VIOLATION OF THE UYGHUR PEOPLES RIGHTS OF FREE TOUGHT, FREE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT AND FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION

By Korash Atahan

1 - POLICY OF DOUBLE STANDARDS IN CHINA IN THE LAW
2 - CONTINUED VIOLATION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
3- COMPULSARY CHANGE OF UYGHUR EDUCATION TO BE IN CHINESE LANGUAGE
4 - VIOLATION OF THE UYGHUR PEOPLES RIGHTS OF FREE TOUGHT, FREE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT AND FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION
Since the Chinese Communist occupied East Turkistan in 1949, they continued with state terror and in breach of concepts adhered to internationally like defence of human rights, freedom and preference of democracy, the Uyghurs have in their own land been constantly deprived of natural rights like living in freedom, free expression of thought and self determination.

As a result, this situation is strongly objected by the Uyghurs living in East Turkistan. The confrontation on the national and ethnic level is increasing every day and the most basic human rights of the Uyghurs are violated in their own land. There have been significant restrictions especially regarding religious freedom, freedom of thought, the freedom to speak the mother language and education.
Thus, the abyss between China and the democratic states of the world has grown deeper.

Although there have been human rights consultations and discussion of related laws due to the increase in economical relations between the Chinese government and the states of the European Union and China has shown partial improvement in the field of human rights, the justified call of the people in East Turkistan, named “Xinjiang Autonomous Region”, for their rights is being suppressed with very harsh measures and therefore, differences regarding ethnic and cultural issues are increasing every day.

1 - POLICY OF DOUBLE STANDARDS IN CHINA IN THE LAW

After the terrorist acts of 11 September 2001, the Chinese government used terms such as "cooperation in the war on terror" as pretexts, and under the motto “striking hard on three kind of forces” which was turned into a political move and by which countless innocent Uyghurs were sentenced using pretexts as the above. Since the whole force of the state structure is directed to strike the Uyghurs politically, the crime rate is grooving at high speed in the region and civil security is severely disturbed by this.

For instance, according to the state controlled “Tian Shan News Net”, the Ministry of Civil Security of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region held a meeting on 17 January 2004, and initiated a one-year-plan. It was emphasised that in the year 2004 the fundamental task of civil security forces was “to strike nationalist separatists and illegal religious elements”.

According to this news, in 2003, 92796 criminal cases occurred in East Turkistan. This was an increase of 20.2% compared to last year. 77.7% of those cases were cases of theft and burglary and the success ratio in solving the cases was around 50%.

In capital city Urumchi where the Chinese population makes up to 90% of the whole population, theft, burglary, murder and fraud make up 90% of total criminal cases.

According to another news in “Tian Shan Net” (February 18, 2004) in Urumchi alone 32191 criminal cases occurred during the previous year and compared to the year before, this meant an increase of 6.1%, however, only 15547 cases were solved. Only 5512 criminals were arrested and 4653 criminals sentenced. In the same year, only 12 cases of “separatist and illegal religious activities”, as the Chinese government calls them, were recorded during the initiative “to strike hard on three kind of forces” directed towards the local Uyghurs. If one compares the number of 32191 criminal cases against the 12 cases of “Nationalist Separatists”, it is not difficult to see who endangers the security of Urumchi. It is further clear that most of the criminals who are committing theft, robbery and murder in Urumchi are Chinese. Against this background it is ridiculous that in the Beginning of this year, at the “Meeting on the Duty of Political Laws in the Urumchi Region” it was declared that “the main responsibility of the law enforcement units in 2004 should aim at maintaining an ongoing suppressing and striking hard against nationalist separatists, terrorists and fundamentalist religious forces, the ‘three kind of forces’”.

The law enforcement units have left aside to deal with the thieves, robbers and murderers who are occupying all quarters of the city and are mobilised to strike on the in reality non existent “nationalist separatists and extremist islamists”. These kind of policies by the Chinese do not take serious the increase of criminal cases in East Turkistan among people of Chinese origin, and that by this increase the security of the people and their property is seriously threatened. That the Chinese government is constantly neglecting criminal cases as mentioned above and do not cease to oppress and violate the rights of the Uyghur people, shows also that the Chinese do not comply with their own laws and that their political desires are more important to them than adhering to the law.

