UIGHUR EXILES IN MUNICH

SPIEGEL ONLINE


07/09/2009 03:27 PM
UIGHUR EXILES IN MUNICH
'The Reality is Far Worse than Television Pictures Suggest'
By Sebastian Fischer in Munich

Corpses litter the streets and hunger and chaos prevail in China's Xinjiang province, claim members of Munich's Uighur community, the largest such group in Europe. In constant touch with Uighurs back home, they allege the death toll is much higher than the official figures.

The headquarters of the World Uighur Congress (WUC) amounts to a couple of rooms, tucked in the attic of a 1960s-era block near Munich's central train station. More than 500 Uighurs live in the capital of the German state of Bavaria, making it the biggest such community in Europe.

Asgar Can, the organization's vice president, sits between a German flag and a Uighur one, which resembles the Turkish banner, except it is blue instead of red.

"We assume that the situation in the Xinjiang province is far worse than television pictures suggest," he says. The World Uighur Congress maintains contact with Uighurs in their homeland, "our fellow countrymen who phone us with information are risking their lives," he says.

Dolkun Isa, WUC's general secretary, walks into the room, clutching a piece of paper. It contains the latest reports of the unrest in the giant province in Western China. The group now estimates that up to 800 Uighurs have died, Isa says, adding that he is unable to give a more precise number. Official Chinese figures claim that 150 people have been killed in the clashes between the Chinese and Muslim Uighurs.

Isa claims one attack took place on a medical school in Urumqi, the regional capital. He alleges that four Uighur students were stabbed and beheaded by Han Chinese, "their bodies were hung in the faculty entrance," Isa says, citing eyewitness reports. According to a separate report, 150 Uighurs died during an attack on workers in a tractor factory in the northwestern city.

WUC Vice President Can says Uighurs are too afraid to leave their homes -- they fear they might get killed outside on the streets. In the meantime, they are starving. In Urumqi, "corpses litter the street like bits of furniture," he says. Demonstrations are allegedly continuing in the cities of Kashgar, Aksu, Hotan and Karamay, and curfews have been imposed on the local populations. In many cities, water and electricity supplies have been cut, he says.

Chinese leaders are blaming the World Uighur Congress for the latest escalation. In particular the WUC's Washington-based president Rebiya Kadeer has become a scapegoat for the unrest.

"Our initial findings indicate that the separatist World Uighur Congress under the leadership of Rebiya Kadeer has fuelled the violence," the Chinese state news agency Xinhua claims, citing information from the regional government. Can angrily rejects such claims. He is in close contact with Kadeer and spoke to her a night earlier. "She is stunned that she is being held responsible," he says.

Tension Flares

Kadeer, in a recent guest editorial published in the Wall Street Journal, blamed the Chinese for the escalating violence. She also condemned violence by Uighurs and said Han Chinese and Uighurs need to "achieve a dialogue based on trust, mutual respect and equality." She urged the US to take on a key role, saying Washington should condemn the violence in the Chinese province and open up a consulate in Urumqi. That step, she argues, could calm tensions in the area.

For its part, China is taking a tough line on the conflict. The head of the Communist Party in the Xinjiang province, Li Zhi, has threatened that the government will execute those responsible for the latest violence, according to the Associated Press. The wire service reports that many people, mostly students, have already been arrested on suspicion of murder. Early Wednesday morning, the authorities imposed a curfew in Urumqi after thousands of Han Chinese took to the streets a day earlier, armed with sticks, knives and metal poles.

Authorities dropped thousands of flyers from helicopters above Urumqi and called for calm among the 2.3 million residents. Some citizens erected barricades to avert further street fights. "We just want to protect our homes, we don't want to attack anyone," says a spokesman for the Uighurs.

Chinese police swarmed Urumqi on Wednesday in a bid to contain the protests, which have endured for days. The arrests of a number of alleged Han Chinese leaders from among a 1,000-strong group of demonstrators sparked scenes of aggression. "Let them free, let them free," called the demonstrators. The presence of large numbers of security forces restored calm in the city center. Armored military personnel carriers patrolled the streets.

Along with Tibet, the Xinjiang province is one of the most politically volatile regions of China. Bordering on Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, it is strategically important -- with ample oil reserves and China's biggest supply of natural gas. It is so important that Chinese President Hu Jintao cancelled his plans to attend the G-8 summit in Italy due to the violence. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had reportedly wanted to speak to him about the regional unrest.

The World Uighur Congress says the province should be given the right of self-determination. "The people should decide," says Asgar Can. At the moment the conditions are not in place for that to happen. If his people do call for independence one day, he says, then they would establish a democratic system.

Can says it could be modelled after the East Turkistan Republic that existed in the region between 1944 and 1949, when it became part of the People's Republic of China. He adds: "We have never had the intention of founding an Islamic country."

Can says he is also appealing to the German government to accept the remaining 13 Uighurs still being held in the US Guantanamo detention center.

URL:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,635249,00.html
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Uighur women grieve for their men who they claim were taken away by the Chinese authorities after Sunday's protest in Urumqi.

