay 20 yuan each for their school expenses. Their parents, who worked arduously from dawn to dusk all year round, could offer only 20 yuan after paying off all kinds of fees and fines. The 13-year-old brother gave the money to his 10-year-old sister and said: ‘Study hard, my sister, you take the money and buy your books.' After sending his sister to the school, he went out of the village. Later, in the evening, people found his body hanging on a date tree. This is a real story published in the magazine: “Xinjiang Civilization” 5, (2001) in the article: “When the poet was suffering from the illne”. I also wept when I heard this story – in our potentially richest place in the world people live in such poverty! "This is what has happened to poor East Turkistan people over the last 50 years. The Uyghurs’ natural resources are stolen from them and they remain poor and miserable.These atrocities also take place in the 21st century. How can these people afford money for reading books? Their culture is destroyed, their wealth is stolen, and their health is ruined by pollution, their lives broken by oppression.
Q: Are books not yet published in your Homeland?
A: Over 6 thousand years the Uyghurs have developed a rich culture and literature. We are proud of our culture and national roots. However under the Chinese ruling we cannot benefit from our ancestors’ rich cultural heritage.
Books and art pieces get confiscated, banned, locked in archives so our people get deprived of their national roots. All old books were inspected and many pages have been ripped off. The Chinese regime intentionally wants the local people be retarded and culturally backward. Our national culture might well cease to exist if such policies continue. We have to draw the world community’s attention to this fact. It is a crime against the whole of humanity.The Chinese have ruled over our nation for 2 centuries. Our writers Nizari, Meshrep, Molla Musa Sayrami, Molla Bilal and others wrote great books; Then also Tejelliy, Qutluq SHewqi, Abduqadir Damolam, Abliz Mehsum, Abduhaliq Uyghuri, Memtili Ependi, Memtimin Bughra, Quddus Hujam Yarof, Ziya semidi, Turghun Almas, Abdushkur Memtimin, Murat Hemrayof, to mention a few prominent writers.Our writers suffer all kind of oppressions; many of them have been put in jail. We will continue our fight for national independence.
Q: How do you find the national officials who work in the field of culture and education in East Turkistan?
A: Whether one is hero, or traitor, or a regular man, any Uyghur has to submit to the rebels. There are traitors among rebels and rebels among traitors. Some part of Uyghur people is mean type of collaborationists. However, 90% of Uyghurs who work for the Chinese regime are in reality patriots who do their best for their people.
We cannot regard all Uyghur workers in the Chinese service in the same way; we have to draw the line between a minority of traitors and majority of true patriots. Patriots rejected the Chinese’s plan to eradicate our national alphabet. They play an important role in saving our culture and language. They do their best to create objective conditions for developing the national literature.
The Chinese invaders always treated these cadres with suspicion and censored them. Now they also create financial problems to them and their families. Uyghur employees cannot sustain their families regardless of how hard they work.Now they lose their jobs. The government does not allow them to publish good books. Writers have to submit to government 85% of earnings otherwise they would lose their jobs.
The Chinese officials restrict publishing materials in Uyghur language, lay off national cadres, and force the publishing houses to close.
Q: We constantly hear of great interest by our foreign friends in our rich national culture especially in relation to and overall to East Turkistan. Why not publish books on various topics about East Turkistan and improve the financial standing?
A: Good question. We wanted to do so. But we have no right of using freely our ancestors’ heritage. Again, the whole issue is tied to the question of national education system. First, there is no systematic teaching of our children of national values at schools. Second, we don’t have a sufficient number of national scientists. Thirdly, we lack national cadres. Fourthly, researche conducted by our scientists has been strictly controlled by the Chinese regime. Fifthly, many books and art pieces were not returned to Homeland from foreign libraries and museums. Sixth, the Chinese simply steal our national values. One example is when I was in Turpan in 1998 on a business trip. The regional government was selling the historical valuables to gain some finances. We went to the Donghuang (“Thousand Houses”) historical site, but we were not permitted to the site by an official. We joined a group of foreigners. This time we were cordially greeted with false smiles.
