Uyghur Woman Released, Without Forced Abortion
2008-11-18
A Uyghur woman in China avoids a forced abortion, in a case that has drawn international attention.
HONG KONG—An ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who was scheduled to undergo a second-term abortion against her will—and whose case drew international attention—has been released to her family and allowed to continue her pregnancy.
“I am all right and I am at home now,” Arzigul Tursun told RFA’s Uyghur service, shortly after she was released from the Women and Children’s Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture.
“I brought her home,” the local population-control committee chief, Rashide, said. “She wasn’t in good enough health to have an abortion.”
It was a big operation—and they treated us very rudely."
Arzigul Tursun's father
Tursun’s case prompted calls to the Chinese authorities from two members of the U.S. Congress and from the U.S. ambassador in Beijing for a planned abortion of her pregnancy to be scrapped.
Police tracked down Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, on Monday at a private home after she fled Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital, relatives said.
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese and allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two. But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining], so their status is unclear.
The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja, in the remote northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
Police operation
On Monday, Tursun’s father Hasan Tursunjan said, between 20 and 30 police cars came to the family home to search for his daughter and take her to the hospital to terminate her pregnancy.
“It was a big operation—and they treated us very rudely,” he said. “They confiscated all our cellphones, but I hid one. One of them was pushing my forehead and saying, ‘You have connections with the separatists in America—see if they can come and rescue your daughter or not.’”
“I was very upset at what he did to me and said, ‘I believe they will rescue us, if not today then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the day after tomorrow—they will eventually rescue us,’” Tursunjan said.
“My youngest son was upset and rushed to us and shouted… ‘Don't touch my father!’ The [official] immediately called a few police over and they arrested him. They took him away with a car.”
“When the car I was in came close to the Gulja electrical power station, I saw many police cars were next to a residential neighborhood. I heard from police that they learned my daughter Arzigul was in this neighborhood but they didn’t know where,” he said.
“I told them , ‘Let's go to my relative’s house in the city. I will take you all there.’ They agreed to follow me, but not all of them came with us. Most stayed around that neighborhood,” he said.
“After they searched a house in the city, they took me back to the suspected neighborhood. I saw many police cars. Many people from the neighborhood were watching. My daughter was leaning against the wall of one the buildings and crying. I was very sad…I rushed to her and embraced her. I told her not to cry and wiped her tears.”
Tursunjan said his daughter had been staying with a friend when police found her. “They searched that house. Everything was turned upside down,” he said.
High-level intervention
Two members of the U.S. Congress called on authorities in China to release Tursun and cancel the planned abortion.
Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania on Monday urged officials to "immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place.” On Friday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called forced abortions a "barbaric practice" and made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Smith also contacted U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt and asked him to intervene. Randt spoke with the executive vice foreign minister, Wang Guanya, Smith’s office said.
Detailed policy
According to China’s official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two. Under “special circumstances,” rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low. Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years. And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region. Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population in Xinjiang have a long and tense history, with many Uyghurs objecting in particular to the mass immigration of Han Chinese to the region and to Beijing’s population-control policy.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion. But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it calls a war on Islamic terrorism.
Beijing has also accused “hostile forces” in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Uyghur Woman Found, Facing Abortion
Uyghur Woman Found, Facing Abortion
2008-11-17
Authorities find an ethnic Uyghur woman who fled to avoid a forced abortion, which her husband says is now imminent.
KASHGAR, China: A Uyghur man points out directions to women and their children, June 14, 2008.
HONG KONG—An ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who fled a local hospital to avoid a forced abortion has been found by police and taken under guard to a larger hospital, according to her husband.
“The police found my wife,” Nurmemet Tohtasin said in a telephone interview from the Women and Children’s Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture. “My wife’s father was already at the hospital. They will probably do the abortion today.
”Police tracked down Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, at a relative’s home Monday afternoon, he said. Late Sunday, Tursun had fled Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital, where she was scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will.
“Arzigul ran away while the village official who was guarding her went to get her dinner. She left with her slippers, a shirt, and a sleeveless jacket. She didn’t take her bag or her other clothing,” Tohtasin said earlier.
“A village population-control committee member, Bumaryam, told me about this by phone around 8 p.m. The village chief and party secretary took me to the hospital and asked me to find Arzigul. I had to take them to two of Arzigul’s relatives’ homes and to her parents’ home,” Tohtasin said.
“They said if we don’t find Arzigul, they would take our house and our farmland,” he said
. Searched all night
Other relatives, also contacted by telephone, said police had searched their homes looking for Tursun.
The local Party secretary, Nurali, declined to comment, and the Dadamtu township mayor, Juret, hung up the phone. But a nurse at Water Gate hospital confirmed Monday that Tursun had left. “Arzigul ran away,” she said.
Bumaryam, the village official assigned to guard Tursun, said authorities had searched all night Sunday for Tursun and would continue searching until they found her.
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese and allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining], so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.
Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
Detailed policy
On Nov. 11, Tohtasin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Water Gate Hospital.
There, Tohtasin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.
Two members of the U.S. Congress have called on authorities in China to release Tursun and cancel the planned abortionRep.
Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania urged officials to "immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place.
”“Though we know Chinese authorities regularly use forced abortions to enforce its coercive population-control program, carrying out this brutal procedure with the world watching Arzigul Tursun’s case would display an utter disregard for any notion of human rights by the Chinese authorities," Pitts said in a statement.
On Friday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called forced abortions a "barbaric practice" and made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Smith said that human rights groups and the U.S. government would be watching carefully to see what happens to Tursun and her family.
On Monday, Smith said he had spoken with Zhou, who said he would look into the case. He said he had also contacted U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt and asked him to intervene.
According to China’s official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.
Under “special circumstances,” rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.
Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.
And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region. Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population have a long and tense history, with many Uyghurs objecting in particular to the mass immigration of Han Chinese to the region and to Beijing’s population-control policy.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it calls a war on Islamic terrorism.
It has also accused “hostile forces” in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
Print... E-Mail this story
2008-11-17
Authorities find an ethnic Uyghur woman who fled to avoid a forced abortion, which her husband says is now imminent.
KASHGAR, China: A Uyghur man points out directions to women and their children, June 14, 2008.
HONG KONG—An ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who fled a local hospital to avoid a forced abortion has been found by police and taken under guard to a larger hospital, according to her husband.
“The police found my wife,” Nurmemet Tohtasin said in a telephone interview from the Women and Children’s Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture. “My wife’s father was already at the hospital. They will probably do the abortion today.
”Police tracked down Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, at a relative’s home Monday afternoon, he said. Late Sunday, Tursun had fled Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital, where she was scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will.
“Arzigul ran away while the village official who was guarding her went to get her dinner. She left with her slippers, a shirt, and a sleeveless jacket. She didn’t take her bag or her other clothing,” Tohtasin said earlier.
“A village population-control committee member, Bumaryam, told me about this by phone around 8 p.m. The village chief and party secretary took me to the hospital and asked me to find Arzigul. I had to take them to two of Arzigul’s relatives’ homes and to her parents’ home,” Tohtasin said.
“They said if we don’t find Arzigul, they would take our house and our farmland,” he said
. Searched all night
Other relatives, also contacted by telephone, said police had searched their homes looking for Tursun.
The local Party secretary, Nurali, declined to comment, and the Dadamtu township mayor, Juret, hung up the phone. But a nurse at Water Gate hospital confirmed Monday that Tursun had left. “Arzigul ran away,” she said.
Bumaryam, the village official assigned to guard Tursun, said authorities had searched all night Sunday for Tursun and would continue searching until they found her.
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese and allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining], so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.
Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
Detailed policy
On Nov. 11, Tohtasin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Water Gate Hospital.
There, Tohtasin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.
Two members of the U.S. Congress have called on authorities in China to release Tursun and cancel the planned abortionRep.
Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania urged officials to "immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place.
”“Though we know Chinese authorities regularly use forced abortions to enforce its coercive population-control program, carrying out this brutal procedure with the world watching Arzigul Tursun’s case would display an utter disregard for any notion of human rights by the Chinese authorities," Pitts said in a statement.
On Friday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called forced abortions a "barbaric practice" and made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Smith said that human rights groups and the U.S. government would be watching carefully to see what happens to Tursun and her family.
On Monday, Smith said he had spoken with Zhou, who said he would look into the case. He said he had also contacted U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt and asked him to intervene.
According to China’s official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.
Under “special circumstances,” rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.
Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.
And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region. Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population have a long and tense history, with many Uyghurs objecting in particular to the mass immigration of Han Chinese to the region and to Beijing’s population-control policy.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it calls a war on Islamic terrorism.