Uighur women grieve for their men who they claim were taken away by the Chinese authorities after Sunday's protest in Urumqi.
Photo AP -->

Uighur women take to the streets in search of their men
Published: 7 July 2009 17:06

Chinese authorities allow western journalists to cover the riots in Urumqi - under strict supervision.

By Bettine Vriesekoop in Urumqi

Nalida, dressed in a black-and-white burqa, brought her hands to her face as she cried: "The police killed my husband. Hundreds of policemen entered our houses. They hit us with sticks and pipes and took our husbands and sons."

She clenched her fists and screamed as she and hundreds of wailing Uighur women on Tuesday marched through the capital of the western Chinese province Xinjiang, which was the scene of violent clashes between Uighurs and police on Sunday afternoon.

"This is war now. We have been silent too long. The Chinese do not respect our way of life and our religion," said Guli, a woman clad in a green burqa. "Our men, we don't know where they are. They even loaded naked children into trucks."

To continue reading the article please click on the link below

http://www.nrc.nl/international/Features/article2294003.ece/Uighur_women_take_to_the_streets_in_search_of_their_men

Saklanan Türk Piramitleri

Saklanan Türk Piramitleri

Uygur bölgesinde bulunan, Mısır piramitlerinden yüzyıllarca önce yapılan ve Mısır piramitlerinden daha yüksek/büyük olan piramitleri yapan Türklerdir. Çin hükümeti buraya girişi tamamı ile yasaklamıştır. Çünkü bu piramitlerin içinde proto-Türk yazılar mevcut. Arkeologların dahi girişine kati surette izin verilmiyor. Çünkü dünya tarihinin tekrar yazılması gerekebilir.Bugün Çin sınırları içerisinde yer alan, Xian şehrine 100 km uzaklıkta qin ling shan dağlarında Ön-Türk uygarlıklarından birisi tarafından inşa edilmiş, etrafında irili ufaklı 100 adet piramitle beraber, 300 metre yüksekliğinde bir piramit bulunmaktadır;

BEYAZ PİRAMİT
Beyaz Piramit’in ikinci dünya savaşı sırasında çin’e yardım malzemesi götüren bir C-54 uçağından çekilen fotoğrafı 1957 yılında ilk kez life dergisinde yayınlanmıştır.Bu piramitleri araştırmak üzere 1994 yılında şensi bölgesinde bir araştırma gezisi yapan alman bilim adamı hartwig hausdof kendi koleksiyonundan birkaç resmin halka açılmasına izin vermiştir. hausdorf’a göre piramitlerin yapım tarihi en az M.Ö. 2500’ler civarındadır.Bölge çin tarafından yasak bölge ilan edilmiş olduğundan dolayı piramitler içerisinde bulunan mısır medeniyetinden çok ileri bir teknikle mumyalanmış olan cesetler ve Ön-Türkçe yazıtlar üzerinde araştırma yapılamamaktadır.

Piramitlerin ebat, orijinal şekil ve büyüklükleri ,dikkat çekmemesi açısından Çin hükümeti tarafından maksatlı olarak tahrip ve kamufle edilmiştir.Piramitlerin üst tarafları kesilmiş ve üstleri toprakla doldurulup, kamuflaj amacıyla ağaçlandırılmıştır .Tüm İnsanlık tarihini değiştirerek;

MEDENİYETİN ASIL YARATICISININ TÜRKLER OLDUĞU SONUCUNU DOĞURAN, bu olağanüstü keşif batılı bilim adamları(!) tarafından ısrarla görmezlikten gelinmekte ve insanlığın bilgisinden daha uzun süre saklanması mümkün olmayan bu piramitleri başka bir uygarlığa mal etmeyi amaçlayan maksatlı çalışmalar yapılmaktadır…

./...

http://www.yenidenergenekon.com/45-orta-asyada-turk-piramitleri/

East Turkestan: China's Exercise in Assimilation

Monday, 28 April 2008

Autonomy remains illusory in ‘Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Province’ as China’s continues to discriminate and marginalize ethnic Uyghurs.

Below is an article written by Peter Ford and published by the Christian Science Monitor:

King Daoud Mehsut of Kucha, 12th in his royal line and the last man still alive in China to have sat on a monarch's throne, is a man of noble bearing and proud visage.

The old man's fate, however, is dispiriting. Once a leader of his Uighur people – the Muslim ethnic group that predominates in this far western province of Xinjiang – King Daoud is now wheeled out by two young Chinese female assistants presenting him as a tourist attraction to visitors prepared to buy a 200 RMB ($28.60) ticket. "I get a cut," he says simply.

King Daoud's humiliation, say some Uighurs (prounced WEE-gur), is a sign of what is in store for their culture as a whole in the face of the Chinese government's relentless drive to settle more and more ethnic Han Chinese in traditionally Uighur territory, rich in oil and minerals.

"We feel like foreigners in our own land," complains one Uighur teacher in the provincial capital of Urumqi, who offers only a nickname, Batur, for fear of angering the authorities. "We are like the Indians in America." Or Tibetans in Tibet. "Most Uighurs sympathize with the Tibetans," says Batur. "We feel we are all under the same sort of rule."

