CACCP Special 5/12/97 HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN EASTERN TURKISTAN
HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN EASTERN TURKISTAN
Ablajan Layli Naman (Barat)
The Uighurs are the longest continually settled people in Central Asia. Archaeological and historical materials have proved that Uighurs lived in Eastern Turkistan since the beginning of time.
In 1884, the Manchu Qing Dynasty conquered and formally annexed the territory of Eastern Turkistan and named it "Xinjiang" meaning "New Dominion" or "New Frontier." After the Manchu empire was overthrown by the Chinese Nationalist in 1911, Eastern Turkistan was also transferred to the new Chinese government. The Chinese presence was essentially colonial in profile: Chinese troops and Chinese administrators. Even as late as 1944 at the time of the short-lived independent Eastern Turkistan Republic the Chinese constituted a small fraction of the population.
The Peoples' Liberation Army entered Xinjiang Province in 1950 and power was bloodlessly transferred. While there are aspects of intrigue involved with this in regard to the fate of the independent Eastern Turkistan Republic - both on the side of the Soviet Union and Mao's China - one aspect of this power transference continues to impact strongly today in the region: the special role of the Chinese Army. Initially, this included elements of both the remnant Kuomintang (which had been long separated from Nanking rule) and the Peoples' Liberation Army which formed the nexus of a colonial revolution in Xinjiang: the Bin Tuan .
This organization has maintained a special colonial role in Xinjiang and has institutionalized a leading role for Han Chinese in the region, usually at the expense of the local inhabitants. Much of the Uighur struggle to achieve human rights in Xinjiang is related to the experience this institution has inflicted upon the region. Bin Tuan is the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. This is a somewhat twisted translation of Chinese words: "Bin" means "soldier" and "Tuan" means "group." Put together they mean "an organization or group of soldiers."
Originally, the Bin Tuan started as the Chinese occupying army which settled down in the border regions in 1950 to control the newly colonized territory. It gradually expanded as the Central government realized the unbending determination of the Eastern Turkistan people to gain their freedom and independence. The tense relations with the former Soviet Union also contributed to its expansion. The Bin Tuan is a formidable and semi-secret back-up military force which only exists in the Xinjiang province of China. They occupy a large area from Aksu in the south to Ili (Yili) in the north. Every member has to learn to use several kinds of weapons.
Schools are half military and half academic in orientation. By the time a child graduates from middle school, he or she has learned all the skills and techniques a professional soldier is supposed to know.
One example of Bin Tuan's martial role occurred in mid- May 1962, when around 3000 indigenous people in Ghulja (Yining) took to the street and protested the Bin Tuan taking much of the land, water resources and grazing land in the region. When the demonstrators entered the headquarters of the local Communist Party Committee, the commander of Xinjiang Army District, Wang Zhen ordered the PLA and Bin Tuan to do what they are good at, firing at peaceful, unarmed demonstrators. Thousands of innocent people died, many others, around 200,000 Uighurs, Kazaks, Uzbeks, Mongols, Tatars and Kyrgyz fled to the Soviet Union to escape the Chinese massacre, leaving the homes and lands they had lived on for hundreds of years. After these people arrived in the Soviet Union, the land and empty houses the people built with their own hands were conveniently taken over by the Bin Tuan. The few local farmers who were not able to run were forced into the organization.
A March 19, 1996 meeting of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee led by Jiang Zemin underscored the close relationship of Bin Tuan to maintaining Chinese political stability in Xinjiang. It emphasized the necessity of expanding Bin Tuan Construction Corps to new lands in the south of Xinjiang by settling Peoples' Liberation Army units as well as the need to continue to encourage and sponsor young Chinese from inner provinces to come and settle in Xinjiang construction corps.
The majority of the Corps' members are Chinese from the inner provinces. Its total population is 2.4 million according to government sources, but the actual number which is kept secret by the government is between 4.5 and 5 million.