It has also accused “hostile forces” in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
Print... E-Mail this story
Rep. Pitts urges China to cancel forced abortion and let woman go
Rep. Pitts urges China to cancel forced abortion and let woman go
Reports note Chinese officials planning to force Uyghur woman to undergo abortion against her will
Reports note Chinese officials planning to force Uyghur woman to undergo abortion against her will
Washington- Congressman Joe Pitts (PA-16) released the following statement today regarding reports that Chinese officials are holding a Uyghur ethnic minority woman, Arzigul Tursun, and plan to force her to undergo an abortion: "I call on the Chinese Government to immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place.” Congressman Pitts said. “Though we know Chinese authorities regularly use forced abortions to enforce its coercive population control program, carrying out this brutal procedure with the world watching Arzigul Tursun’s case would display an utter disregard for any notion of human rights by the Chinese authorities. The Chinese Government should immediately release her from custody and allow her to carry her child to term.
”Background
On Thursday, November 13, Radio Free Asia and the Uyghur Human Rights Project reported that Chinese authorities tried to pressure Arzigul Tursun, a Uyghur ethnic minority, who is 26 weeks pregnant with her third child, to have an abortion. When she refused and fled her home, authorities interrogated and threatened her relatives. Authorities took her into custody on November 11. According to the reports, the authorities forced a relative to sign a document authorizing the abortion. The abortion procedure was originally scheduled for Thursday, November 13.
Tursun escaped the hospital in order to avoid the forced abortion. After searching the homes of her friends and relatives, Chinese authorities captured her again, and are holding her now at a different hospital.
###
###
Joint Statement by Representatives Chris Smith and Joe Pitts
Joint Statement by Representatives Chris Smith and Joe Pitts
Washington, Nov 18 - “Today’s report that Arzigul Tursun, a Muslim Uyghur woman from China’s Xinjiang region, has apparently been released from custody is great news for both her family and women throughout China. The decision to spare Arzigul and her child from the tragedy of forced abortion is, we hope, a sign that more women in China will be saved from this grave human rights abuse. “We understand that the local population-control committee chief stated that the abortion would have compromised Arzigul Tursun’s health. We know that abortion threatens women’s physical and mental health, and we further recognize that abortion always destroys the life of a child. There are always two victims in every abortion, and we are relieved that this abortion did not take place. “As Members of Congress, we continue to urge the US government to do everything possible to end human rights abuses in China, including withholding funds from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) until they divest themselves from providing support to the agency that carries out China’s abusive population control program.” Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Joe Pitts (R-PA), both members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, have vowed to continue to carefully follow Arzigul’s case to help ensure that she and her family do not suffer any direct or subtle forms of retribution for her courage in fighting to save her child. In the last few days both Reps. Smith and Pitts pressed Chinese officials to release Arzigul and to allow her to keep her baby. Smith also raised concerns directly with Zhou Wenzhong, Chinese ambassador to the United States and Clark Randt, U.S. ambassador to China.
Rep. Chris Smith press release 11/13/08: http://chrissmith.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=105765
Rep. Joe Pitts press release 11/17/08: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa16_pitts/Tursun.shtml
Washington, Nov 18 - “Today’s report that Arzigul Tursun, a Muslim Uyghur woman from China’s Xinjiang region, has apparently been released from custody is great news for both her family and women throughout China. The decision to spare Arzigul and her child from the tragedy of forced abortion is, we hope, a sign that more women in China will be saved from this grave human rights abuse. “We understand that the local population-control committee chief stated that the abortion would have compromised Arzigul Tursun’s health. We know that abortion threatens women’s physical and mental health, and we further recognize that abortion always destroys the life of a child. There are always two victims in every abortion, and we are relieved that this abortion did not take place. “As Members of Congress, we continue to urge the US government to do everything possible to end human rights abuses in China, including withholding funds from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) until they divest themselves from providing support to the agency that carries out China’s abusive population control program.” Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Joe Pitts (R-PA), both members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, have vowed to continue to carefully follow Arzigul’s case to help ensure that she and her family do not suffer any direct or subtle forms of retribution for her courage in fighting to save her child. In the last few days both Reps. Smith and Pitts pressed Chinese officials to release Arzigul and to allow her to keep her baby. Smith also raised concerns directly with Zhou Wenzhong, Chinese ambassador to the United States and Clark Randt, U.S. ambassador to China.
Rep. Chris Smith press release 11/13/08: http://chrissmith.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=105765
Rep. Joe Pitts press release 11/17/08: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa16_pitts/Tursun.shtml
Smith Makes Urgent Appeal to Chinese Authorities Uyghur Woman Threatened With Forced Abortion
Uyghur Woman Threatened With Forced Abortion
Smith Makes Urgent Appeal to Chinese Authorities
Washington, Nov 13 -
"I appeal to the Chinese Government not to forcibly abort Arzigul, a Uyghur woman now in the custody of China’s population police and awaiting the nightmare of a forced abortion," said Rep. Chris Smith, the House Ranking Member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. "The Chinese Government is notorious for this barbaric practice, but to forcibly abort a woman while the world watches in full knowledge of what is going on would make a mockery of its claim that the central government disapproves of the practice, and of the UN Population Fund pretense that it has moderated the Chinese population planners’ cruelty. Human rights groups and the U.S. Government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family."
Smith made a personal appeal on behalf of Arzigul directly to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Earlier on Thursday, November 13, Radio Free Asia and the Uyghur Human Rights Project reported that Chinese authorities tried to pressure Arzigul, a Uighur woman from the locality of Yining (in the Uyghur language, Ghulja) who is 26 weeks pregnant with her third child, to have an abortion. When Arzigul refused and fled her village, the authorities interrogated and threatened her relatives until they were able to take her into custody on November 11. According to the reports, the authorities forced a relative to sign a document authorizing the abortion, and began doing health tests to assess her ability to withstand a forced abortion, which was scheduled for Thursday, November 13. Arzigul is now reported to be in the maternity ward in a Yining hospital. Word of the threatened human rights abuse leaked out, and RFA and the UHRP have received a reliable report that the forced abortion has not yet been performed, thanks to rapidly developing international interest in the case.
Despite official denials, it has been documented that the Chinese Government regularly relies on forced abortion to enforce its one-child-per-couple population control program.
"I appeal to the Chinese Government not to forcibly abort Arzigul, a Uyghur woman now in the custody of China’s population police and awaiting the nightmare of a forced abortion," said Rep. Chris Smith, the House Ranking Member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. "The Chinese Government is notorious for this barbaric practice, but to forcibly abort a woman while the world watches in full knowledge of what is going on would make a mockery of its claim that the central government disapproves of the practice, and of the UN Population Fund pretense that it has moderated the Chinese population planners’ cruelty. Human rights groups and the U.S. Government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family."
Smith made a personal appeal on behalf of Arzigul directly to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Earlier on Thursday, November 13, Radio Free Asia and the Uyghur Human Rights Project reported that Chinese authorities tried to pressure Arzigul, a Uighur woman from the locality of Yining (in the Uyghur language, Ghulja) who is 26 weeks pregnant with her third child, to have an abortion. When Arzigul refused and fled her village, the authorities interrogated and threatened her relatives until they were able to take her into custody on November 11. According to the reports, the authorities forced a relative to sign a document authorizing the abortion, and began doing health tests to assess her ability to withstand a forced abortion, which was scheduled for Thursday, November 13. Arzigul is now reported to be in the maternity ward in a Yining hospital. Word of the threatened human rights abuse leaked out, and RFA and the UHRP have received a reliable report that the forced abortion has not yet been performed, thanks to rapidly developing international interest in the case.
Despite official denials, it has been documented that the Chinese Government regularly relies on forced abortion to enforce its one-child-per-couple population control program.
Won’t Anyone Listen to Justice?
Won’t Anyone Listen to Justice?
2008-11-19A Uyghur father describes his pregnant daughter's capture by family planning officials in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur service recently interviewed the father of Arzigul, an ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who was scheduled to undergo a second-term abortion against her will. After her case drew international attention, Arzigul was released to her family and allowed to continue her pregnancy.
Tursunjan talks about how, after escaping from guards where she was being held, local authorities found Arzigul and forced her to return to the hospital that was to perform her abortion.
“Monday the police came to our home with more than 20 cars and took all of us—me, Arzigul's husband, and our family members—to our relatives’ and friends’ homes to search for Arzigul.
““It was a big operation—and they treated us very rudely. They confiscated all our cellphones, but I hid one. One of them, the Dadamtu town communist party secretary, was pushing my forehead and saying, ‘You have connections with the separatists in America—see if they can come and rescue your daughter or not.’ ”
“I was very upset at what he did to me and said, ‘I believe they will rescue us, if not today then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the day after tomorrow—they will eventually rescue us.’
”“My youngest son was upset and rushed to us and shouted… ‘Don't touch my father!’ The [official] immediately called a few police over and they arrested him. They took him away with a car.