Though Xinjiang's 8 million Uighurs have shown only a few signs of the sort of unrest that shook Tibet recently, the Chinese government is just as nervous about "splittism" here among the country's fifth-largest ethnic minority, afraid that beneath the surface calm, resentment is bubbling.
[…]
That concern, many Uighurs charge, translates into harsh government control of their lives, restrictions on the use of their language in schools and on their Muslim religious practice, and a colonial-style economy that keeps most local people in menial jobs while Han Chinese immigrants run businesses and the local administration.

Since the Communist government took over Xinjiang in 1949 from a warlord allied with the Nationalist Army, the proportion of Han Chinese (China's dominant ethnic group) in the province has shot up from 6.7 percent to 40.6 percent, according to official figures. The Han population now almost matches the Uighur population, after a six decades-long campaign by Beijing to settle Han in the remote region.

"The government wants the Uighurs to be their slaves, they want our race to vanish," says a clothes trader in the bazaar in Urumqi who calls himself Qutub. "They are destroying the demographic balance by bringing in Chinese people," he adds. "They are drying out our roots."

Though Han and Uighur people share the land, they have little in common, little to do with each other, and little desire to change that state of affairs.

Uighurs are resentful at the way Han Chinese monopolize the best jobs and the top political posts, even though Xinjiang is theoretically an autonomous province. Han residents routinely complain that Uighurs are dirty, lazy, and dishonest.

"I don't have any Uighur friends. I don't deal with them," says Mr. Mi, an old man waiting in line for a therapeutic massage in Urumqi who says he has lived in Xinjiang for 50 years. "They are rude and brutal."

That attitude has marked even Hadji, a wealthy young Uighur entrepreneur who drives a pearl gray Chevrolet and says that he personally has always got on well with his Han neighbors in Urumqi.
"They look down on us," he says of the Han immigrants. "When I take a bus, I hang on to the straps with both hands so nobody even thinks I might be trying to steal their bag."

Often, Chinese people seem insensitive to Uighur fears that their distinctive Muslim culture, derived from their Turkic origins, is being stifled by the flood of Han immigration.

"We all belong to the same country, so the two cultures should assimilate," says one Chinese student as he eats a plate of stir-fried pork and vegetables in the Xinjiang University canteen in Urumqi. "There is a universal law: survival of the fittest."

Others are more sympathetic. "We can understand that they feel their culture is being diluted" says Zhu Lijuan, another student. "But without Han people, how would they have cellphones or computers?"
The Chinese government has indeed brought economic development to Xinjiang, acknowledges Qutub, picking at a rice pilaf studded with raisins and pieces of lamb in a bazaar restaurant. But he is not impressed. "They give us bread," he says. "But they take away our hearts."

"The Uighurs are in a very difficult position," says Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch. "They can modernize but at the expense of their culture, or they can refuse to do so and end up marginalized economically."

Of special concern to many Uighurs is their Muslim religion, which local people say is attracting increasing numbers as an expression of their identity, and which the authorities see as a potential breeding ground for separatism.

On the wall of the 16th-century ochre brick mosque here in Kucha, a predominantly Uighur town of 200,000, a red banner proclaims – in Chinese and Uighur script: "Fight Against Illegal Religious Activity: Create a Harmonious Society."

Inside the prayer hall, a notice board explains "illegal religious activity." Near the top of the list is a warning that indicates the government's worries: "It is forbidden to praise jihad, pan-Turkism, or pan-Islamism."

Young men under the age of 18 are not allowed to pray in the mosque, the guardian says. Recently introduced regulations forbid local government employees from going to the mosque and ban teachers from wearing beards and students from bringing the Koran to university, human rights activists say.

"If you get too religious, the government gets worried," says one cotton farmer in a village 50 miles south of Kucha, where, he says, 50 young men have been arrested in recent months for studying at private religious schools, accused of belonging to the outlawed Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic Party.
"There is no religious freedom here," the farmer says bluntly.
The Chinese government "conflates … any religious activities outside the official framework with terrorism and separatism," argues Mr. Bequelin.
[…]
Of more concern to the cotton farmer, who asked that neither his name nor his village be identified for fear of official retribution for talking to a foreign journalist, is the fact that the government has ordered him, like everyone else in the district, to tear down his home and build a new one more resistant to earthquakes.

The authorities are offering 4,000 RMB ($571) towards the cost of this work, the farmer says, "but rebuilding the house I live in would cost me 30,000 RMB." Instead he plans to build a smaller home, which will still cost him the price of a year's cotton harvest. "What can we do?" he asks. "That's just the way it is."
Some Uighurs have broken the silence of acquiescence recently, such as the several thousand demonstrators in the southern town of Khotan who spilled onto the streets in protest a month ago [March 2008] at the death, at age 38, of an imprisoned local philanthropist. The official reason was a heart attack.
[…]
Asked if he is happy with the way the government treats him, one man says that answering that question would make him choose between "committing a political sin or a sin against my conscience." He chooses the latter, and is silent.

