The European Parliament,

- having regard to its previous resolutions on human rights violations in China,

A. considering numerous reports by human rights' organizations denouncing the strengthening of repression and violation of fundamental rights in China, in the Amdo, U-Tsang and Kham regions of occupied Tibet, in inner Mongolia, and in Eastern Turkestan;

B. considering that Eastern Turkestan was occupied by the then ruling Manchu regime in 1876, annexed in 1884 and given the name Xinjiang;

C. considering that the Turkic people of Eastern Turkestan - the indigenous people of the region now called Xinjiang by the Chinese authorities -, always resisted foreign domination from both Russia and China, and established an independent state in 1933 and again in 1944;

D. considering that Eastern Turkestan was occupied by Communist China in 1949;

E. considering that, while in 1949 the Turkic Muslims (mainly Uighurs) were 94% of the local population, after a consistent Chinese governmental policy of forced relocation of Chinese Hans to the region, presently only 40% of the population is made up of Turkic Muslims;

F. considering the concern expressed by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination during its meeting last August on the situation of the Uighur people in China, namely on the violations of the right to religious liberties, the people's right to safety, and the right to protection against violence or torture, the lack of legal aid and economic, social and cultural benefits;

G. considering the US Congress resolution (H.RES.461) of June 1996, criticizing the PRC's anticrime campaign launched last April which is also targeted at political, labour and religious activists and has led to arbitrary arrests, detentions without minimum legal protection, and swift executions on a large scale, especially in Eastern Turkestan and Tibet;

H. considering that the People's Republic of China is the main beneficiary of the European Union's reinforcement of its economic and commercial relationship;

I. considering as essential to strictly interlink such an intensified economic and commercial relationship with a progress in democratization and respect of human rights;

J. deeply concerned by the human rights' situation in Eastern Turkestan, and the reports of thousands of arrests, especially among Uighurs, in this area;

K. particularly alarmed about reports of the execution of eight Uighur activists on December 4, bringing the total number of executed Uighurs to 138 since last April 1996;

L. deeply concerned about reports that the Chinese authorities are carrying out official policies to purge Eastern Turkestan of those it refers to as "separatists", to isolate and destroy Uighur organizations, to crack-down on demonstrations and ban private religious worship;

1. Calls for an impartial UN Inquiry Committee to be established to investigate the trials and executions of the eight Uighurs;

2. Condemns the People's Republic of China's policies, including population transfers, coercive birth control, and indiscriminate use of the death penalty in Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang), designed to eliminate the culture of the Uighur people and to exterminate the practice of their Islamic belief;

3. Condemns the continuation of nuclear tests at Lop Mar in Eastern Turkestan by the People's Republic of China, which explosions have caused severe damages to the environment, and already jeopardized human life for 30 years now on;

4. Calls on the authorities of the People's Republic of China to immediately and unconditionally release all those prisoners detained for offences related to their opinions, and to close the ominously famous Laogais;

5. Calls on the Chinese government to start a political dialogue with all parties involved in the Eastern Turkestan issue, in order to find a politically negotiated settlement of the various demands of the Uighur people;

6. Urges the Chinese government to allow journalists and human rights' monitors access to Eastern Turkestan;

7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to do their best to obtain the release of consciousness prisoners in the entire People's Republic of China, and notably to intensify their efforts so that the UN Commission on Human Rights adopts a resolution on human rights' situation in China, Tibet, Internal Mongolia, and Eastern Turkestan;

8. Urges the Commission and the Council to immediately exert the strongest possible economic and commercial pressure on the People's Republic of China's authorities so that they would respect the most fundamental human rights in Chinese land as well as in the annexed, colonized territories;

9. Calls on the Commission to work out, together with the US, Canada, and Japan, a common trade policy taking into account respect of human rights, and promotion of democracy and State of law in China;

10. Gives mandate to its President to transmit this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the governments and parliaments of the member States, the government of the People's Republic of China, the UN General Secretary, the Organization of Peoples and Nations Not Represented at the UN, the Uighurs' organizations both in Europe and Kazakhstan, and the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the European Union.