I tried to lead them away
When the car I was in came close to the Gulja electrical power station, I saw many police cars were next to a residential neighborhood. I heard from police that they learned my daughter Arzigul was in this neighborhood but they didn’t know where,” he said.
“I was very scared when I heard this from the police. I tried to lead them away from the area. I told them, ‘Let's go to my relative’s house in the city. I will take you all there.’ They agreed to follow me, but not all of them came with us. Most stayed around that neighborhood.” “After they searched a house in the city, they took me back to the suspected neighborhood.
I saw many police cars. Many people from the neighborhood were watching. My daughter was leaning against the wall of one the buildings and crying. I was very sad…I rushed to her and embraced her. I told her not to cry and wiped her tears.
“One of the police told me, ‘your daughter didn't want to get into the police car—you tell her to get into the car. We don’t want to touch her because she is pregnant.’ I said, ‘why I should do that? I don't want her get into the car of a killer.
Won’t anyone listen to justice?
They started to threaten me. I was very upset. I started to shout at the crowd very loudly. ‘Look everyone, these ‘killers’ want to abort my daughter’s 7 month old unborn baby! Listen to me! Won’t anyone listen to justice? I can't ask the government or these killers! That is why I have to ask you!’ I could see the anger in the eyes of the people, and especially in the eyes of the youngsters. But no one could do anything. If anyone got involved they would be arrested or killed.” “After a while, I noticed that my daughter was shaking. She had only a few clothes on. The police were telling us to get into the car. We demanded that they release my son and bring him to us. My daughter said, ‘It was I who escaped. My father and siblings have nothing to do with this. Release my brother first and then I will get into the car and go with you.
’” “The police brought my son, Heytem, back and released him to us. Then we got into the car and they took us directly to the Ghulja Women and Children's Hospital.
Studying Islam is illegal
” “When the police were searching for Arzigul they threatened her friend saying her house would be destroyed. They searched the house and turned everything upside down. When they finally found my daughter they took her outside and told her to get into the car. I arrived right at that moment.
” “They didn't have a chance to interrogate Arzigul’s friend at that moment, as far as I know, but after the authorities finish working on my daughter’s case I believe they will eventually get to her.”
Uyghur Woman Faces Forced Abortion
Uyghur Woman Faces Forced Abortion
2008-11-13
An ethnic Uyghur woman faces an imminent abortion of her third child.
Uyghur women in Aksu, in China's western Xinjiang autonomous region, July 31, 2008.
HONG KONG—Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, is under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will because authorities say she is entitled to only two children.
As a member of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, Tursun is legally permitted to more than the one child allowed most people in China. But when word of a third pregnancy reached local authorities, they coerced her into the hospital for an abortion, according to her husband.
"Arzigul is being kept in bed number three," a nurse in the women's section at Gulja's Water Gate Hospital said in a telephone interview. "We will give an injection first. Then she will experience abdominal pain, and the baby will come out by itself. But we haven't given her any injection yet—we are waiting for instructions from the doctors."
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese but allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
...They have to pay a fine of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it."
Family planning official Rashide
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband, Nurmemet Tohtasin, is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining] so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.
Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country, through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
"My wife is being kept in the hospital—village officials are guarding her," Tohtisin said before authorities directed him late Thursday to switch off his mobile phone.
"When she fled the village to avoid abortion, police and Party officials, and the family planning committee officials, all came and interrogated us," he said. "The deputy chief of the village, a Chinese woman named Wei Yenhua, threatened that if we didn't find Arzigul and bring her to the village, she would confiscate our land and all our property."Steep fines
On Nov. 11, Tohtisin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital.
There, Tohtisin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.
"The abortion should be carried out because according to the family planning policy of China, you're not allowed to have more children than the government has regulated. Therefore she should undergo an abortion. This is their third child. She is 6-1/2 months pregnant now," Rashide said.
"If her health is normal, then the abortion will definitely take place. Otherwise they have to pay a fine in the amount of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it," she added.
Arzigul Tursun's abortion was originally scheduled for Thursday, but hospital authorities said they had postponed it until Monday after numerous calls from local and exiled Uyghurs.
Officials then told her husband to switch off his mobile phone and stop making calls.
Carrots and sticks
According to the official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.
Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.
Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.
And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region.
Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Congressional appeal
Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, appealed on Thursday to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to intervene.
"Human rights groups and the U.S. government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family," Smith, senior member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement. "I appeal to the Chinese government not to forcibly abort Arzigul."
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the Uyghur population have a long and tense history.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it regards as a war on Islamic terrorism.
It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
2008-11-13
An ethnic Uyghur woman faces an imminent abortion of her third child.
Uyghur women in Aksu, in China's western Xinjiang autonomous region, July 31, 2008.
HONG KONG—Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, is under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will because authorities say she is entitled to only two children.
As a member of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, Tursun is legally permitted to more than the one child allowed most people in China. But when word of a third pregnancy reached local authorities, they coerced her into the hospital for an abortion, according to her husband.
"Arzigul is being kept in bed number three," a nurse in the women's section at Gulja's Water Gate Hospital said in a telephone interview. "We will give an injection first. Then she will experience abdominal pain, and the baby will come out by itself. But we haven't given her any injection yet—we are waiting for instructions from the doctors."
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese but allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
...They have to pay a fine of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it."
Family planning official Rashide
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband, Nurmemet Tohtasin, is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining] so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.
Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country, through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
"My wife is being kept in the hospital—village officials are guarding her," Tohtisin said before authorities directed him late Thursday to switch off his mobile phone.
"When she fled the village to avoid abortion, police and Party officials, and the family planning committee officials, all came and interrogated us," he said. "The deputy chief of the village, a Chinese woman named Wei Yenhua, threatened that if we didn't find Arzigul and bring her to the village, she would confiscate our land and all our property."Steep fines
On Nov. 11, Tohtisin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital.
There, Tohtisin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.
"The abortion should be carried out because according to the family planning policy of China, you're not allowed to have more children than the government has regulated. Therefore she should undergo an abortion. This is their third child. She is 6-1/2 months pregnant now," Rashide said.
"If her health is normal, then the abortion will definitely take place. Otherwise they have to pay a fine in the amount of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it," she added.
Arzigul Tursun's abortion was originally scheduled for Thursday, but hospital authorities said they had postponed it until Monday after numerous calls from local and exiled Uyghurs.
Officials then told her husband to switch off his mobile phone and stop making calls.
Carrots and sticks
According to the official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.
Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.
Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.
And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region.
Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Congressional appeal
Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, appealed on Thursday to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to intervene.
"Human rights groups and the U.S. government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family," Smith, senior member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement. "I appeal to the Chinese government not to forcibly abort Arzigul."
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the Uyghur population have a long and tense history.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it regards as a war on Islamic terrorism.
It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Statement on the Situation of Muslims in East Turkistan - China
Statement on the Situation of Muslims in East Turkistan - China
Iumsonline.net – Aug. 4, 2008
All praise is due to Almighty Allah, and peace and prayers be upon the Messenger of Allah. The secretariat-general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) follows with increasing concern the circulating news that Chinese authorities demolished a mosque in Kalpin county near Aksu city in Xinjiang, confiscated copies of the Ever-Glorious Qur’an that were in that mosque and arrested a large number of Muslims during the attack. Fifteen Muslim Uighurs were convicted in a closed trial on July 9; two of them were executed, three others were given suspended death sentences and the remaining ten received life imprisonment.
Regardless of the reasons claimed by Chinese authorities to justify these actions, they must be read in the context of the ongoing persecution against Muslims in East Turkistan. This persecution was quite clear when Chinese police this year detained 82 people in Xinjiang whom they said were planning to attack the Beijing Olympics, and China claimed it had crushed a group in Xinjiang that was plotting to kidnap foreign journalists, tourists and athletes during the Olympics.
About eight million Muslims in East Turkistan are in need of urgent and continuous protection and help from Islamic countries and Muslims, and spreading awareness about their issue by preachers and scholars.
Accordingly, the secretariat-general of the IUMS calls upon all its members to follow the news on this issue in the international mass media, place this issue at the center of their activities and interests, and invite Muslim officials all over the world as well as local and international human rights organizations to pay a great deal of attention to this persecuted Muslim minority; as this may induce Chinese authorities to change its treatment of Muslims in East Turkistan.
In addition, the IUMS calls upon his Excellency the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to leave no stone unturned and to seek to convince the Chinese government to pay due attention to this matter and make the necessary decisions and measures for treating the Muslims of Turkistan in a way that suits a country with such a great and ancient civilization as the People's Republic of China. Also, the IUMS hopes that his Excellency the secretary-general of the OIC provides member states with copies of this statement and calls upon them to exert every effort to protect the Muslim minority in East Turkistan through their good relations with China. The honorable Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) said, “A believer to another believer is like a building whose different parts enforce each other.” (Agreed upon on the authority of Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari) And, “The believers as regards their being merciful among themselves and showing love among themselves and being kind, resemble one body, so that, if any part of the body is not well then the whole body shares the sleeplessness (insomnia) and fever with it.” (Agreed upon on the authority of An-Nu`man ibn Basheer)
The secretariat-general of the IUMS will continue to follow up this matter and cooperate with all organizations and governmental as well as popular bodies regarding this critical issue.