A local government employee in the small city of Korla, where the discovery of oil has drawn hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese workers, is a little more forthcoming.
Since last term, he complains, key school subjects such as math have been taught only in Mandarin, starting in the second grade. To preserve his people's culture, he insists, "education is central. If education is in Mandarin, what do you think will happen?"

Meanwhile, back in his government-refurbished palace that has been transformed into a "Triple- A Tourist Spot," according to a plaque by the gate, King Daoud seems resigned to his role as a folkloric money spinner for Xinjiang's real rulers, with whom he long ago made his peace.
His "kingdom has disappeared" since the Communists deposed him in 1949, he acknowledges. "I am the last vestige of the feudal system."
Soon, fears Batur, his people will go the same way if the Chinese government maintains its current policies.

"The government thinks Uighurs are a threat to Xinjiang's stability," he says. "If they can assimilate us as soon as possible, there will be no threat. Xinjiang will be Chinese, and there will be nothing for them to worry about."

East Turkestan

Watch:
Ms. Rebiya Kadeer (Rabiye Qadir), the leader of Uighur National Movement and the Spiritual Mother of Uyghur people, as the president of the WUC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caq_sBChfCg

Geography

East Turkestan covers 1.65 million square kilometers. According to official records, the original territory of East Turkestan was 1.82 million square kilometers. The neighbouring Chinese annexed part of the territory as a result of the communist invasion of 1949.East Turkestan borders with Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to the west, and Tibet to the south.

People

Current Issues

Forbidden traditions: Pursuant to Article 4 of the Chinese Constitution, Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities should theoretically enjoy the right to “use and develop their own spoken and written languages, and to preserve or reform their own ways and customs”. This provision is reiterated in the famed – and yet-to-be-applied – 1984 Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law (Art. 10). Yet Uyghurs are not allowed to celebrate their Newruz (Uyghur new year) and traditional Meshreps (cultural festivals) have been outlawed in 1994.

Endangered language: Uyghur language (a Turkic language closely related to Uzbek) is taught as a second language in primary and secondary schools but scarcely used as Uyghurs are forced to use Chinese. According to the Human Rights Council resolution 60/251 from the UN General Assemble of June 2006, 70% of schools in East Turkestan are taught in Chinese.

Uyghur was also used as a language of instruction at Xinjiang University until 2002 when the government decided that the majority of courses should be in Chinese. The destruction of thousands of Uyghur books by Chinese authorities is another illustration of an intention to undermine Uyghur culture (Uyghur Language and Culture under Threat in Xinjiang, Michael Dillon, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Analyst, 14 August 2002). Moreover, the aforementioned restrictions upon religious practice also have a direct impact on the transmission of the Uyghur cultural heritage.

Religion under control: In China, Imams, Lamas and Catholic clerics are ‘approved’ by Chinese authorities. A majority of Uyghurs are Muslims. Despite the provisions of article 36 of the Chinese constitution granting freedom of religion to all Chinese citizens, religious manifestations are strictly controlled. In his report after a visit to China in 1994, the United Nations Special Rapporteur of Freedom of Religion underlined the fact that the right to manifest one’s beliefs was not guaranteed there. Since 1994, despite numerous requests, the new Rapporteur has not been granted a visa to China.

University students are openly forbidden to fast during the month of Ramadan or to show any pious behaviour (Human Rights Watch report on Xinjiang, Oct. 2001). The content of the Friday sermon is kept under strict scrutiny by Chinese authorities who validate all quotes and interpretations of the Quran in advance. The authorities decide upon the legitimacy of religious groups, taking into account various criteria, among which: July 2005, the Xinjiang’s Yili Autonomous Prefecture decided to ban the Sala Sufi branch of Islam and detained and fined 179 followers (Human Rights Watch, China: A Year After New Regulations, Religious Rights Still Restricted, 01 March 2006).

Hajj ban: Until this summer, Chinese Muslims over 40 were eligible to apply for passports to go on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five fundamental duties for all Muslims) but in June 2007, all passports were confiscated and Xinjiang authorities announced that only a small delegation of selected Muslims would be allowed to go to Mecca (Human Rights Watch, China: A Year After New Regulations, Religious Rights Still Restricted, 01 March 2006).

Pursuant to the 2004 Regulations on Religious Affairs, overseas pilgrimages to Mecca require a state authorization (Art. 43) and must be organized by the state-monitored national religious body of Islam (Art. 11).

Marked as ‘Terrorists’: The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York and the "War on Terror" allowed the Chinese Government to start a heavy crackdown on the Uygur religion and basic freedoms under the guise that the Uygur harbour terrorist organizations. In the 2004 Amnesty International Report this is confirmed. The PRC’s change in public rhetoric about East Turkestan after 9/11 and detail the crackdowns that have led to arbitrary arrests, torture, and executions, as the PRC government has used ‘anti-terrorism’ policies to suppress all forms of Uyghur protest, no matter how peaceful.

A section of the report illuminates how authorities have targeted Uyghur intellectuals as part of their strategy to silence dissent. The cases of Uyhjur-Canadian Huseyin Celil and the attacks on the prominent Uyghur leader and human rights activis Rebiya Kadeer’s family illustrate how the PRC’d intimidation tactics extend beyond its own borders.