The Chinese government is treating the Uyghurs who are demanding to live under human conditions without mercy. On 19 July 2004 the Qarghilik district court held a closed trial for 20 Uyghurs who were accused as “separatists” and sentenced to imprisonment, one of them sentenced to death.

A 29-year-old person, Idris Qadir, was accused of producing illegal arms and trying to break the unity of the state and sentenced to death and executed. The other 19 of them were sentenced from three years to ten years imprisonment. There was one woman among them by the name Rabiye Turup. She was accused of being a contact person for separatists and providing sustenance for them and was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

Apart from the above mentioned, the Chinese government arrested Abdulla Halil from Atush City, Abdulla Reyim from Kuchar, Ablikim Qurban from Aqsu as suspects to have connections to the East Turkistan Islamic Party. The Chinese government is oppressing even prisoners who had already accomplished prison terms, after their release. For example, according to news in “Tian Shan Net” from the beginning of this year titled “Toksun district strikes hard on three kind of forces”, since the beginning of the 2004, Toksun district police forces inspected 195 Uyghurs who “have the potential of being separatists” and put them under observation and forbade their free movement. Thus, since 1990, 115 prisoners who had been released from prison have been arrested again. Another example is that according to news in the newspaper “The Spark” from 28 August 2004, issue 103, Eysa Husen, the leader of the East Turkistan Justice Party, who had been arrested in August 1994 and sentenced to nine years imprisonment, then released in August 2003, was arrested again in August 2004 for no reason in the Toksu district.

Officials of the police have enforced that the work contract of an Uyghur named Eysa Yüsüp, who had been arrested because of political activities and began to work after he was released from prison, has been terminated. In this manner, they are releasing communiqués not to employ Uyghurs who had been in prison because of political activities and are thus closing all possibilities for these people for a living.

The incidents reported above are those that have occurred in only one district of East Turkistan. There are more than 80 districts in East Turkistan and it is possible to encounter these kinds of incidents in all of them.

For example, according to news on the website “Website of Tian Shan”, the court of Tokkuzak in the Kashgar province has accused 10 Uyghurs including İslam İsmayil and Eziz Hesen in an open trial on 19 January of conducting “nationalist separatist” activities and sentenced them to long term imprisonment.

According to another newspaper, the “Agricultural Reform Paper” the High Court of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region has sentenced a young man in October 2003 with the charge of “separatist activities” and “playing a crucial role in the Ghulja incidents” to the death penalty and executed the sentence immediately.

It is known by the public that the Chinese government is establishing propaganda centres in many places in China and is settling thousands of Chinese immigrants in East Turkistan every year under the slogan “Opening the Great West”. It has become a fundamental social problem that Uyghurs who even have university degrees are not able to find a job, let alone ordinary people. The local people are strongly objecting to this policy of double standards applied by the Chinese government regarding employment discrimination.

For example in the document “Set of Rules for the Method of Distributing University Graduates in our Autonomous Region to the four Districts of South Xinjiang, the Provinces, Counties and Villages” issued on 23 March 2004 by the Ministry of Peoples Affairs of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region and send to many provinces and districts that in order to strengthen the village based cadre line, it was planned to elect 700 university graduates and to send them to villages and towns in places like Hoten Kashgar, Aqsu and Atush. Among these 700 graduates, two hundred jobs were assigned for minority nations and their age had to be less than 25 years and had to fulfil the following conditions:

1. They must strictly hold to the four basic principles, must protect the unity of the state and must stand against separatism and illegal religious activities.

2. They must have a sophisticated political mind, must have not any separatist activities or ideologies in their relatives or family background, and they must not adhere to any religious beliefs.

3. They must have been member of communist party or cadre of students or they must have been awarded with the title of the 3 best students.

It has been demanded from all employment offices in all provinces and districts that all the above conditions be complied with.

After the above-mentioned document was issued and became known, there was strong objection to it among the Uyghurs, especially among Uyghur graduates. Some Uyghurs said, that under these conditions no Uyghur graduates would be able to find a place to work, since no Uyghur would write in his employment document that he is an atheist. This is one of the traps that the Chinese government has set up in order to divert the Uyghur youth to atheism.