Allah is the Grantor of success
Sha`ban 3, 1429 A.H., corresponding to Aug. 4, 2008
Secretary-General
Dr. Muhammad Selim Al-`Awwa
IUMS Concerned About Situation of Muslims in East Turkistan
IUMS Concerned About Situation of Muslims in East Turkistan
Iumsonline.net – Aug. 4, 2008
The secretariat-general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) expressed its deep concern over circulating news that Chinese authorities demolished a mosque in Kalpin county, confiscated copies of the Ever-Glorious Qur’an and arrested many Muslims during the attack. Fifteen Muslims were convicted in a closed trial on July 9; two of them were executed, three others were given suspended death sentences and the remaining ten received life imprisonment.
The statement that was issued on Monday Aug. 4 indicated, “Whatever the reasons claimed by the Chinese authorities to justify these actions, they must be read in the context of the ongoing persecution against Muslims in East Turkistan. This persecution was quite clear when Chinese police this year detained 82 people in Xinjiang whom they said were planning to attack the Beijing Olympics, and China claimed it had crushed a group in Xinjiang that was plotting to kidnap foreign journalists, tourists and athletes during the Olympics.”
“About eight million Muslims in East Turkistan are in need of urgent and continuous protection and help from Islamic countries and Muslims, and spreading awareness of their issues by preachers and scholars,” the statement asserted.
Accordingly, the secretariat-general of the IUMS called upon all its members to follow the news on this issue, place this matter at the center of their activities and interests permanently, and invite Muslim officials all over the world as well as local and international human rights organizations to pay attention to the persecuted Muslim minority in China; as this may induce the Chinese authorities to change its treatment of Muslims in East Turkistan.
In addition, the IUMS called upon the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to “… convince the Chinese government to pay due attention to this matter and make the necessary decisions and measures for treating the Muslims of Turkistan in a way that suits a country of such a great and ancient civilization as the People's Republic of China.”
The statement expressed its hope that the secretary-general of the OIC will call upon member states to exert every effort to protect the Muslim minority in East Turkistan through their good relations with China, reminding them of the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) that reads, “A believer to another believer is like a building whose different parts enforce each other.” And, “The believers as regards their being merciful among themselves and showing love among themselves and being kind, resemble one body, so that, if any part of the body is not well then the whole body shares the sleeplessness (insomnia) and fever with it.”
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Idkah Mosque in East Turkestan
Idkah Mosque
The Biggest Mosque in East Turkestan
Masjid Idkah
Masjid Terbesar di Turkestan Timur
Pada hari Eid Solat Eid
Hari Jumat Solat Jumat
Pada hari Eid Solat Eid
Solat Jumat
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Massacres in East Turkestan!
Uyghurs Killed in Raid
Chinese police stage a dramatic raid on a flat occupied by ethnic Uyghurs in the restive Xinjiang region. Graphic: RFA Police in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, shot dead five ethnic Uyghurs in a raid July 8. HONG KONG—Chinese police used smoke to force open a flat in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang before shooting dead five ethnic Uyghurs inside who the official media said were planning a “holy war,” a witness to the incident has said.“They threw a smoke bomb at the apartment. Then police got into the apartment and during this time one of the police was hurt by the one of the Uyghurs,” a neighbor and witness said.“After this first injury, the police began to fire their guns. Five of the Uyghurs ended up dead. Women were also occupying the apartment at this time. All of these Uyghurs were young men and women,” the man, who asked to be identified only as Duan, said.“They were only equipped with knives,” he said of the Uyghurs. “Now the situation is pretty peaceful in our neighborhood and normal. The police told us that they were terrorists.” Now the situation is pretty peaceful in our neighborhood and normal. The police told us that they were terrorists." Neighbor On Tuesday, July 8, police in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, raided an apartment where 15 Uyghurs—a distinct Muslim minority—were hiding, the official Xinhua news agency said. It said they had rushed out wielding knives and shouting “sacrifice for Allah.” Police opened fire, killing five and injuring two, Xinhua said. The incident comes just weeks before the opening of the Beijing Olympics under extremely tight security. “The injured were sent to hospital and the other nine people were captured,” it quoted a police officer as saying. “The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a ‘holy war.’ Their aim was to kill Han people, the most populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their own state,” it said.‘Terrorist actions’A Uyghur police officer, contacted by telephone, said only that the raid was “related to terrorist actions.” He said he didn’t know where the nine Uyghurs who were arrested or the two who were wounded were being held.Another neighbor who asked to be identified as Li confirmed the five shooting deaths but downplayed its significance. “It was an ordinary robbery case. Let’s not exaggerate it,” he said, adding that he believed the use of deadly force was appropriate. Another neighbor described the area as peaceful, with Uyghurs accounting for about 30 percent of the population of the building. “The environment is pretty good,” he said, adding that he had never witnessed tensions between Han Chinese and Uyghur residents. A police officer also reported that Xinjiang police had recently stepped up their own security. “We have even been afraid to take a siesta,” he said. Asked if they were feared retaliation, he replied, “Yes.” An officer on duty at the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau denied any knowledge of the incident. “I cannot talk about these things,” the officer said. “I don’t know anything about it.” He then hung up the phone. Long historyDilxat Raxit, exiled spokesman of the World Uyghur Congress, sharply criticized the shootings. “To shoot and kill has become a new method of cracking down on Uyghurs in China. We call on the United Nations to send international lawyers and give effective legal assistance to those Uyghurs in detention so that the truth can be known,” he said. Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule-which has at times erupted in violence. But exiled Uyghurs deny the existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a crackdown. In March, Chinese authorities said they had broken up and arrested members of a group that were threatening to sabotage the Beijing Olympics. China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” The ETIM has denied that charge.China kills two "terrorists" in "Xinjiang" raid
BEIJING, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Chinese police shot and killed two members of a "terrorist gang" and rounded up 15 others during a raid last month in the restive northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
The arrests came less than seven months before the Beijing Olympics, which open on Aug. 8.
Five policemen were wounded in the raid on Jan. 27 when three homemade grenades were hurled at them, Xinhua said. Police arrested 15 members of the group in the operation in the regional capital Urumqi.
Six of the arrested members of the group were wounded in the gunfight, Xinhua said, adding that police had seized "knives, axes and books about terrorism" from them.
Xinhua cited unnamed senior Xinjiang officials as vowing to step up their crackdown on militant activities "to ensure the safety of the upcoming Olympic Games".
"(The) masterminds behind such activities (will) face the toughest punishment according to the law," Xinhua paraphrased the officials as saying.
Xinhua said in a separate report on Monday that Chinese soldiers would be given more extensive anti-terrorism training to deal with risks such as nuclear and biochemical threats, during the Games.
Xinhua cited unnamed sources as saying that initial investigations showed the group had set up a stronghold in Urumqi last August and had collaborated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which the United Nations added to its list of terrorist organisations in 2002.
China has waged a heavy-handed campaign against what it calls violent separatist activities by Uighur Muslims agitating for an independent East Turkestan State in the oil-rich Xinjiang region that borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
In January 2007, Chinese forces killed 18 people described as terrorists in a gun battle in Xinjiang. One policeman was killed and another wounded in the raid on a training camp in the mountains of the Pamirs plateau in southern Xinjiang.
A police spokeswoman said at the time that the training camp was run by ETIM.
China has accused Uighur militants of staging a series of terrorist attacks on Chinese civilians since the 1990s and has hinted at their links with al Qaeda, but rights groups say Beijing is using its support for the U.S.-led "war on terror" to justify a crackdown on Uighurs.
Xinjiang is home to 8 million Uighurs, a Turkic, largely Islamic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia. Many resent the growing Han Chinese economic dominance in Xinjiang, as well as government controls on religion and culture.
The arrests came less than seven months before the Beijing Olympics, which open on Aug. 8.
Five policemen were wounded in the raid on Jan. 27 when three homemade grenades were hurled at them, Xinhua said. Police arrested 15 members of the group in the operation in the regional capital Urumqi.
Six of the arrested members of the group were wounded in the gunfight, Xinhua said, adding that police had seized "knives, axes and books about terrorism" from them.
Xinhua cited unnamed senior Xinjiang officials as vowing to step up their crackdown on militant activities "to ensure the safety of the upcoming Olympic Games".
"(The) masterminds behind such activities (will) face the toughest punishment according to the law," Xinhua paraphrased the officials as saying.
Xinhua said in a separate report on Monday that Chinese soldiers would be given more extensive anti-terrorism training to deal with risks such as nuclear and biochemical threats, during the Games.