Environmental problems: The environmental problems were partly caused by the mass migrations of Chinese into East Turkestan. Since the population of East Turkestan had suddenly increased, the region began to face a serious water shortage. The solution that the Chinese government put into practice – the diversion of the main river system for the irrigation of the upstream areas of new settlers — turned into an ecological disaster in the whole territory, which resulted in the desertification of farms.

Despite the fierce protests of the Uyghur’s, the Chinese Communist leaders continue to order nuclear testing at Lop Nor in East Turkestan that has for three decades produced an ecological disaster endangering human life, polluting drinking water and food supplies and affecting millions of animals. According to a report released by the Registry of the Peoples Hospital of Urumchi in 1993, the rate of fatal cancer was at least 70 per day, out of an average 1,500 daily sick visits in this hospital.

Population

East Turkestan is the homeland of the Turkic speaking Uyghurs and other Central Asian peoples such as the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tatars and Tajiks. According to latest Chinese census, the current population of East Turkestan is 18.62 million, including 7.49 million ethnic Chinese settled in East Turkestan after 1949 (the ethnic Chinese numbered 200,000 in 1949). The population of Muslims is slightly over 11 million, with 8.68 million of them being Uyghur.

However, the Uyghur sources put the population of Uyghurs around 15 to 20 million.

Language

Uyghur is an ancient language with more than 15 million speakers by Uyghur estimates and more than 8.6 million speakers by Chinese estimates. Uyghur belongs to the Turkic branch of the Ural-Altaic family of languages. It is closely related to the languages of the Turkish, Azeri, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Tartar, Bashkurt, Chuvash, Yakutsk and other Turkic dialects.Uyghur has used several alphabets throughout its history, including forms of the Sogdian, Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic script, with regional variations. Since 1985, the Arabic script was reinstated as the official script. There is, of course, a great difference between the old Uyghur and the present one

History

Contacts between Uyghurs and Muslims started at the beginning of 9th century and conversion to Islam soon followed. The city of Kashgar quickly became one of the major learning centers of Islam. Art, sciences, music and literature flourished as Islamic religious institutions nurtured the pursuit of an advanced culture. In this period, hundreds of world-renowned Uyghur scholars emerged.

The Manchu Invasion:

The independent Uyghur Kingdom in East Turkestan was invaded by the Manchu rulers of China in 1759 and East Turkestan was annexed to the Manchu Empire. The Uyghurs regularly revolted against the occupation but only achieved independence for 12 years (1864-1876). Chinese Nationalist Rule in East Turkestan:In 1911, the Nationalist Chinese overthrew Manchu rule and established a republic. The Uyghurs, who wanted to free themselves from foreign domination, staged several uprisings against the Nationalist Chinese rule during this period.

Twice, in 1933 and 1944, the Uyghurs were successful in setting up an independent East Turkestan Republic. But Nationalist forces each time managed to reestablish control Isa Yusuf Alptekin served in the government of the short-lived East Turkestan Republic in the 1940s and fled to Turkey when the Republic was crushed in a joint operation by Mao and Stalin. He kept the mindset of a diplomat and in a famous incident in 1981 played host to a delegation from the Chinese Embassy in Ankara. Isa Yusuf Alptekin died in 1995 at age 94.

Communist Rule:

In 1949, the Nationalist Chinese were defeated by the Communists. As a consequence, East Turkestan fell under Chinese Communist rule. Ever since then, the Uyghurs have been discriminated against by the Chinese Administration in all walks of life. The Uyghurs were denied representation in their own country. In the 1950s and 1960s, the central government encouraged significant numbers of ethnic Han Chinese to settle in Xinjiang to ‘dilute’ the Uyghur population and increase Beijing’s control. In the 1970s, freedoms were gradually re-introduced after the Cultural Revolution. Mosques were re-built and the Uyghurs were allowed greater freedom of movement.

In the 1990s, after the independence of the Turkic Republics of the former Soviet Union, the Turkic peoples of Xinjiang, particularly the Uyghur’s, grew increasingly discontented with Chinese rule, the economic disparity between themselves and the Han-Chinese and the marginalization of Uyghur culture. CultureAt the end of the 19th and the first few decades of the 20th century, scientific and archaeological expeditions to the region along the Silk Road in East Turkestan led to the discovery of numerous Uyghur cave temples, monastery ruins, wall paintings, statues, frescoes, valuable manuscripts, documents and books.

The manuscripts, documents and books discovered in East Turkestan proved that the Uyghur’s had a very high degree of civilization. The first Uyghur literary works were mostly translations of Buddhist and Manicheist religious books.