2 - CONTINUED VIOLATION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The Chinese government continued to violate the religious freedom of the people of East Turkistan since the occupation of East Turkistan. The Chinese government also continues to publish human rights reports hiding its violations and deceiving the public opinion.

In the white book called “Human Rights Developments in China in 2004” it reads, “The religious beliefs of Chinese citizens are under the protection of the Chinese law. The law will protect the religious organisations of the citizens, religious meetings and gatherings, the rights of the members of religious groups and the acting out of accepted religious practices.” It reads in the white book further: “In the year 2004, for the first time in China, Guo Wu Yan has legitimised religious freedom in a general manner in China”. A “Guide for Religious Affairs” was published and it reads therein, “‘Activities of religious organisations and religious scholars are encompassed by this and they have rights like establishing religious schools, publishing religious books, administrate the property and possessions of mosques, extend their religious activities to the exterior and complete their exterior relations. These rights are supervised by local administrations and the activities of people of Chinese origin and the activities of religious organisations are conducted under the protection of the laws.” (From the Shinhua News Network) Rights as the above mentioned, however, only remain written on paper and there is no development in that regard in the practise. The Chinese government has not lifted its terrible injustice and oppression of religion from the people of East Turkistan.

For example booksellers of religious books have been arrested and imprisoned as from 10 November 2004. At this present day, it is impossible to find any booksellers for religious books in Urumchi.

In the newspaper “South China Morning News” an article on the religious freedom of the Uyghur was published by Nailene Chou, after a visit to Kashgar. The author praises at the beginning of the article the Heytgah Mosque and many more historic sites and sceneries in Kashgar, but states that the Chinese government is strongly oppressing any religious activity by the Uyghurs. In the same article it was also mentioned that despite the strong oppression of religious freedom there are many religious schools operating in the underground. It was also mentioned that this was a typical example of the move to “strike hard” taking advantage of the pretext of fighting international terrorism to increase actions to come down on the Uyghurs. In the same article it was mentioned that in order to oppress the Uyghurs China was strengthening its relations to neighbouring countries, and that there are worries that the Uyghurs might demand more religious freedom parallel to the increase in the salaries of Chinese officials.

This is the eyewitness account of someone who has been travelling in Uyghur lands and is a clear proof of the religious oppression and prohibitions which the people of East Turkistan are confronted with.

According to the news of the East Turkistan Information Centre from 19 May 2005, the famous religious scholar Abdul Ahat Barat Mahdum from Hoten was arrested recently and sentenced to five years in prison. According to this news, Abdul Ahat Barat Mahdum Hajim was arrested on 2 January 2005 accused of “religious activities by running an illegal religious school”. As it became clear, this person was the nephew of the late Mehmet Emin Bughra, the author of “The History of East Turkistan” and one of the leaders of the East Turkistan Movement. According to the East Turkistan Information Center and the relatives, the 74-year-old Mahdum Hajim was sentenced by the Hoten Province Court to a five years term of imprisonment.

In June and July 2004 a wide scale operation of “cleansing and arresting” was carried out where many underground schools were raided and many religious scholars and Uyghurs sympathetic to the idea of independency were arrested. 75 people suspected of having established underground schools and underground religious teaching, three people running organisational matters under the lead of Erkin, seven teachers, five people who had aided these and 16 people with the task of finding members were arrested along with 32 pupils. Among the pupils were 27 of the age between 7 and 15, 16 of them being girls. These arrested students had come from different cities like Hoten, Kashgar, Ghulja, Turpan and Urumchi by intermediation of relatives and friends. The parents of these students were people who in the past years had suffered political mistreatment by the Chinese government, labelled “participating in illegal religious activities” and sentenced to “Re-education by Work”.

It becomes clear from all this, that the demand of the Uyghurs for religious freedom is very much connected to their demand for political rights. However, the Uyghur are not engaged in terrorist activities as claimed by the Chinese. As the Chinese government itself declared in the news on “Xinjiang Television Channel”, in the last three years the Chinese government opened 10 different courses and has trained 7465 Imams in the politics and ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. As was underlined in this news the Communist government gave great importance to political education. It has been outlined during these courses with 13 political points how the verses of the Noble Qur’an had to be interpreted.

In the same news it was stated, “During the extensive educational activities for Imams in the Uyghur regions, the awareness of religious scholars regarding national separatism was increased”.