Xinhua cited unnamed sources as saying that initial investigations showed the group had set up a stronghold in Urumqi last August and had collaborated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which the United Nations added to its list of terrorist organisations in 2002.
China has waged a heavy-handed campaign against what it calls violent separatist activities by Uighur Muslims agitating for an independent East Turkestan State in the oil-rich Xinjiang region that borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
In January 2007, Chinese forces killed 18 people described as terrorists in a gun battle in Xinjiang. One policeman was killed and another wounded in the raid on a training camp in the mountains of the Pamirs plateau in southern Xinjiang.
A police spokeswoman said at the time that the training camp was run by ETIM.
China has accused Uighur militants of staging a series of terrorist attacks on Chinese civilians since the 1990s and has hinted at their links with al Qaeda, but rights groups say Beijing is using its support for the U.S.-led "war on terror" to justify a crackdown on Uighurs.
Xinjiang is home to 8 million Uighurs, a Turkic, largely Islamic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia. Many resent the growing Han Chinese economic dominance in Xinjiang, as well as government controls on religion and culture.
China Executes Two Uyghurs
Authorities in Xinjiang execute two Uyghurs for alleged terror links. Fifteen others are sentenced.
CORRECTS AND CLARIFIES TRIAL DATE AND CHINESE LEGAL PROCEDURE.WASHINGTON—Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have executed two ethnic minority Uyghurs and sentenced 15 others for alleged terrorist links, according to local sources.Mukhtar Setiwaldi and Abduweli Imin were originally handed death sentences by the Kashgar Intermediate People’s Court on Nov. 9, 2007, according to a Nov. 11, 2007 report by China's official Xinhua news agency. Referring to them by their Chinese names, Xinhua said Muhetaer Setiwalidi and Abuduwaili Yiming were sentenced to death for separatist activities, training at a terrorist camp, and illegally manufacturing explosives.They were sent to be executed after a public announcement of their sentences July 9 in Yengi Sheher county, Kashgar, Uyghur sources and a local official said.Authorities ordered county residents to attend the meeting but police banned cameras, lighters, and recording devices, the sources told RFA’s Uyghur service.Authorities announced that three other Uyghurs had been handed two-year suspended death sentences and the rest were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 years to life, the sources said. All 17 defendants were charged as members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which Beijing accuses of terrorist ties. ETIM denies the allegation.Prosecutors argued at trial that the men had engaged in separatist activities from August 2005 until their arrest in January 2007. According to Xinhua, they made 67 grenades and two bombs that could be used for suicide attacks. They also acquired 16 kilos of explosives, the news agency said.No details were immediately available about the defendants' appeal, which is automatic in capital convictions under Chinese law, or the approval of their sentence by the Supreme People's Court (SPC), which is required under a legal amendment that took effect on Jan. 1, 2007.The SPC was responsible for reviewing all capital cases until 1983, when provincial courts were authorized to have the final say in death-penalty cases as part of a major anti-crime campaign.“It was an open meeting,” one official at the Yengi Sheher county court said. “The Kashgar Intermediate People's Court was responsible for the case. Our duty was to provide a place for this open meeting. I am not authorized to speak about it. The Kashgar Intermediate Court officials can give you detailed information.”Officials at Kashgar Intermediate Court, contacted by telephone, declined to comment.‘Political criminals’“I participated in the open meeting,” one Uyghur woman said. “Seventeen people were sentenced. All of them were political criminals. At the open trial, the authorities announced that these people were terrorists who took part in the Aktu incident and some of them donated money.”The “Aktu incident” refers to a Chinese raid on what authorities described as a terrorist camp in the Pamir mountains, in Aktu county, in January 2007. Authorities claimed to have killed 18 ETIM members and arrested 17.“There were a lot of people. About 10,000 people attended the open meeting,” she said. “The parents and relatives of the defendants weren’t allowed to attend. Members of the village committees, students, teachers, and government employees were allowed to attend.”“One of the defendants shouted a slogan as he was being taken away—he raised his fist and shouted—but I couldn’t hear what he said,” another woman who watched the trial said.Earlier incidentThe meeting came a day after police used smoke to force open a flat where 15 Uyghurs were staying in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, before shooting dead five Uyghurs inside who the official media said were planning a “holy war,” witnesses and official media said.“The injured were sent to hospital and the other nine people were captured,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted a police officer as saying. “The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a ‘holy war.’ Their aim was to kill Han people, the most populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their own state.”Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule which has at times erupted in violence. But exiled Uyghurs deny the existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a crackdown.In March, Chinese authorities said they had broken up and arrested members of a group that were threatening to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that ETIM was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” ETIM has denied that charge.
Background of 1997 Gulja ( Yining ) City Massacre in East Turkestan!
Amnesty International (AI), 1 February 2007- (10 years ago) On 5 February 1997, dozens of people were killed or seriously injured when the Chinese security forces brutally broke up a peaceful demonstration in the city of Gulja (Yining) in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China. Hundreds, possibly thousands, lost their lives or were seriously injured in the unrest that occurred the following day. Large numbers of people were arrested during the demonstrations and their aftermath. Many detainees were beaten or otherwise tortured. An unknown number remain unaccounted for. Uighurs are a mainly Muslim ethnic minority who are concentrated primarily in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Since the 1980s, the Uighurs have been the target of systematic and extensive human rights violations. This includes arbitrary detention and imprisonment, incommunicado detention, and serious restrictions on religious freedom as well as cultural and social rights. Uighur political prisoners have been executed after unfair trials. In recent years, China has exploited the international “war on terror” to suppress the Uighurs, labelling them “terrorists”, “separatists”, or “religious extremists”.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Warning!!! on the Mosques!
"There is a lot of pressure on us," "My children cannot come in mosques until they are eighteen,"
A East Turkestani woman worshiping in front gate of a mosque
On the Warning!:Prohibited to enter Masjid for party members,workers ,retires ,under 18 ages,women, prohibited to enter Mosques!!!
"There is a lot of pressure on us," "My children cannot come in mosques until they are eighteen,"
Uighurs are against Chinese censorship such as the banning of children being taught religion in an attempt to eradicate their traditional beliefs
By Emnma Graham-Harrison KASHGAR, China (Reuters) - Shards of blue glass, mangled power cables and gaping holes where three trees used to thrive frame the entrance to Huang Guomin's shop and provide stark evidence of China's worst terror attack in over a decade. But after militants Monday killed 16 policemen with homemade explosives and knives outside his door in the remote city of Kashgar, the liquor seller is more frustrated than fearful. "I'm not scared but I've had no power for two days, and this is bad for business," said Huang, who opened the business 18 months ago. "There are fewer people around, and no one wants to buy drinks. They just come to stare and ask questions." Huang dismissed the risk of another attack, like many of the ethnic Han Chinese living in this remote Silk Road city, and said he feels safe, even though the men who launched the attack may also have dreamt of driving him out. Both attackers were Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority that dominates Kashgar and surrounding countryside. Xinjiang's 8 million Uighurs make up a little less than half of the region's population, with most of the rest Han Chinese. Many Uighurs resent Chinese controls on religion and the expanding Han presence in the region, which is rich in energy and minerals. Some support separatist groups seeking an independent "East Turkestan" homeland. The Communist Party chief of Kashgar, Shi Dagang, suggested Tuesday the attackers were linked to one of these groups.
But although the carnage less than a week before the Olympic Games focused global attention on ethnic tensions in China's far West, most Han Chinese interviewed by Reuters described it as an anomaly rather than a warning. "China is so big that of course things like this are going to happen from time to time," said Shanghai native Gu Zhen, visiting the city's ancient Idgah mosque with his son. "I'm not worried about being in this area," he added. DEVELOPMENT VS RELIGION Han and Uighur are sometimes neighbors but they have largely segregated lives, with cultural and language barriers cemented by mistrust. The government calls the area a model of racial harmony. "All ethnic groups live friendly together here. They cooperate to build a beautiful homeland," reads an English-language sign in the mosque courtyard. Officials have focused on economic development as both justification for one-party rule from Beijing and proof of widespread support. "One ordinary citizen told me, 'The party is good to us. We farm for free, we don't have to pay school fees for our children, we have subsidies for renovating our houses....Where else can you live such a good life?'," Kashgar city government's Shi told a news conference about the attacks. But many Uighurs feel left out of the area's economic boom and even those who have benefited often have different priorities from their officially atheist neighbors.
"There is a lot of pressure on us," said one Uighur with a sigh. "My children cannot come in mosques until they are eighteen," he added. He asked not to be named talking about the sensitive topic.