Originally an almost exclusively Chinese organization, the Bin Tuan has seen growth in the number of local ethnic groups included. The reason is the Central government is gradually expanding the territory of Bin Tuan whenever an opportunity occurs. Thus, the Bin Tuan have taken over the arable land belonging to the local people and annexed their habitat. But the Regiments formed with local peoples are given different functions, they are mainly agricultural. For instance, the members of 64th Regiment 4th Agricultural Division in Yili is mainly Uighur. This division is located near the border with Kazakstan.
At present, as it was emphasized in the March 1996 document, the next and the most important target of annexation is Southern Xinjiang where most of the Uighurs live. By such takeovers and annexations, more than a half of the arable land of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region has been occupied by Bin Tuan which is not under the Autonomous Region's jurisdiction. Most of the remaining area which belongs to the Uighur Autonomous Region jurisdiction has been further divided into several autonomous prefectures and counties whose aim is to show outsiders that Chinese government promotes "self-rule."
Actually, their real purpose is to divide the local people along ethnic lines by creating conflicts of interest between them, the other purpose is to silence the Uighurs who resent Chinese settlement. For example, in the ancient city of Atush where more than 90% of the population is Uighur, one often hears Chinese people arguing with the local Uighurs: "this is not the Uighurs' place, remember this is the capital of Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture". Where are the Kirgiz then,? We would rather like to see them take the offices in place of the Chinese. Similar arguments can be heard in Korla, the Mongols prefecture where the Mongol population is around 4%. In fact, in all these so called Autonomous Prefectures and counties, all the key positions are held by Chinese cadres. Local people have never been given any autonomous power. Actually, the situation of the smaller ethnic groups such as Kyrgyz and Mongols is even worse than the Uighurs. They are not given the educational and job opportunities they deser
ve as the real owners of the land. Until very recently, they even did not have their own high schools. They are completely forgotten in the mountain outskirts without any access to education and health care, meanwhile the Chinese are using their name to rob the land and jobs from the Uighurs.
One might wonder then: why all the recent media coverage of Eastern Turkistan mentions only the Uighurs? What about the other peoples like Turkic speaking Muslim Kazak, Kirgiz, Uzbek, Tartar; Pamiri speaking Tajiks, and Buddhist Mongols. Do they support Chinese rule or also want independence? This question was answered only once in 1944, when all the these ethnic groups together overthrew Chinese rule and established the Eastern Turkistan Republic.
Today all the other ethnic groups also want freedom from Chinese rule and they have every right to their land just like Uighurs. They have a deep resentment of being discriminated against in their own motherland by invaders. We all know we are in the same boat, because Eastern Turkistan is our home. One little example explains how the local people of different ethnic groups distinguish themselves from the outsiders: there is two hours time difference between Beijing and Eastern Turkistan, while all the Chinese use Beijing time regardless of the inconvenience, the local people of all ethnic groups proudly use the local time.
Why the central government thinks Bin Tuan is so important even after the old enemy Soviet Union is gone?
To answer this question, first we have to figure out whom they have on their mind as the enemy to use such a huge military force against. The local people who consistently demand independence have been considered by the Chinese government from the fist day of their rule as a potential enemy, therefore, the major goal of the Bin Tuan is to deal with these enemies.
The Bin Tuan is very important to them, because it is the political, military and economic machine with which to destroy their potential enemy, the so-called minorities in a "civil" manner.
First, the Bin Tuan is the home base for Chinese immigration, with the direct support of the central government, it can absorb huge numbers of immigrants without making them visible to resenting locals. The central government made its intention loud and clear in the above document by saying: "We should speed up the the construction of Bin Tuan and continue to encourage and sponsor young people from Inner provinces to come and settle in Bin Tuan". Once the new immigrants get their feet on the Bin Tuan soil, they can branch out to the local cities with a new identity: member of the Bin Tuan relocating within Xinjiang. It is the central government's trusted hand in handling the untrusted "minorities". They always pick the cadres (officials) from among the Chinese from the Bin Tuan. The government's paranoia is reflected in the ridiculous practice that they send soldiers or militiamen from the Bin Tuan, all of whom are at most high school graduates, to every Uighur village and then assign college graduate Uighur
translators to them because there are so many Uighur college graduates from Agricultural, Business and Political Science departments who could not find a job and become village cadres under those same Chinese village heads. In the same document mentioned above it was said:" We have to choose some superior cadres and soldiers from the P.L.A. and Bin Tuan to supplement the county, town and village level cadres " (Chinese Communist Party Central Bureau Document (1996) number 7, part 2).