Our guide who spoke English with a strong accent revised the Uyghur history 180 degrees around. He stated that these historical values were created by the Chinese in ancient times. These “examples of the rich Chinese civilization” were supposed to be “destroyed by the barbarians”. I was really upset and felt sorry for wasted money. At the end of the excursion I went to the other side – this place had a sign “No entrance” in English and Chinese languages. I went inside the site anyway. I saw a Chinese worker who was scratching with a scoop the paint from the ceiling. I looked more carefully and I saw that he was scratching an ancient painting from the ceiling. I shouted at him in Chinese:" what are you doing?” The guy was scared and looked with suspicion at a “foreigner” who spoke Chinese, and then he replied unwillingly “we are doing restoration work”. I told him “This is the way of doing things. I came here from Urumchi, I worked in the press, and I’ll publish an article about what’s going in here. The worker immediately realized that I was Uyghur and replied with no fear this time” OK, go and write!" I had no choice but to leave this place. I was humiliated like an animal.
I could not tell this story to anyone because I was afraid that it would reach the Chinese bosses. I told this story to one Uyghur scientist who said: “This happens all the time. They bring Chinese articles and bury them in East Turkistan. Then Chinese historians announce about “sensational findings”. They provide proof in this way that the Chinese lived in this region 2 thousand years ago.
In Aqsu they conducted this plot in order to claim that Aqsu always was a Chinese territory. If you wrote about this the government would simply annihilate you.”
Talking about our subject. The Chinese do want the Uyghurs to conduct historical research and to learn about their culture. They make use out of the general interest to the history of this region and got rich by selling invaluable pieces of our religious, scientific, poetic, historical, literature treasury. And the true possessors get only poverty and oppression.
The false propaganda books are published on glossy paper with color pictures. The amount of money spent on this trash literature is so big that Uyghurs could have bought instead the books published in Europe. If the government spent the money allocated by UN on publishing national literature, the great work of safekeeping the national culture and literature would be done to some extent.
Here is the list of some masterpieces: two thousand years old “Maytiri samit”, “Golden light”, “Avesta”, “Shahname”, “Dictionary of Turkic languages”, “Kudatgu bilik”, 300-500 year old “Hemse”, “Tarihi Reshid"; "Ezizane Kashigar", "Tarihi Hemidiye"; "Qisesul Enbiya” and other great works. These works were the basis of literature of Turks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and other 20 nationalities.
Al Farabi, Yusup Has Hajib, Mahmut Kashgari, Alsher Nawayi, Akhmad Yassavi and other renowned writers, poets, philosophers, linguists brought fame to our Motherland and our people. The Communist Chinese regime is working at the outset of 21st century to destroy this old and rich culture.
We have suffered all kinds of injustices. This will not last forever. The oppressors will ripe what they planted. Our sacred Book says: “I will fulfill my promise so that you will know”. We are not people that can easily be eradicated regardless of what the Chinese might think. We are entitled to the history and civilization not less rich than that of China. We will have a chance to get liberated.
Q: Do you know of any worthy books under process of publishing? Do you think the Chinese might abolish our alphabet? Will this really take us out of the world history scene?
A: Scientist Abdushukur Memtimin published “History of Turan” (ancient Central Asia), “Uyghur mukam treasure”, “Kudatgu bilik treasure”, “Overview of the Uyghur philosophy”, “Farabi and his philosophical system”, “Uyghur metallurgical art”, “Uyghur medicine and pharmacology”. Scientist Turghun Almas published, “Brief history of the Huns”, “History of the Uyghur classical literature”, “Uyghurs” and other books. There also bright works in the writing process. These work cover issues of great importance. The high style of authors confuses the Chinese censors who cannot understand many things. Authors use Greek, Russian, Arab and Chinese sources. They use archeological findings to prove their concepts.