Religion

Prior to Islam, like most of the Turkic peoples in Central Asia, the Uyghur’s believed in religions like Shamanism, Buddhism and Manicheism. The Uyghur’s embraced Islam in 934, during the reign of Satuk Bughra Khan. He was the first Turkic ruler who embraced Islam in Central Asia. At this time, instead of temples, mosques were built. Almost 300 mosques were built only in the city of Kashgar. Most famous among them are the Azna Mosque, built in the 12th century, Idgah Mosque built in the 15h century, and Appak Khoja Mosque, built in the 18th century. In the city of Kashgar alone, there were 18 big Madrasas (mosque schools), and up to two-thousand students enrolled in these schools in any given year, these schools were one of the important facilities not only for teaching the Uyghur children reading, writing, and subjects Islamic in nature, but also such familiar subjects as mantik (logic), arithmatik (arithmetic), hendese (geometry), hai'a (ethics), astronomiye (astronomy), tibb (medicine), and falaha (agriculture). The Mesudi Library built in the 15th century, had a collection of almost 200,000 books.

Organizations

East Turkestan is represented in the UNPO by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC).

Introducing the World Uyghur Congress

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization that represents the collective interest of the Uyghur people both in East Turkestan and abroad. WUC was established on April 16, 2004 in Munich, Germany, after the East Turkestan National Congress and the World Uyghur Youth Congress merged into one united organization. The main objective of WUC is to promote the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine the political future of East Turkestan.

At the second General Assembly of the WUC, which was held in Munich from November 24 to 27, 2006, delegates elected Ms. Rebiya Kadeer (Rabiye Qadir), the leader of Uighur National Movement and the Spiritual Mother of Uyghur people, as the president of the WUC.

Before Rebiya Kadeer (Rabiye Qadir) was elected as the president of WUC, she founded the “Uighur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation” and headed “The Uighur American Association” based on Washington DC. She was also the winner of Rafto Prize and the nominee for 2005-2006-2007 Nobile Peace Prize. For 5 years she spent her life in a notorious Chinese prison. After her release, she has been exerting all her energy to fight for freedom, democracy and human rights for Uyghur people. For her great work she is entitled as “The Leader and The Spiritual Mother of Uighur’s”.

At the first General Assembly of WUC in 2004 Mr. Erkin Aliptekin was elected as a president. He had lead WUC to its second General Assembly in 2006. Mr. Alptekin is a former general secretary of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) based in The Hague, the Netherlands. He has remarkable experience in working with international organizations and governments in lobbying for the Uyghur people’s right to self-determination.

He is also a close friend of the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. WUC is a democratic organization. All of WUC leadership was democratically elected by the participants from all over the world in the General Assembly. They all serve a three-year term. WUC has close contacts and working relations with most Uyghur organizations in the world that peacefully promote the human rights, religious freedom, and democracy for the Uyghur people in East Turkestan.

Mission Statement

The main objective of the World Uyghur Congress is to promote democracy, human rights and freedom for the Uyghur people and use peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine their political future. By representing as the sole legitimate organization of the Uyghur people both in East Turkestan and abroad, WUC endeavors to set out a course for the peaceful settlement of the East Turkestan

Question through dialogue and negotiation.

The WUC declares a nonviolent and peaceful opposition movement against Chinese occupation of East Turkestan and an unconditional adherence to the international accepted human rights standard as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and adherence to the principals of democratic pluralism and rejection of totalitarianism, religious intolerance, and terrorism as an instrument of policy.

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'Beautiful Turkestan' see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCDJPRwuNlU&feature=related

The Uighurs

Mural in Uighur home
Uighur woman in front of a Yurt

Please click on:

http://the_uighurs.tripod.com/

The Uighurs is one of the ancient Turkic peoples. They settled on territory of Eastern Turkestan (at present Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region of Peoples Republic of China), and of present Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan long time ago. Nowadays the population of the Uighurs is about 8-10 millions. The Uighur language belongs to the Qarluq group of the Turkic languages. There are 3 stages in history of the Uighur language:

1. The Ancient stage consisting of 2 periods: the Most Ancient (up to the 5th century AD) and the Ancient (the 6-11th centuries) ones;


2. The Medieval stage breaking up for 2 periods: the Early Medieval (the 11-14th centuries) and the Medieval (the 14-18 th centuries) ones;


3. The Modern stage divided into the New (the 18-19th centuries) and the Newest (the 20th centuries) ones.

At various stages of historical evolution the Uighurs created a number of states. The First Uighur Qaghanat was established in Khanghaj in 323. It existed 200 years. The Second Uighur Qaghanat was founded in 523 and existed 80 years. It was destroyed by the Turkic Qaghanat in 603. In 743 the Third Uighur Qaghanat was built on the ashes of the Eastern-Turkic Qaghanat located on territory of the present Northern Mongolia. It was ruined in struggle with the ancient Khaqases in 840. The Third Uighur Qaghanat was a feudal state with the tribal vestiges.

However, despite these vestiges, the association of the Uighurs, formation of the Qaghanat, declaration of the Qaghan with hereditary authority are to be considered as a new stage in ethnic and political development of the Uighurs. The important expression of awareness of necessity of ethnic and political unity on the certain development stage was the acceptance of the self-name "the Uighurs". New union resulted in formation of the Qaghanat and in acceptance of common name "the Uighurs" appeared to be a stronger ethnic formation, which should be regarded to as a replacement of the tribal-patrimonial union by the ethnic group and in the aspect of public development - as a replacement of the patrimonial relations by the feudal ones.

