Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS November 5, 1997

By Zulfia, forwarded to ETIC on 11/04/97

This week Elizabeth Tadic, a 25 year old first time film maker, brought joy to Turkistani people in Adelaide and made us very proud.

Elizabeth who lives in Australia Sydney made a trip to China posing as a backpacker, that's where she found the Uighur people and their home land, East Turkistan. For her exclusive footage's she was arrested twice and interrogated for 24 hours by the Chinese police. Despite of all the trouble she escaped with a terrific story of East Turkistan and its people.

"The forbidden Province" was shown on SBS T.V's Dateline this week. I will give brief description of the footage for some of the members who have not seen it.

The Forbidden Province starts with showing the Bazar of Kashgar and Uighur people selling and buying goods. It reports

"Xinjiang, Chinese remote North, Western province in the heart of central Asia. this is the land of old silk road and people here Islam and oil is waiting to explode. During, at Kashgar Sunday bazar farmers bring goods from all over the country side, the seen that changed little in thousands years. This is the Uighur people, the indigenous people of Xinjiang. To Uighurs Xinjiang is still East Turkistan the name of independent stage before the Communist Chinese

invaded in 1945. Now Xinjiang is closed to all outside media and here no one dares to speak of the resume they live under."

"The Uighurs has been brutally suppress by Chinese government policies that threatens their hole way of life. In the past year alone the Human Right group supports, more than ten thousand political arrests and thousands executed. Xinjiang is Chinese other Tibet, on other bigger scale and yet it's totally hidden. This is Chinese great wall of silence. How could a region 3 times size of France with 20 million people remain so unknown to the outside world?"

Politically, Xinjiang is like Tibet, but without a Dalai Lama or star support of Richard Gere - persecuted and virtually unheard of. Xinjiang, Chinese for "New Frontier".

Then it shows the interviews of Uighur people in Adelaide including Akhmet Igemberdi who is the president of Australia Eastern Turkistan Association.

The program also shows life under Chinese control. It records a cultural under threat, Beijing's crackdown of religious activities and its official policy of changing the ethnic balance through forced immigration of Han Chinese. The local "feudal" customs ( religious practices) are said to be contrary to the scientific values of socialism.

The eve of the Hong Kong handover, June 30, in Kashgar, one of the few places in China where the muslim community outnumber the Han Chinese. Chinese military march in the street along the newly built "Hong Kong" road. Uighurs are drumming into the march - tensions are felt as the parade is tightly controlled by police guards. An old woman on a bicycle is accosted by a guard.

Behind the organized street demonstration we go inside an empty mosque - one of many closed in Kashgar to prevent religious practice and the meeting of Uighurs.

Journey from Beijing on uses and trains, seeing new road constructions. We see rare footage of the vast oil field in the Tarim and Turpan basins - the main reason for Chinese grip on the province.

It is a stunning visual journey, Turpan is the second lowest spot after the Dead sea. We cross deserts, ancient mosques, ruins, giant sand dunes.

My favorite - Islamic wedding of Uighur couple, the weeping bride being let to the groom's house. Traditional dances, songs, musics. As her guests leave the wedding we notice the writing on the street walls. It's Chinese propaganda written in the Arabic script for Uighurs calling on the people to "Unite and oppose those trying to split China" and "We must find the underground movement".

An Uighur interpreter explains.." this is Uighurs people country and er...Chinese people's country...er I don't want to tell you about this".

Why? The penalties for dissent are grave. In Kashgar recently , 20 Uighurs people were arrested and five executed for placing an East Turkistan flag on the statue of Chairman Mao in the main street.

The report runs for 20 minute, in this 20 minute you will learn all about Uighur people and their land. Even if you never heard of East Turkistan, Elizabeth explain everything about East Turkistan. I hope you enjoyed reading about the report and also I truly recommend this documentary to see.