The ecological impact of the Bin Tuan
The Bin Tuan is given absolute priority over any local needs. Being one of the most dry areas in the world, Eastern Turkistan has very limited water resources. There is no excess water in the region. Bin Tuan settles in the upstream regions and turns areas of desert into green oases. At the same time, their river diversion for irrigation results in traditionally settled Uighur agricultural farms downstream receiving not only much less water, but water which has already been used for irrigation and carries herbicides and pesticides and other wastes. The result is increasing desertification of the Uighur farms. After the Bin Tuan was established, the Uighur farm lands dramatically decreased due to lack of water, while the population increased.
A land once renown for its prosperous land and famous for its fruit gardens, now cannot feed the increasing population. The new settlers who do not seem to respect the holiness of water, pour their waste into the rivers from which the Uighurs who live downstream have been drinking for thousands of years. The local people who voiced their opinion on the water pollution were labeled as separatists and anti-revolutionists and prosecuted by the Chinese communists. In 1988, one Uighur farmer from the town of Yanduma took one bottle of water from the river they drink from and went to the Autonomous region's government office and asked them to analyze the water and try it themselves if they think it is suitable for drinking, and returned to his home town to wait for the analysis. The result was forced self-criticism, cursing, threatening and Marxist education for many months.
Every summer, all kinds of contagious diseases like malaria and hepatitis break out among the Uighur villagers who have no access to underground water and therefore have to drink the polluted water. While the Chinese immigrants enjoy the new-found prosperity and city life, the poor Uighurs became the waste disposer for them!
Eastern Turkistan was the officially acknowledged number one longevity region in China, the concentration of old people who passed 100 is still the highest in China and among the top in the world. But this glorious tradition is coming to an end, giving way to new championships: "number one in cancer and leukemia, number one in contagious disease, number one in unknown diseases, number one in child mortality, number one in the number of people who can not get medical treatment, number one in poverty...
The Chinese cadres bring their own drinking water from the cities by water tank truck when sent to Uighur villages. For example, in the town of Payziwat (Jiashi) where the untolerating mother earth has been shaking with earthquakes since the beginning of this year - by some estimates as many as 32 earthquakes since January, all the Chinese inhabitants are provided with drinking water brought from Kashgar while the Uighurs have to drink the polluted water which is not good enough for our royal brothers! How do we know this? Mr. Tuerdi has a relative who drives such a water tank truck.
In the hearts of the people who live in a land where every living thing even a blade of grass cannot exist without human care, water is held as precious as blood, and a river holy. The Uighurs did not build magnificent skyscrapers, but built life and their own unique civilization in a lifeless desert. Now, everything they hold as sacred is being violated, the green farm lands and the beautiful orchids that formed the basis of the traditional Uighur society are dying out! A few Uighurs tried to find new homes in the new rising cities, only to find, without speaking a strange language for which even a four-year college education is insufficient, they don't stand a slight chance of getting a job, all the jobs, even the janitoring jobs were taken by the Chinese "specialists" who claim to have come to help these "barbarians" who even do not know how to use a mop! A few really determined ones succeeded in making it all the way to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, earning new nicknames for Uighurs such as "Shish kab
ab." A people who used to be famous for their rare hospitality, now become famous for blowing up buses. Indeed they have helped develop a few things, one of which is the trade: trading the region's natural resources such as oil, coal, gold, cotton, grain and meat for the most abundant resource of China: Chinese people.
The redistribution of water resources also severely damaged the vulnerable ecological balance of the whole region. A lot of animal species which can only be found in the Taklamakan desert have been wiped out. One Chinese scientist who studied the impact of Bin Tuan on the ecological environment concluded that the Bin Tuan Divisions settled around the Taklamakan desert were a disaster for the vulnerable ecological environment of the area. He suggested the government shut down a few divisions for their own good, but he ended up being promoted to Beijing.