In the Third Uighur Qaghanat the various crafts, agriculture and cattle breeding were highly developed. " The monuments and relics prove an originality of the Uighur civilization. Though the material culture of the Uighurs has deep Central Asian roots it was the Uighurs who began seriously to spread settled civilization with construction of large multi-quarter towns and fortresses in the Central Asian steppes."

The Uighurs already had high culture and written language in the beginning of the 5th century AD. Their script was developed from the Sogdian one. Along with the Sogdian script the Uighurs adopted Manicheism from the West. With accepting of Manicheism in 762 the Uighur society got acquainted closer with painting and other elements of the Sogdian culture.

After the fall of the Third Uighur Qaghanat in 840 the Uighurs created a state on territory of Eastern Turkestan with the center in town of Turpan. The Uighur state at the feet of Eastern Tian-Shan mountains (the 9-14th centuries) achieved high level of development in all areas. Territory of the state was approximately 500,000 sq.km. Its borders laid to the west of the town of Qoutchar and far to the East of the town of Khami, to the north of Urumchie and in the south at Khotan. In 902-1036 the Uighur Ghanjou state was formed. The Uighur Koutchar Princedom existed in 11-12 centuries.

The Uighurs practiced Buddhism before they were converted into Islam.
The culture of Buddhist Qashqar was enriched by influence of Central Asia, Iran, Byzantium and adoptions from Syrian, Sogdian and other cultures of the Asian Middle Ages.



History of Uighurs in brief:
http://the_uighurs.tripod.com/hist.htm


Uighur Script:
http://the_uighurs.tripod.com/Scrpt.htm

Listen to Uighur Music:
http://uighurmusic.tripod.com/


Watch: The Uighurs ( soundtrack from a movie called uch oghul )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc8HxlL6VJ4

UIGHURS IN GUANTANAMO

March 28, 2008
A Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea From Gitmo
by Andy Worthington

The stories of the Uighurs in Guantánamo – Muslims from the oppressed Xinjiang province of China, formerly known as East Turkistan – have long demonstrated chronic injustice on the part of the U.S. authorities to those who know of them, although they have only sporadically registered on the media's radar.

Numbering 22 men in total, three were picked up randomly in Afghanistan, another was caught crossing the Pakistani border disguised in a burqa, while the other 18 were seized together by opportunistic Pakistani villagers after fleeing Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion in October 2001, and sold to U.S. forces for a bounty, as was common at the time. A leaflet dropped by U.S. planes offered enterprising villagers and soldiers "millions of dollars for helping the anti-Taliban force catch al-Qaeda and Taliban murderers."

These 18 men, who had fled their homeland because of persecution, in search of a new life, or in the hope of gaining some sort of training to enable them to fight back against their oppressors, had been living together in a small, run-down hamlet in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains, mending the settlement's ruined buildings, and occasionally training on their only weapon, an aging AK-47.

After the U.S.-led invasion, they were targeted in a U.S. bombing raid, in which several men died. The survivors then made their way across the mountains to the Pakistani border, where they were first welcomed by the villagers, then betrayed by them. In U.S. custody, they attracted attention because of their supposed insights into the workings of the Chinese government, but it was apparent from early on that they had not been involved with either the Taliban or al-Qaeda, and that there was no reason to hold them.

Unfortunately for the Uighurs, however, the declaration of their innocence only prefaced further problems, as they joined one of Guantánamo's least enviable groups: cleared prisoners who, because of international treaties, cannot be returned to their home countries for fear that they will be subjected to torture, or worse. The U.S. government had obligingly declared those opposed to Chinese rule in Xinjiang province as "terrorists," in order to secure support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and had even allowed – or invited – Chinese interrogators to question the men in Guantánamo, but when it came to returning them to China they refused to do so.

Attempts to persuade other countries to accept the Uighurs – and other cleared prisoners who faced similar problems with repatriation – were both long and largely futile. Despite the fact that some of these men had been regarded as wrongly detained while they were in U.S.-run prisons in Afghanistan, and many had been cleared after military tribunals in Guantánamo in 2004, it was not until May 2006 that one country – Albania, one of Europe's poorest nations – could be prevailed upon to accept five of the men, who were joined, in December 2006, by another three cleared prisoners from Algeria, Egypt, and the former Soviet Union.

Living in a UN refugee camp in Tirana has not been without its problems – there is no Uighur community in Albania, no prospect of work, and no opportunity for the men to have contact with their families – but it is at least better than being in Guantánamo, where their compatriots, who have, for the most part, also been cleared for release (the exact details are, like much else at Guantánamo, difficult to gauge with absolute confidence), remain in a limbo that seems, literally, to be without end.

Compounding their suffering, the Uighurs, like the majority of the dozens of other cleared prisoners, are held not in comfort in Camp 4 (Guantánamo's only block with communal dorms) but in Camp 6, a maximum security prison in which they are held in complete isolation, in metal cells without windows, for 22 to 23 hours a day.