As we all know, the issue of political education of religious scholars in the Uyghur lands is a matter much criticised by international human rights organisations. The fact that courses are initiated to educate Imams in Communism and thus brainwashing them is a clear example of how religion is oppressed in East Turkistan.

Not only that the dictatorial Chinese government is playing the games described above, it is also prohibiting the Uyghurs to undertake the Hajj-journey to Mekka. For example, in a news from 28 April 2005 by Radio Free Asia, it was reported that the Chinese government arrested in Aktu near the town of Atush during this years Hajj season 43 Uyghurs who wanted to travel to the Hajj with state permission. They had been planning to travel via Pakistan but after becoming aware of this plan, the Chinese government disliked this and thus arrested the people whom it had granted permission before.

According to news of the French news agency, a policeman from Aktu confirmed that 31 people were arrested at the border near Kashgar.

Fearing that the religion of Islam will become strong in East Turkistan, the Chinese government is prohibiting in different ways that Uyghurs can undertake the Hajj-journey. It has for example stopped the issuing of passports for those who apply for it in order to travel to Saudi Arabia. Further, the applications of people who want a passport to visit their relatives abroad are rejected. All this is further indication that the justly demanded rights of Uyghurs are being disregarded.

One of the points that must be stressed is that the education of children is a tradition from ancient times and that religious education always began in the families. Uyghur women consider this teaching in the family to be a vital part of the education of their children and a vital part of the religious education and their being thought good manners. The Chinese government is declaring this practise illegal and is arresting women who act in this way.

For example, the office of civil security in Shahyar has arrested on 25 March 2005 Aynihasan Muhammet, a female teacher in religion along with their five students. As it has come to be known, the children taught by Aynihasan were between the ages 12 to 20. It has also come to be known that the Chinese government accused Aynihasan of not having used the books that were made compulsory by the Chinese political offices. (RFA)

It becomes apparent that the “Guidelines for Religious Activities to be adhered to by Chinese Citizens” is nothing but a pretext for the prohibition of religious freedoms of Chinese citizens by way of law.

3 - COMPULSARY CHANGE OF UYGHUR EDUCATION TO BE IN CHINESE LANGUAGE

The Chinese government, since it has not been able to break down the people in East Turkistan through long-term oppression and punishments and make them obedient, has now turned to attack the mother language of the Uyghurs under the pretext “necessities of the age”. They have turned the Chinese language into the most decisive element of life in China and have tied the success of the Uyghur generations to the language. This has led to more strong objections of the people towards the Chinese government and has given rise to serious worries about the future of coming Uyghur generations. Language is one of the vital elements of the inheritance of a people and for their participation in actual history.

The Uyghur people, considered uneducated by the Chinese government are now engaged in preserving and rescuing their language. The Chinese government had announced its intention of conducting Uyghur education in Chinese already in 1998. The first place to manifest action in this regard was to be in the Xinjiang University, the symbol of Uyghur thinking and policies. All of a sudden, lectures that so far had been in Uyghur language, were to be held in Chinese. Earlier, only some lectures in natural sciences were held in Chinese. The Uyghur students used to learn both languages. When suddenly it was announced that lectures in Uyghur literature and Uyghur history would be held in Chinese, the people began to express their objections to this practice. Many of those who expressed their objection were thrown out of work or placed under observation. Our people have ever since educated their children in their mother language and there have always been Uyghur speaking intellectuals at universities, and so, this sudden leftist policy puzzled the Uyghur intellectuals and was a hard blow against them. The Union of Educators examined the laws regarding autonomy and brought examples from it and discussed the issue in open forums but the government did not regard these kinds of demands whatsoever. The present day Chinese government has declared a merciless war on Uyghur education.

In order to enforce the Chinese language, the government has been using the trick of qualification tests against Uyghurs and refused to grant to whoever did not pass these tests the status of “qualified personnel”. Minorities who prior to these tests have been fulfilling the responsibilities of their work were now regarded unqualified.

For example, the Xinjiang University has from March this year on accepted the Chinese Language Qualification tests as an absolute necessity and thus, many gifted Uyghur teachers and lecturers have been excluded. As was reported by trustworthy sources, Güljemal Memtimin from the Faculty of Philology, Osman Ismayil und Eneytullah Kurban and some more, eight people in total have been suddenly removed from office with the explanation that they did not reach Level Eight in the Chinese Language Qualification tests.