It is not easy to destroy the collectivist spirit of our people. The Chinese try to destroy this spirit but to no avail. Our intellectuals have great responsibility upon their shoulders. They face all kind of hardships in using mass media organs for informing the public about their ideas. They can pretend to be working for the oppressors but they do an important job in maintaining our cultural values.
There are few good books published in China available to Uyghur readers. However, generally it is hard to publish books because it should get approval from: 1) chief editor, 2) administrative manager, 3) department manager. Then the meeting of managers is called which lasts for several days with big disputes about whether or not to publish the book. The books get “amended and corrected” seriously. Some get cut in the waiting list. The Chinese supervisors write their comments about the contents of the books.
New “corrections” are made continuously. At the end the last version is prepared. Books get translated into Chinese and sent to publishing houses. The books are held on waiting list for several months.
This is not yet official process of publishing. There are 2 following steps: 1) it undergoes strong censorship of chief editor, 2) overall censorship of the office, 3) a competent employee reads this book, 4) sometimes the censors’ bosses read the books, 5) publishing house’s editor reads and comments on the book, 6) a trusted government person reads the book and comments on it, 7) the book goes to the secret police for “inspection”, 8) the book returns to the publishing house in the dead status, 9) after the editor signs his approval, the book goes to the factory for publishing, 10) political supervisors watch very closely the process of typing and publishing books. Then the book goes to the factory.
After the book is published this is what happens during the next 1-3 months: following government offices checks 1) ministry of Xinjiang, 2) secret police of Xinjiang, 3) local agents, 4) literature office, 5) Academy of Social Sciences, 6) public security organs. If any problem arises the publishing and distributing of the book immediately stops. Responsible officials get executed. Instructions are published in thousands of pages and sent to all government workers who speak Uyghur language.
These instructions warn of possible political mistakes and have a very detailed list of required terms and phrases. They are disseminated among high-ranking party officials, security officers, chiefs of mass media, and government offices. They all watch closely for any published materials. The whole idea here is to weaken our national values to eventually assimilate us. Our society is turned into the prison beneath the open skies. From outside things seem to be going well, however, there is a mass human rights violation going on in China. We have prepared a report to the United Nations, European Union, and international organizations with a detailed count of all violations and abuses from the Chinese side.The Chinese government lies about its actions. This is what the great and fascist Chinese regime is doing. In my opinion they want to deprive us of our rich culture, philosophy, history, literature and art.
The Chinese have restricted publishing good books of Uyghur authors. Now they are trying to deprive us of our national alphabet. They are really irritating a dangerous and angry wolf by doing so. Eastern Turkistan people have faced over 50 years of hardship that they do not intend to minimize. Intensified oppression only leads to stronger resistance.
If the Chinese continue their policies of replacing Uyghur language with the Chinese tongue, our people will not be able to educate their children in the national spirit. They will simply not educate their children. The reasons for this: 1) our people do not want their children to grow up into the Chinese, 2) our people are so poor they will not be able to afford sending their children to higher schools, 3) even if part of our children grow up amongst the Chinese they will have a moral trauma in their hearts which they will pass to their children, 4) our civilization beats the values and concepts expressed in the Chinese language. That is why the Chinese have bad thoughts of “outstripping in 5 years UK or US”.
They made up plans of assimilation the Hotan Uyghurs. So they opened mixed Chinese-Uyghur schools where Chinese now this time tried to “get Uyghurs”.
Why have the Chinese not accepted the Russians’ experience? What happened to the Russians policies of Russification of West Turkistan at the end? Wrong policies lead to failures. The Chinese regime chose wrong policies and caused themselves great troubles.
Their strategy always loses great battles. The Chinese regime’s anti-Uyghur terrorist policies and actions will eventually lead to its great failure. They will pay a great price for all their atrocities made against our nation and our people. They will face international tribunals. There is no time limitation for calling for responsibility for grave crimes. The world community and our nation for their crime and brutality will hold them.
18/05/2002, Germany/Halberstadt
From:http://www.uygur.org/enorg/h_rights/etic_report_june_2002.html