Uighur challenge to Chinese hegemony
By Quentin Peel
The ancient city of Kashgar, commercial crossroads of the medieval Silk Road and home to the world's largest and most exotic Sunday market, seems an unlikely site for a terrorist atrocity. The western-most city in China, cut off from the rest of the country by the sand dunes of the Taklamakan desert, could scarcely be further from the politics and propaganda of the Olympics in Beijing. It is a Uighur city, whose inhabitants speak a Turkic language and are overwhelmingly Muslim. Yet this is where the Chinese say that two suspected terrorists - a taxi-driver and a vegetable-seller, according to police reports - rammed a garbage truck into a column of border police on Monday morning, then threw home-made grenades and attacked them with knives, leaving 16 dead and as many wounded. Many questions remain about the attack. Chinese officials blame a terrorist group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, supposedly campaigning for independence of the Xinjiang province, home to China's Uighur minority. ETIM is said to have links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. But in the city itself, few Uighurs seem to recognise the name. By the time any independent journalists arrived at the scene, a few hours after the attack, it had been cleaned up, leaving only a couple of missing trees beside the avenue where the truck was said to have crashed. It hardly looked like the scene of a mass killing. Yet behind its atmosphere of provincial lethargy, there is tension in Kashgar. Today the ancient character of the city is becoming overlaid with the bright modern brashness of China, as assertive Han Chinese businessmen open bright chrome- and glass-fronted stores in new shopping malls, selling mobile phones and cheap western-style clothes, leaving their Uighur rivals to sell meat and vegetables, carpets and spices in the old bazaars. Most Uighur residents seem resigned to their role as a second-class ethnic minority on the fringes of the mighty Chinese empire. But there is a more outspoken younger generation that blames a deliberate policy by Beijing to settle the region with Han Chinese and gradually undermine Uighur culture. "We suffer more than the Tibetans but we have no organisation and no leaders," said one Uighur teacher, who was only prepared to speak anonymously. "We have no Dalai Lama to tell the world about us." Heavy investment in new roads, rail links and energy supplies had brought an influx of Chinese migrant workers, he said. Teaching of the Koran in Arabic was strenuously discouraged in schools. The authorities are threatening to demolish the old town at the heart of Kashgar - a maze of ancient streets that are home to at least 100,000 people - on the grounds that it cannot withstand earthquakes. Kashgar residents claim the Chinese government has deported thousands of Uighurs from Beijing to protect the Olympics and ordered all members of the minority carrying passports to surrender them to local police stations. Outside the city, there is ample evidence of the Chinese authorities worrying about security. Police road blocks halt traffic to inspect both documents and passengers. Such measures have been reinforced since the Monday attack. On this occasion, the Chinese authorities are determined that they will decide on the facts.
China: how desperation destroyed ideas of harmony on the New Frontier
Until dawn on Monday, when the peace of the city of Kashgar was broken by explosions, it would have been easy to believe in the Chinese Government’s version of the happy land of Xinjiang. The name means New Frontier, a vast area of desert and mountains remote even to most Chinese, with all the trappings of an archetypal mysterious East.
Camels still trudge through the desert along the old Silk Route and white jade is bought and sold in bazaars beneath the minarets of tiled mosques. Forty-seven races live in Xinjiang — foremost among them the Uighurs, a people who look more like Afghans than ethnic Chinese. Every one of them, according to officials, is a loyal and patriotic citizen of the People’s Republic.
“Chinese policies have won the support of all the ethnic peoples,” Shi Dagang, a senior Communist Party official in Kashgar, said yesterday. “The people fully support the Government and the leadership of the Communist Party.”
The events of the previous morning, and the experience of talking to people in Xinjiang, suggested that this was far from the truth.
It was not the ferocity of the attack that was so ominous for the Government so much as its desperation. Two Uighur men killed 16 Chinese policemen and injured 16 others with a crashed lorry, homemade bombs and knives. They expected to die; they left wills full of talk of holy war. Although they were taken alive it does not make it any less of a suicide attack: as the murderers of policemen they can expect a swift trial and execution. “There are so many people, so many, who feel like those men did, and who have sympathy for their actions,” a young Uighur in Kashgar said. “Once the Uighurs used to be a strong people, but now we have no power even here in our own home.”
Ethnically, Uighurs are a Turkic race whose homeland is at the meeting point of Asia and Europe. The area now called Xinjiang was annexed by the Chinese Empire in the 19th century, although it achieved independence briefly in the late 1940s before the Communist victory in China in 1949.
Separatist sentiment has always been present but the censorship and political repression of the Chinese Government have prevented it from forming a large-scale organisation. Small groups operated in secret but began to make their presence felt in the 1990s after the liberation of the former Soviet republics and the increasing dominance of ethnic Chinese.
In 1949 the Han Chinese made up 6 per cent of the population of Xinjiang; today they represent 41 per cent in a population of 19 million, compared with 45 per cent Uighur.
“It is obvious that their main goal is assimilation of the Uighur people,” said one Uighur man who, like the other people interviewed, asked not to be identified. “They want to absorb us and our culture into China.”
China pays lip service to freedom of religion for Muslim Uighurs but only under its own terms. Imams must be licensed by the State. Public servants, including teachers, are barred from worshipping at mosques and no one under 18 is allowed to worship or to receive religious instruction. To many Uighurs this represents an attempt to snuff out their religion over several generations by ensuring that young people grow up fully secularised.
A series of attacks and demonstrations culminated in bus bombings in 1997 in the provincial capital, Urumqi, which, until Monday, was the biggest act of political violence in the province. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, China identified itself as a victim of international terrorism and Uighur separatists as a threat — Uighur Chinese were captured in Afghanistan and incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay.
Uighur restiveness has reached new heights in the extended build-up to the Olympics, however. The Chinese authorities have announced a number of arrests, including a raid on a training camp run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in January last year. This year 82 alleged terrorists were arrested, according to officials.
Human rights organisations insisted that the Chinese anti-terror campaign had blurred the lines between genuine men of violence and those who peacefully supported independence.
“The repressive aspects are driving people to take more radical action,” Nicholas Bequelin, of Human Rights Watch, said. “If publishing a book about independence makes you a ‘terrorist’, then why not put a bomb in a police station?”
Officials said that the weapons recovered by police at the scene of this week’s attack were similar to those found last year in raids on a training base of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. The group is reportedly based along China’s borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan and linked to al-Qaida and to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist group that originated in the Middle East in the 1950s.
"Unauthorized pilgrimages are illegal religious activity,"
"Why are people unhappy? Because power is in control of the Communist Party."
Kashgar is about as far as one can get from the Chinese capital of Beijing and still be in China. In fact, there is little to indicate one is still in China. Most of the people in this desert town are Uighurs, an Islamic minority group that has clashed again and again with rule of China's majority Han ethnicity. The land surround the city is brown and bare save for irrigated orchards and fruit fields. The white caps of the Pamirs loom in the distance. Women walk through the streets in headscarves, sometimes fully covered from the hot sun and blowing sand. Men wearing skull caps greet one another with handshakes and the phrase "As-Salamu 'Alaykum," Arabic for "Peace be upon you." The language of the Uighurs is closer to Turkish than Chinese, and the architecture — Islamic domes, decorative Arabic script, grape trellises — looks more to the oasis cities of Central Asia than to the east.
Kashgar is about as far as one can get from the Chinese capital of Beijing and still be in China. In fact, there is little to indicate one is still in China. Most of the people in this desert town are Uighurs, an Islamic minority group that has clashed again and again with rule of China's majority Han ethnicity. The land surround the city is brown and bare save for irrigated orchards and fruit fields. The white caps of the Pamirs loom in the distance. Women walk through the streets in headscarves, sometimes fully covered from the hot sun and blowing sand. Men wearing skull caps greet one another with handshakes and the phrase "As-Salamu 'Alaykum," Arabic for "Peace be upon you." The language of the Uighurs is closer to Turkish than Chinese, and the architecture — Islamic domes, decorative Arabic script, grape trellises — looks more to the oasis cities of Central Asia than to the east.
An old man sitting near a sign that said "Unauthorized pilgrimages are illegal religious activity," complained that the city's Han residents were given all the economic opportunities. "Do you think people are happy here? Do you see them smiling, dancing, singing? No, because they have no work," he said. He argued that the influx of Han settlers, and the authoritarian control of the Communist Party were the sources of Uighur anger. "Why are people unhappy? Because power is in control of the Communist Party."
Friday, August 1, 2008
Turkestan Timur...