Güljemal Memtimin is female, 38 years old and has a master degree in Uyghur Literature. She has a long term experience as a lecturer and an experienced researcher. She has been publishing scientific articles in important magazines in the Peking District and has also had significant contributions in the field of research. She is an enduring and struggling lecturer. She is also capable of reading works of Classical Uyghur Literature and translates into present day language. She has been interested in Uyghur Literature since long and has also acquired thorough knowledge of the Persian language and literature.

Osman Ismayil is male, 42 years old and has a title as doctor in social sciences from Kazakhstan and is experienced as a teacher, lecturer and researcher. He has written numerous investigative articles and many books on Uyghur folklore. He is interested in a broad range of topics. He speaks very fluent Russian. He has no difficulties in examining and making use of Chinese material.

Enaytullah Kurban is male, 45 years old and a successful prose writer and researcher for contemporary Uyghur literature. He is an experienced lecturer for higher education. He is a learned man who has compiled, ordered and structured lists of contemporary Uyghur literature and has also presented many works himself, and he is a man of literature known to all Uyghurs. There is no room whatsoever to doubt the command of Chinese this person has. This man has always been aware of contemporary Chinese literature both regarding the lectures he gave and his own prose writing. Here, there is the necessity of relating these new developments and research results to Uyghur students in their mother language. The lecturers mentioned here are people entitled to lecture and research in their mother language. But according to the Chinese, those who do not teach in Chinese are without niveau.

When these respectable lecturers withdraw fom their offices, what is then to become of the mother language of the Uyghurs and their literature? These kinds of practices are nothing but intents to turn Uyghur education into Chinese.

The Chinese government is initiating manifold activities in order to change Uyghur education into Chinese. While the places of higher education are in the situation described above, examination classes are being established in middle and primary schools and gifted students from the minority areas are being taken into inner regions of China with the pretext of receiving sophisticated education and thus Uyghur children are taken out of Uyghur lands and are deprived of learning their literature and history as has been taught since ancient times and thus, feel and think like Uyghurs. Uyghur lessons are being closed down so that Uyghur children have no opportunity to learn their language. For example, in 1998, one Wednesday, all of a sudden, after a seminar of political education, it was announced that the Uyghur classes would be closed. Although the families of the concerned students insisted that these classes should not be closed, these requests were not accepted since the order came from high positions. Taking the Xinjiang University as an example many classes for the Uyghur language were closed throughout the Urumchi district. It is now impossible to find any Uyghur language classes in the Urumchi district. Activities to change Uyghur education into Chinese are carried at rapidly also in the other districts of East Turkistan. According to news of the East Turkistan Information Center in Germany dated 27 April 2005, 70 teachers at the Karamay City Technical School were removed from their posts with the excuse that they did not reach Level Eight in the examinations for the Chinese Language Qualification tests and instead they were assigned tasks like doorkeepers, lawnmowers or cleaning the building. According to the information of the East Turkistan Information Center, there were two Chinese Language teachers among them, but on the above-mentioned pretext they were assigned to cleaning the toilets of the school. One of them is Gülnaz Tohniyaz and the other Aygül Hüseyin. The school administration has warned them that they had to pass Level Eight at the Chinese Language Qualification tests because otherwise their employment at the school would be terminated.

In an official declaration from 16 March 2004, the Chinese have decided that the 600 teachers in the Gulja district would be taught Chinese language and that within six years a body of politically trained and Chinese speaking teachers would be formed selecting every year 10 teachers from among the minorities. According to this document it was decided that until 2010 the teachers in the 73 schools of this district should be politically trained, Chinese speaking, well educated and well informed. What the Chinese government is really intending by this is assimilation politically and regarding the language. That the Chinese government is considering such long-term activities and is making the Chinese language compulsory serves nothing but the turning of Uyghur education to be in Chinese.

In commanding that the Chinese language should be the sole means of education in all districts, towns and villages, the Chinese government is conducting a severe attack to the natural way of life of the Uyghur people.