One of these men is Abdulghappar, who is now 35 years old. In 2004, he explained to his military tribunal that he had traveled to Afghanistan to "get some training to fight back against the Chinese government," and added that he had nothing against the United States. He said that his own people "and my own family are being tortured under the Chinese government," and when asked, "Was it your intention when you were training to fight against the U.S. or its allies?" came up with an answer that summed up the feelings of all his imprisoned compatriots: "I have one point: a billion Chinese enemies, that is enough for me. Why would I get more enemies?"
Abdulghappar recently wrote a letter to his lawyers, which was declassified by the military censors who review all correspondence between lawyers and their clients. It was then passed to the Associated Press, who quoted parts of the letter in an article last week, which was then picked up by other media outlets.

In the hope of providing Abdulghappar with more of his own voice, however, I asked his lawyers for a copy of the letter, which I reproduce in its entirety below. As it is a translation, I have taken the liberty of editing the language to convey his message more fully.

Abdulghappar's Letter From Guantánamo

How are you, Mr. J. Wells Dixon and Ms. Seema Saifee? I hope that this letter reaches you before you come over, and I hope that it will be a little beneficial for our Turkistani brothers' situation here.

We, the Turkistani brothers, left our homeland in order to escape from the brutal suppression and unfair treatment from the Chinese government towards our people. The Uighur youth back home were either incarcerated because of false accusations or prosecuted and executed because of bogus allegations. It was extremely difficult for any Uighur to see a future for themselves within our homeland, and both young and middle-aged Uighurs started to leave East Turkistan and try to find survival abroad, if anyone could find a way to get out. We, the Uighurs in Guantánamo, are also like those Uighurs. We left our homeland for the same cause and sought solace in our neighboring countries.

As you know, for some specific reasons we ended up in Afghanistan. When we arrived in Afghanistan, the U.S. army invaded. We had to depart for Pakistan, since we could not stay in Afghanistan. As we did not know anyone who could help us there, we had no other choice but to leave. The Pakistani people then arrested us and turned us over to the Pakistani government. Subsequently, the Pakistani government sold us to the U.S. Army for bounties. The U.S. Army then brought us to Guantánamo.

Since the very beginning of the interrogations, we have been saying this. Our circumstances are very clear to the U.S. government, the U.S. Army and related agencies. Thus, the East Turkistani people and we, the Uighurs in Guantánamo, have never had any revulsion against the U.S. at any time, and this would never be possible, because our homeland is being occupied and we need the help of others.

We were very pleased at the beginning when the Pakistanis turned us over to American custody. We sincerely hoped that America would be sympathetic to us and help us. Unfortunately, the facts were different. Although in 2004 and 2005 we were told that we were innocent, we have been incarcerated in jail for the past six years until the present day. We fail to know why we are still in jail here.

We still hope that the U.S. government will free us soon and send us to a safe place. Being away from family, away from our homeland, and also away from the outside world and losing any contact with anyone is not suitable for a human being, as, also, is being forbidden from experiencing natural sunlight and natural air, and being surrounded by a metal box on all sides.
I was very healthy in the past. However, since I was brought to Camp 6, I got rheumatism. My joints started to hurt all the time and are getting worse. My kidneys started to hurt ten days ago.

My countryman Abdulrazaq used to have rheumatism for a while, and since he came to Camp 6 it got worse. Sometime in early August, the U.S. Army told Abdulrazaq that he was cleared to be released, and also issued the release form to him in writing. As a result, Abdulrazaq requested to move to a camp that had better conditions, for health reasons. When his request was ignored he embarked on a hunger strike, which has lasted for over a month now.

Currently, he is on punishment and his situation is even worse. He is shackled to the restraint chair and force-fed twice a day by the guards, who wear glass shields on their faces. This has taken place for the past 20 days. For someone who has not eaten for a long time, such treatment is not humane. Abdulrazaq would never want to go on hunger strike. However, the circumstances here forced him to do so, as he had no other choice. If the oppression was not unbearable, who would want to throw himself on a burning fire? In the U.S. Constitution, is it a crime for someone to ask to protect his health and to ask for his rights? If it does count as a crime, then what is the difference between the U.S. Constitution and the Communist constitution? What is the difference between this and Hitler's policies during the Second World War?

I have heard that an Egyptian man broke his back and became handicapped while he was being handled by a team in Camp 1 or 2, and then he was sent home as a crippled person for the rest of his life [Sami el-Leithi, released in October 2005]. Another Libyan broke his arm also. I worry that Abdulrazaq will face a similar or worse situation while being force-fed twice a day for a long time, and I am also concerned for his psychological condition as it is extremely difficult for him to keep his mental state normal under such circumstances.

Recently, I started to wonder, "Why are we staying in this jail for so long?" I wonder if we will be released after we damage our internal and external organs and our arms and legs. Or is it necessary for a few Turkistanis to die, as happened in the past here in this jail, in order to gain others' attention and their concern towards our matter?

Such thoughts are in my mind all the time. The reason I am writing this letter to you is that I sincerely hope that you and others related to law and enforcement can solve this issue quickly and help us in a practical manner.

Abdulghappar Turkistani (281)

December 12, 2007

Guantánamo Bay jail, Camp 6

[For more on the Uighurs in Guantánamo, see my book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison.]