TURKESTAN TIMUR
Peta Negeri-Negeri Di Turkestan Timur
Kebuasan yang Disorokkan oleh kerajaan Komunis ChinaSpabila kita memperkatakan tentang ideologi-ideologi yang menyebarkan kesengsaraan di serata dunia, maka komunisme mendapat tempat paling atas. Dengan berdasarkan kepada idea-idea dua orang ahli falsafah Jerman, Karl Marx dan Friedrich Engels, sistem kepercayaan ini telah pun dilaksanakan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin yang kejam seperti Lenin, Stalin, dan Mao, dan seterusnya membawa kepada penyembelihan dan pembunuhan yang amat kejam sepanjang sejarah peradaban dunia.Walaupun kita bersetuju bahawa rejim komunis telah tumbang dengan pecahnya Kesatuan Soviet, namun ideologi dan amalan komunisme sebenarnya masih terus wujud, sama ada secara terbuka mahupun sulit. Umat Islam Turki di Turkestan Timur masih terus berada di bawah penindasan Maoist Red China. Pencabulan hak asasi manusia di Turkestan Timur tidak boleh diabaikan sama sekali. Kekejaman China di Turkestan TimurUmat Islam Turki di Turkestan Timur yang dikenali sebagai Uighurs, telah hidup di bawah dominasi kerajaan China selama lebih kurang 250 tahun. China telah memberikan nama kepada wilayah Islam tersebut sebagai "Xinjiang" ataupun "tanah yang ditawan," dan menganggapnya sebagai tanah milik mereka sendiri. Berikutan dengan pengambilalihan China oleh komunis pada tahun 1949 oleh Mao, penindasan yang berlaku di Turkestan Timur semakin menjadi-jadi. Rejim komunis mula melakukan penghapusan umat Islam yang enggan untuk diasimilasikan.Bilangan umat Islam yang dibunuh amat mengejutkan. Di antara tahun 1949 dan 1952, 2.8 juta umat Islam mati, sama ada dibunuh oleh tentera China ataupun mati akibat kebuluran. Di antara tahun 1952 dan 1957, lebih 3.5 juta nyawa terkorban, kemudian 6.7 juta di antara 1958 dan 1960, dan kemudian di antara tahun 1961 dan 1965 pula, seramai 13.3 juta manusia mati.Kaum Uighurs yang berjaya hidup pula berada di dalam penindasan dan penderaan. Pemerintah Turkestan Timur terkini iaitu Isa Yusuf Alptekin, yang banyak menghabiskan umurnya dalam buangan, telah menggambarkan situasi tersebut di dalam bukunya Dogu Turkistan Davasi (Hubungan Turkestan Timur) dan juga Unutulan Vatan Dogu Turkestan (Turkestan Timur: Tanah yang Dilupakan). Berdasarkan kepada buku-buku tersebut, penindasan yang dilakukan terhadap rakyat Turkestan Timur tidak banyak bezanya dengan apa yang berlaku kepada umat Islam di Bosnia, ataupun majoriti kaum Albania oleh Serbia. "Hukuman" yang dikenakan oleh mahkamah China terhadap negara tersebut adalah terlampau kejam dan sangat tidak berperikemanusiaan. Ini termasuklah membakar manusia hidup-hidup, memukul manusia sehingga hampir mati dan kemudian membogelkan mereka dan membiarkan mati di dalam kesejukan salji. Malah ada juga yang diikat dengan lembu jantan pada kedua-dua belah kaki mereka untuk memisahkannya daripada badan. Amalan Asimilasi yang Bertujuan Menghapuskan Budaya Secara Besar-besaranSemenjak tahun 1949 lagi, rejim komunis telah mula merancang program penghapusan populasi umat Islam, dan telah memindahkan pendatang China ke kawasan tersebut dengan begitu sistematik sekali. Kesan daripada kempen ini yang dimulakan oleh kerajaan China pada 1953, begitu berkesan sekali. Pada tahun 1953, 75 peratus daripada keseluruhan populasi adalah umat Islam, dan hanya 6 peratus dikuasai oleh orang-orang China. Pada tahun 1982, nisbahnya telah berubah dengan menyaksikan penurunan populasi umat Islam kepada 53 peratus, manakala populasi China meningkat kepada 40 peratus. Berdasarkan bancian yang dilakukan pada 1990, populasi yang dilaporkan adalah 40 peratus umat Islam dan 53 peratus rakyat China, dengan itu telah mendedahkan dengan jelas proses pembersihan etnik yang sedang berlaku di wilayah tersebut.Baru-baru ini, bangsa Uighurs telah ditempatkan di kawasan perkampungan, manakala orang-orang China dipindahkan ke bandar. Oleh itu, wujud beberapa buah bandar yang memiliki kira-kira 80 peratus orang-orang China. Ia bertujuan untuk menjadikan bandar yang majoritinya adalah rakyat China. Polisi kerajaan China yang menggalakkan perkahwinan campur di antara penduduk tempatan dengan orang-orang China juga menjadi sebahagian daripada polisi asimilasi tersebut.UJIAN-UJIAN NUKLEAR KE ATAS UMAT ISLAMSemenjak tahun 1964, China telah menjalankan 44 kali ujian nuklear ke atas Turkestan Timur yang telah mengakibatkan kematian seramai 210,000 orang dan menjadikan beribu yang lain mengalami penyakit-penyakit seperti kanser. Di samping itu, ribuan kanak-kanak telah dilahirkan cacat. Kerajaan China turut menggunakan umat Islam Turkestan Timur sebagai bahan uji kaji program nuklearnya. Ujian tersebut bermula pada 16 Oktober 1964, dan kesannya, penduduk di kawasan tersebut telah mendapat penyakit-penyakit yang membawa maut, dan kira-kira 20,000 kanak-kanak cacat telah dilahirkan. Jumlah umat Islam yang terkorban di dalam ujian tersebut dianggarkan seramai 210,000 orang. Beribu yang lain telah mendapat kanser atau dibiarkan lumpuh.Dari tahun 1964 sehingga kini, China telah meletupkan kira-kira 50 buah bom-bom atom dan hidrogen di Turkestan Timur. Ahli-ahli pakar dari Sweden telah mengukur gegaran yang berlaku disebabkan letupan bawah tanah pada tahun 1984 dan mencatatkan bacaan 6.8 pada skala Richter.Punca Sebenar Kekejaman: Kebencian Terhadap IslamSebab utama yang membawa kepada penindasan rakyat Turkestan Timur oleh China adalah kerana mereka beragama Islam. Kerajaan komunis China melihat Islam sebagai halangan terbesar untuk mereka memantapkan penguasaan terhadap kawasan tersebut.China telah menggunakan bermacam-macam bentuk penindasan untuk membuatkan mereka berpaling jauh dari agama. Puncak peristiwa ini berlaku ketika zaman pemerintahan diktator komunis Mao. Ketika itu, Revolusi Budaya sedang berlaku dari tahun 1966-76. Masjid-masjid diruntuhkan, ibadah secara beramai-ramai diharamkan, pengajaran Al-Quran dihalang, dan rakyat China yang berpindah dibenarkan untuk mengganggu umat Islam. Sekolah-sekolah digunakan untuk menyebarkan propaganda atheis. Segala bentuk komunikasi dikawal untuk membuatkan manusia lari dari agama. Mereka telah dilarang untuk mendengar ceramah-ceramah agama yang menyentuh tentang keimanan, dan pemimpin agama pula dilarang mengajar tentangnya. Namun demikian, di sebalik segala penindasan yang dilakukan, mereka masih berpegang teguh kepada tali Islam.21 Salah satu cara ugutan dan tekanan yang dilakukan masih terus dilaksanakan di institusi-institusi pendidikan. Pendidikan universiti di kawasan tersebut telah diberikan kepada rakyat China, dan umat Islam yang belajar di universiti-universiti tersebut hanya membentuk 20 peratus sahaja daripada keseluruhan jumlah pelajar. Kemelesetan ekonomi turut menjadi faktor halangan yang membawa kepada rendahnya tahap pendidikan yang diterima oleh umat Islam di situ. Sekolah-sekolah yang diajar dalam bahasa China menikmati kemudahan-kemudahan yang canggih. Sebaliknya sekolah-sekolah Uighur berada dalam keadaan serba kekurangan. Pendidikan yang kononnya dianggap bersifat keagamaan yang diajar di sekolah-sekolah sebenarnya didirikan di atas fahaman ateisme.Peristiwa penukaran abjad sebanyak 4 kali dalam tempoh 30 tahun merupakan sebahagian daripada polisi asimilasi yang ditujukan kepada umat Islam di sana. Meskipun Revolusi Budaya sedang berlaku, Mao tetap tidak mengubah skrip abjad China. Namun Mao menukar abjad Uighur daripada abjad Roman kepada abjad Cyrillic jenis Rusia. Selepas abjad itu digunakan buat beberapa ketika, ia ditukar semula kepada abjad Roman. Walau bagaimanapun, selepas itu ia ditukar menjadi skrip Arab untuk menghalang dari terbentuknya jambatan budaya dengan Turki. Kesannya, generasi-generasi di situ sukar untuk memahami di antara satu sama lain yang