Many millions of Chinese have been deliberately brought in to settle in East Turkistan and now far outnumber the original inhabitants.
- Uighurs now can't get a job unless they speak Chinese.
- Only Chinese is spoken in schools, causing a communication rift within families.
- Girl children are taken from their families and spend years hundreds of miles away in eastern China where they are taught only Chinese culture and have to take a Chinese husband.
- One child policy is enforced by the Chinese government and compulsory sterilization follows.
- Only 16 percent of publications are in the Uighur language. The Uighurs do not even have their own encyclopedia, dictionary, or basic scientific books in their language.
- In the city of Urumchi alone some 370 thousand books were destroyed as ‘remnants of the past.
- If you voice your concern you are imprisoned or 'disappeared'
1 comment:
The Tibetans have the Dalai Lama - an international media magnet: generating public support from naive westerns looking to those "poorer" communities. An attempt to pacificy their ranging egos; to give a sense of altruism, before going back to drink some beer.
The Inner Mongolians. Well, they don't have that much either. But at least they have the (Outer) Mongolians vouching for them just next door - their language preserved, a similar kinship that has endured its fair share of hardship as well.
The Uighurs. What do they have? Do any westerns give a shit about them? Does Free Turkestan ring a bell to anyone? Probably not. It both saddens me that a landmass, and a people, so large does not even receive a blink in the international press.
It is tragic to hear what is happening to the Uighurs at the present.
Will Beijing 2008 bring any kind of support/international attention to this dying culture? And if it does, can it amount to any proactive difference - or simply become one of those small "human rights" stories that gets a five-second clip at the end...then continues on to the weather.
The press doesn't care, if it ain't newsworthy.
The great firewall of china is brazen in attempts to suppress any information.
This blog is a start. Andrew does not what he is talking about. Keep up the good work - let's get the word out there.
An avid supporter,
Eddie - eddieharran@gmail.com
Let me know if I can help.
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