4 - VIOLATION OF THE UYGHUR PEOPLES RIGHTS OF FREE TOUGHT, FREE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT AND FREE ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Among the rights of the Uyghur people constantly violated during the decades long domination by the Chinese government are the rights of free thought and free expression of thoughts and to inform themselves through the world news sources. In the 21st century, when human rights are emphasised all over the world and hymns of peace and freedom are echoing everywhere, the Uyghur people are living in a situation where free access to information is denied, the freedom of thought is ever suppressed. Some Uyghur youth who desire renewal and are somewhat concerned about the future of their people are imprisoned for no reason and have to endure brutal torture by the Chinese government. As reported by the East Turkistan Information Center on 19 April 2005, the young poet and writer and a voice of freedom, Nurmuhammet Yasin (pen name: Oerkesh) has been secretly arrested. Nurmuhammet Yasin had been arrested by the Chinese government for having published a story about freedom titled “The Wild Dove” in “The Kashgar Literature”, Issue 5 from the year 2004. The Chinese government defamed Nurmuhammet as “inciting separatism and independence”. “The Kashgar Literature” had been printed 2000 issues and the Chinese government had assigned a special “Armed Confiscation Group” to collect the magazine from the people and has employed the Kashgar Civil Security Office and the State Security Office for this purpose, and further, the staff of the Office of Cultural Affairs was forced to take part in the confiscation. The confiscated magazines were stored in the office of the responsible officer in the police department.

Nurmuhammet had entered the literature scene under the pen name “Oerkesh” when he was 12 years old. His poems, stories, prose and pieces for theatre like “Where Are The Children Who Want To Play”, “Mysterious Night”, “My Weeping Heart”, published in magazines and newspapers like “The Rosebuds of Tarim”, “The Kashgar Literature”, “Yarkent Newspaper”, “The Kashgar Newspaper”, “The Civilisation of Xinjiang”, “The Arts of Xinjiang”, the magazine “Bulak”, the newspaper “Workers Times”, “The Xinjiang Youth Magazine”, “Urumchi Evening News” are well known by our people and he is a country loving, justice loving young writer. The people working in “Radio Free Asia” have telephoned the Police Department of the Kashgar Province, the Maralbashi District and the People’s High Court of the Autonomous Region to get information about the state of Nurmuhammet Yasin but were only told that he has been arrested and that he had been spreading ideas of separatism and independency. The ferocious government is hesitating to give information about the situation of Nurmuhammet Yasin and are trying to hide their own terror from the public and the people of East Turkistan.

The pressure on all who are engaged in the news and information sector is very heavy and those who observe the real state of affairs and speak the truth are faced with heavy imprisonment sentences by the Chinese government. The Uyghur reporter Abdugeni Memtimin is a typical example for this. Abdugeni Memtimin is a male, 38 year old Uyghur with higher education, a cultured person and teacher at the Textile Industry School in the Kashgar province. He has been put under observation on 26 July 2002 and has been arrested under the current laws on 30 August 2002.

Abdugeni Memtimin has been sentenced to nine years of imprisonment and deprived of all political rights for three years on accusation of illegally sending secret state information to abroad. His term of imprisonment will end 25 July 2011. During his trial Abdugeni Memtimin has not been allowed a lawyer to defend him and although he defended himself, his defence was not regarded in any way and he was found guilty according to Chinese law and sentenced to imprisonment. The guilt of Abdugeni Memtimin has been the change of his ideas after having discovered the newspaper “The Spark” of the East Turkistan Information Center via the internet and with the help and under instruction from Abduljelil Karakash he has been working fore the East Turkistan Information Center, and has been sentenced to imprisonment because of sending news by means of his computer via the internet, news like, “Human Rights Violations in East Turkistan”, “Teacher fired because of illegal activities in the Peyzavat District and three people sentenced because of providing assistance”, “Ideological Resistance against Separatism continues”, and forwarding the words of the President of the Communist Party in the Kashgar Province, Zhang Jian, “To preserve integrity and to stand against separatism is a long term duty” by use of his computer.

As can be clearly seen from these examples, this is the situation of Uyghur intellectuals who want to preserve their human dignity and protect their rights despite the many ways of oppression from the Chinese government and the situation of Uyghur youth who want to inform others about the suffering and the situation of their people.