mana abjad mereka telah diubah berkali-kali.Peranan Komunis China yang Anti-Islam di Timur JauhPenindasan berdarah yang dikenakan ke atas umat Islam Uighur Turki di Turkestan Timur masih belum reda sehingga kini. China telah menangkap golongan muda Uighur Turki yang menyuarakan penentangan mereka, dengan alasan mereka adalah musuh yang berpotensi di masa hadapan. Untuk melepaskan diri dari penganiayaan tersebut golongan muda telah melarikan diri ke gunung-gunung ataupun ke padang pasir.Semenjak tahun 1996, berpuluh ribu remaja Uighur Turki telah ditahan di kem-kem yang mana di situ mereka telah dikenakan bermacam-macam jenis penderaan. Sebuah pertubuhan hak asasi manusia antarabangsa telah melaporkan di dalam laporan rasminya bahawa para suspek telah dibawa ke khalayak ramai, dan mereka sama ada dikenakan hukuman berkerja berat ataupun dibunuh oleh skuad penembak di hadapan masyarakat awam. Mahkamah-mahkamah beroperasi di bawah arahan Parti Komunis. Mungkin apa yang lebih dahsyat ialah wanita-wanita mengandung dibawa lari dari rumah mereka. Selanjutnya kandungan mereka digugurkan secara paksa dengan menggunakan teknik yang tidak selamat. Manakala kanak-kanak yang dilahirkan melepasi kuota kerajaan dibunuh, dan harapan keluarga mereka tidak didengari dan dihiraukan.DIDERA DI TANAH MEREKA SENDIRISelepas tahun 1949, rejim komunis Mao telah membunuh kira-kira 35 juta orang Uighur Turki. Sebilangan umat Islam telah dibakar hidup-hidup atau dipukul hampir mati dan kemudian diseret dan dibiarkan mati dalam salji. Yang lain diikat kepada lembu-lembu jantan dan kemudian anggota-anggota badan mereka diceraikan apabila lembu-lembu jantan itu bergerak pada arah yang berlainan. Tiada seorangpun yang dibenarkan untuk mengamalkan agama dengan bebas. Hari ini, Red China masih mengikut dasar polisi Mao dan melakukan kekejaman yang sama. Tiada sebarang pertubuhan hak-hak asasi manusia yang dibenarkan hidup di Turkestan Timur. Kawalan komunikasi pula terletak sepenuhnya di dalam tangan China. Akibatnya umat Islam menderita teruk.Dalam masa 2 tahun sahaja, iaitu dari 1995-1997, lebih dari 500,000 Uighur Turki telah ditahan tanpa sebab oleh pihak berkuasa China.Sepanjang tempoh waktu yang sama juga, lebih dari 5,000 mati akibat penderaan oleh China, ataupun hilang begitu sahaja.Peristiwa yang berlaku pada bulan Februari 1997 telah menambahkan lagi bilangan kezaliman yang dilakukan oleh kerajaan China. Pada satu malam Lailatul Qadar di bulan Ramadan tahun itu, yang berlaku pada 4 Februari, lebih daripada 30 orang wanita yang pergi ke masjid untuk menyambut malam yang amat bermakna kepada umat Islam itu, telah dibelasah sewaktu mereka sedang membaca Al-Quran, dipukul oleh ahli-ahli militia China dan kemudian diseret ke ibu pejabat keselamatan. Penduduk tempatan telah pergi ke ibu pejabat dan merayu supaya wanita-wanita tersebut dibebaskan. Namun demikian, mayat tiga orang wanita yang mati akibat diseksa telah dilemparkan kepada mereka yang datang merayu itu. Kemudian, terjadilah pergaduhan di antara penduduk tempatan dengan orang-orang China. Kira-kira 200 orang penduduk asal Turkestan Timur kehilangan nyawa di antara 4 dan 7 Februari, dan lebih 3,500 yang lain telah dipenjarakan di kem-kem. Pada pagi 8 Februari pula, penduduk yang berkumpul di masjid telah dihalang dari mengerjakan solat oleh pasukan keselamatan. Pergaduhan tercetus lagi, dan akibatnya bilangan mereka yang ditahan iaitu seramai 58,000 orang pada April-May 1996, tiba-tiba melonjak melebihi 70,000 orang. Kira-kira 100 orang penduduk yang masih muda telah dihukum mati secara terbuka. Manakala 5,000 orang Uighur Turki telah ditelanjangkan dan dipamerkan untuk tontonan umum di dalam kumpulan-kumpulan yang setiap satunya seramai kira-kira 50 orang. Setelah mengetahui semua ini, maka kita patut memberi perhatian kerana rakyat Turkestan Timur masih tidak menerima sebarang sokongan daripada Barat sepertimana yang diharap-harapkan.Kekejaman yang dikenakan oleh komunis China ke atas Uighur Turki di Turkestan Timur masih berlaku sehingga kini, dan ia akan terus berlaku selagi falsafah Darwin-materialis yang menjadi dalang di sebaliknya tidak dihapuskan dengan perkembangan saintifik. Tidak cukup dengan hanya membaca polisi-polisi yang tidak berperikemanusiaan di dada-dada akhbar, melihat gambar-gambar mangsa kekejaman, dan kemudian mengeluh. Langkah-langkah saintifik dan kebudayaan mesti diambil bagi menghancurkan ideologi yang membawa kepada penindasan itu, dan setiap mereka yang beriman mesti mengambil posisi masing-masing bagi melakukan perang intelektual.Definisi rasmi Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) tentang genocide sudah tepat terhadap apa yang sedang berlaku di Turkestan Timur yang dijajah oleh China itu. Namun, rakyat Turkestan Timur masih tidak mendapat sebarang perlindungan dari PBB. Kira-kira 25 juta umat Islam Turkestan Timur masih menderita disebabkan oleh penindasan China, dan dunia menutup mata atau terus memalingkan muka terhadap kekejaman ini. Terdapat beribu-ribu tahanan politik, dan banyak di antara mereka yang sudah "lenyap" dari penjara. Penderaan ke atas tahanan sudah menjadi satu perkara rutin.Untuk menamatkan penganiayan di Timur Tengah, pertama sekali dunia mesti diberitahu tentang syarat-syarat perjanjian yang tidak menentu yang sedang berlaku di situ, dan kemudian sekatan antarabangsa mesti dikenakan supaya China dapat merasakan bahangnya. China sedang melakukan pembunuhan beramai-ramai secara tersembunyi, dan rakyat Turkestan Timur yang ditindas kehilangan cara untuk membolehkan suara mereka didengari. Masyarakat dunia mesti bertindak secara bersama terhadap perkara yang perlu diberi perhatian penting ini.Harus diingat bahawa punca kekejaman dan penganiayaan di Turkestan Timur terletak pada falsafah Komunis China yang bencikan agama. Perang yang tidak berperikemanusiaan yang dilancarkan terhadap manusia yang tidak berdaya adalah kesan daripada pemikiran materialistik dan komunis yang bersifat ateis. Para pemimpin komunis yang kejam sewaktu abad ke-20 telah meninggalkan suatu ideologi pembunuh dan kesannya berjuta nyawa terkorban. Turkestan Timur adalah contohnya. Satu-satunya cara yang boleh dilakukan untuk menyekat mimpi ngeri ini dari terus menghantui manusia adalah dengan melancarkan peperangan ideologi untuk menentang ideologi-ideologi atheis seperti komunisme. Penghapusan asas-asas ideologi komunis adalan langkah pertama untuk menamatkan penindasan komunis di muka bumi. Seperti yang telah ditegaskan di awal bab buku ini, asas kepada komunisme ialah Darwinisme. Karl Marx, iaitu pengasas komunisme telah mendedikasikan bukunya Das Kapital kepada Darwin, iaitu seorang tokoh yang amat beliau sanjungi. Di dalam bukunya yang bertajuk Ever Since Darwin, seorang saintis pro-Marxis-evolusinis yang terkenal telah menulis:...Marx dan Darwin adalah secocok, dan Marx memuja Darwin setinggi-tingginya... Darwin sesungguhnya seorang pejuang revolusi yang berhemah.22Pemimpin komunis China, Mao telah berkata menerusi satu ucapannya, "Sosialisme China dibina dengan berasaskan Darwin dan teori evolusi," maka dengan itu jelaslah dari mana beliau mendapat inspirasi terhadap kekejaman yang dilakukannya.23 Himpunan kenyataan ini yang telah mendedahkan asal-usul Marxisme dengan jelas memberitahu kita bahawa Darwinisme merupakan ideologi yang berselindung di sebalik praktis-praktis kejam yang dilaksanakan beberapa tahun dahulu di negara-negara seperti Rusia dan China, dan yang mana sehingga kini ia masih dilakukan terhadap orang-orang Chechen dan umat Islam di Turkestan Timur. (Untuk mengetahui lebih lanjut tentang saintifik Darwinisme dan kejatuhan ideologinya, rujuk bahagian apendiks tentang penipuan evolusi.)
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
