UIGHURS: We fear the worst

Saturday, May 24, 2008

We fear the worst

It is not possible to know how it feels to have lost a child until it happens to you. In a north-eastern province of China, once known as East Turkisthan, it happens a thousand fold. To the Uighur people it happens, to the Chinese people it happens. The Tianamen Mothers still wait to hear what happened to their children on that fateful day in 1989. The Chinese government is a problem. Witness the earthquake where so very many 'one child' young people died. Their mothers now beyond childbearing age mourn their everything, their entire investment in the human race. Who can comprehend their grief?

The time to find a change of heart is running short. Only the strong words of Europe and the US can find a way into the ears of the Chinese policymakers. Have you ever written to your MP? Now might be a good time to start. Tell them you want to see more freedom for the people of China - that includes the Tibetan Autonomous Zone and Rebiya's Uighurs. If there is no change now, the reprocussions on those who have spoken out so far will be terrible.

Freedom of speech? Why is that so hard? Yet Rebiya Kadeer fights on for her son and her people.

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I met Rebiya Kadeer in October 2007

Her brave diminutive form spoke in a language of passion and grief and hope.

Like many others I was moved by her plea to help her country, (East Turkistan, now known as the Xinjing Autonomous Region) to survive the cultural and cruel vice of insidious Chinese occupation. She has quite literally sacrificed her children to come to us, to plead with us, and our option cannot be to do nothing.

I have been to China. As a tourist I have faced fixed bayonets in Tianamen Square for simply wanting to enter at the wrong time of day. I have no difficulty imagining the inscrutable rule of this ambitious race as they slowly but surely spread their unyielding muscle across the less aggressive nations within their reach.

The Olympic games will be upon us soon, and the democratic world is turning a blind eye to the grotesque abuse of human rights in China. The Olympic games were supposed to encourage China to become more aware, instead they are encouraging us to put on the blindfolds and become less aware.

The media circus will not want to highlight the issues. They will be far more interested in getting their investment returns. The athletes – with some reason – will not want to be involved in politics. My voice is small, but if you read this, you are joining me on the stage.

Potted history of the Uighurs

During the mid-1700s and mid-1800s, China and the Soviet Union conquered a large region north of China which included the peoples of Central Asia - Kazakh, Uzbk, Turkmen, and Uighurs. The Xinjian Uighur Autonomous Region was created by China on October 1, 1955.

When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, all of these people regained their freedom except for the Uighurs. In order to prevent an uprising for independence among the original people of the region, the Chinese infiltrated the country with millions of settlers and have taken measures to obliterate the language, religion, and traditions of the Uighurs. The Uighurs are repressed as much as possible and kept at minimum subsistence levels.

Xinjiang is an area rich in natural resources. This is the main reason that China seeks to hold on to it with such tight reins. Xinjiang contains one-third of China's total oil reserve. The country is rich in gold and coal as well as steel, yet the region remains poor because the rightful owners are being exploited and degraded.

Despite these abundant resources, the "wealth gap" has significantly widened between the minorities and ethnic Chinese of the region. Most of them are farmers, only averaging an annual income of £45. Nearly 80 percent of Uighurs live below the poverty level. Less than a quarter even have running water.

Each year, the Party Committee asks each citizen of Xinjiang to work anywhere from 45 days to six months without pay. Many benefits, such as job incentives are only available to the Chinese, not the Uighurs .Without being able to speak Chinese, these people are at a major disadvantage - they cannot get jobs. Many are left unemployed.