Mass Immigration and Birth Control Policy
According to the Chinese official publications, the Chinese population of consisted of only about 5% of the total population in 1950. But after only 42 years in 1992, the number reached 40%. Under the strong support of the Central government, the immigration is still being continued. In most Uighur cities, the Uighur-Chinese ratio shifted from 9:1 to 1:9. This trend not only strengthened the resentment of the local people, it also started to cause anti-immigration feelings from already settled Chinese who have also begun to feel the population pressure even though they enjoy the priority over minorities in education and job opportunities. Regardless of any opposition, the Communist government has speeded up immigration in order to transform Eastern Turkistan into a dominantly Chinese province before the the Eastern Turkistan issue becomes international.
At the same time, coercive birth control policy is being carried out among local inhabitants. While the birth control policy is failing in other parts of China, Xinjiang government is always being praised by the central government for being very successful and effective in implementing this policy. To achieve these complements from the bosses in Beijing, the local government officials never give a second thought about the health of the women, most of whom are local people that can be handled in any way they want, since they are out of the social connection network in high places, which has virtually replaced the law in today's Xinjiang. The government forces all kinds of unsafe birth control measures upon the local women without the necessary education to teach them how to practice it safely. As a result, many women and children suffer from severe health problems that sometimes result even in death. The penalty for violation of birth control policy is very serious, ranging from salary cuts, heavy fines, the
denial of citizenship and school for the children, and the loss of housing and jobs.
I have a personal experience with this policy.
The combined effects of mass immigration and coercive birth control policy have dramatically changed the demographic situation. Uighurs are rapidly becoming a minority in their own land.
Education and Job Discrimination
The Chinese educational policy aims to keep Uighur and other Eastern Turkistan people ignorant. Even though we are the majority here, only a small portion of the education budget is used for the locals. For example, in the Kashgar district the Chinese Schools use 65% of the total budget, much higher than their population share of 10%. Only a small number of Uighur high school graduates are allowed to enter college, and only to the ill-equipped colleges in our province. On the other hand, the Chinese use most of the education budget, much higher than their own share, and most of Chinese high school graduates can go to college, and can go to any college in China. Even after graduation from college, the Chinese are also given priority in taking jobs. Thousands of new jobs are being created in the developing industrial and business sectors, but none of them are given to local people, unemployment among Uighurs is a common phenomenon. While Chinese almost do not have any unemployment. A Chinese high school gradua
te has a better chance of getting a job than an Uighur college graduate.
Conclusion
All these aspects have deepened the resentment of local people. Especially, in order to achieve a stable political environment before the return of Hong Kong, the Beijing government had initiated the so-called "Strike Hard" campaign on April Thea last year. Its antecedent was the Jiang Zemin Central Committee speech on Xinjiang March 19, 1996. The hundred days of "Strike Hard" resulted in Uighur reports of more than 10,000 suspected separatist elements arrested last year.
The situation in the Ili Valley and the city of Ghulja bear the closest scrutiny. The reaction of the local population to an arrest during Mosque prayer led to the Ghulja uprising in which 34 people were killed according to eyewitnesses, and 5,000 more people who had not participated in the demonstration but were suspected to have connections to separatist movements were arrested. Since then entire Ili valley, the capital city of Urumchi and some other major Eastern Turkistan cities have come under martial law.
Since Communist rule began in the 1950s the Uighurs have continuously demanded their basic human rights. But every time the Chinese government not only refuses to listen to them but has prosecuted them with universal accusations of separatism. The Chinese authorities always blame the so-called small number of separatist elements for unrest among the people.
In the document we mentioned above, they even blamed the imaginary counter-revolutionary international forces led by America as the culprit of recent incidents in Eastern Turkistan. As always, they never admit the social problems of Eastern Turkistan are a result of unjust treatment and discrimination of a people who were promised true Autonomy 47 years ago when the Eastern Turkistan Republic existed. They should learn to look at the mirror before blaming others. They should stop lying and twisting the true facts about Eastern Turkistan and its people. It is time for the Chinese government to realize that oppression and prosecution can not quench the thirst of people for freedom.
May 7, 1996