The Chinese government has closed five magazines which reflected and discussed sensitive political issues in the Uyghur lands. The Office of News and Publications in the Uyghur Autonomous Region has since the beginning of 2005 ordered the closing of magazines like “The Leader in the Capital City”, “Living Well”, “The Cart Man”, “Colourful Life” and “Jiu Shang”, which discussed political issues that were of concern to the society. (ETIC, 26 April 2005)

Although the Chinese government has established a compulsory rule in the Uyghur lands by means of numerous political tricks, the people have never inclined to this fascist government because there has never been any cultural or ethnical similarity. This being the case, the Chinese government began to rewrite the “General History of Xinjiang” according to its political desires, a history which belongs to the people. On 1 January 2005, the “Tian Shan Internet Website” has released the news that a meeting of authors to write the “General History of Xinjiang” had assembled in Urumchi and thus “the most comprehensive compilation of history ever in the history of Xinjiang” had begun. The Member of the Chinese Central Government Political Bureau and Secretary of the Communist Party for the Uyghur Region, Wang Le Quan said recently: “The history of Xinjiang is a serious matter. Separatists inside and outside the country are twisting the history of Xinjiang and are using political and historical arguments in order to separate Xinjiang from our homeland. Therefore I am hoping that there will be a book that documents that Xinjiang is an inseparable part of our homeland. It is a necessity of our political struggle that we stand against the separatists and protect the integrity of the homeland.” 1990, the propaganda section of the Chinese Communist Party in the Uyghur lands had openly criticised three books written by the Uyghur historian Turgun Almas, “Short History of the Huns”, “The Uyghurs” and “Declarations on the History of Classical Uyghur Literature” and held a gathering of critique and evaluation and finally prohibited the circulation of these books and assigned a special unit to write a “Short History of the Uyghurs” and a “History of Xinjiang”.

Since the beginning of 2005, the Chinese government is conducting a cleansing of illegal publications. According to Nur Bekri, the Assistant of the Secretary General of the Communist Party in the Uyghur Autonomous Region, the cleansing of illegal publications was part of the “Resistance to Separatism” and “Resistance against Infiltration”. Until now, 450 publications have been confiscated. Among these were religious books, political books, magazines and audio and video tapes. According to news from the Uyghur lands, the movie “Braveheart” which tells the story of the independence fight of Scotland has been banned. Further, internet service centres have been designated as places which need to be cleansed as well. (RFA)

In the five years since the Chinese government has been conducting its operations of ideological resistance against separatism and striking hard on separatism, many patriots, intellectuals, writers and members of the teaching staff of higher schools have come under serious psychological pressure and many have become ill on account of that situation. A typical example of this is Tursun Kurban, one of the leading lecturers at the Xinjiang University, who is the teacher for Children’s Literature and Theory of Literature at the Faculty of Literature. This teacher has under the attacks and the pressure from the Chinese government become partially paralysed due to increase of tension and is now a pensioner. Tursun Kurban was one of the most successful teachers at the Xinjiang University and taught for many years Children’s Literature and did much research in this field. He had deserved to stand in the rank of those who contributed to the education and deserved to spend the rest of his life under pleasant circumstances. This lecturer had drawn the attention of the Chinese government because he always spoke about the people in his lectures, analysed their situation correctly and inspired students in their forming aims and goals for themselves. When in 1990 the Soviet Union broke up and there were serious changes in the world taking place, Tursun Kurban was inspired by these changes and he explained to his students what effect the formation of independent Turkic states could have on the Uyghur region and on account of this, he was removed by Chinese authorities from his post as lecturer and was placed under observation for nine years assigned to the supplies section of the faculty.

In the year 2001, during the “Movement for Resistance against Ideological Separatism” the above-mentioned activities of Tursun Kurban were brought up again and he became the subject of heavy interrogations. These had a heavy effect on him and shortly afterwards he became ill due to high blood pressure and a tense state, and shortly later he got bleedings in his brain. After the operations he had to undergo he survived, but part of his body became paralysed. It is impossible to say that the severe Chinese treatment was not the cause of his illness.

Just like this lecturer there are many other middle aged and young lecturers who suffer from psychological problems, high blood pressure and heart diseases. There are many more pressures on the Uyghur lecturers and their distress is growing every day.

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