China - Uighurs

[1871]

Uighurs


Updated Nov. 10, 2009

quote;

The Uighurs (pronounced wee-gerz) are a Turkic-speaking Muslim group who number about nine million in Xinjiang, a vast, restive desert region of Western China. Many Uighurs resent rule by the Han Chinese, and Chinese security forces have tried to keep oil-rich Xinjiang under tight control since the 1990s, when cities there were struck by waves of protests, riots and bombings.



In the summer of 2008, attacks on security forces took place in several cities in Xinjiang; the Chinese government blamed separatist groups.



On July 5, 2009, rioting broke out in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, after days of rising tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in China. The clashes began when the police confronted a protest march held by Uighurs to demand a full government investigation of a brawl between Uighur and Han workers in a toy factory on June 25 in Shaoguan, 1800 miles from Xinjiang. Two Uighur men were killed and 120 injured in the violence at the factory. Many Uighurs believe that the government did too little to investigate the incident, and anger about the government's perceived lack of action was the spark leading to renewed violence in Urumqi on July 5.

At least 197 people were killed and 1,600 injured, most of them Han civilians, when Uighurs went on a rampage that night, according to the government. Vengeful Han then attacked Uighurs over the next few days. Many Uighurs in Urumqi say the government has severely undercounted the Uighur casualties. Even the official casualty toll makes this the deadliest outbreak of violence in China in many years.

A Communist Party leader from the region pledged to seek the death penalty for anyone behind the strife. Li Zhi, the party boss in Urumqi, said that many suspected instigators of the riots had been arrested and that most were students.

In October, the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi sentenced six men to death on charges of murder in the July riots. A seventh man was given a life sentence because he had confessed to murder and robbery, and helped in the arrest of one of the convicted men. All seven have names that suggest they are Uighurs. The sentences were the first to be handed down by a court in response to the riot.

In November, nine people were executed. A report by the China News Service did not give any further details of the executions, except to say that the cases had all been reviewed by the Supreme People's Court, a legally mandated step in death penalty cases in China.

Many Uighurs say the Chinese government has taken a strict line on issues that go to the heart of Uighur identity.

The vast majority of Uighurs are Sunni Muslims, but the practice of Islam is tightly circumscribed. Government workers are not allowed to practice the religion. Imams cannot teach the Koran in private, and study of Arabic is allowed only at designated government schools. Two of Islam's five pillars -- the sacred fasting month of Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj -- are also closely managed: students and government workers are compelled to eat during Ramadan, and passports of Uighurs have been confiscated to force them to join official tours to Mecca.

Economically, too, many Uighurs feel they are treated unfairly. Since the central government adopted a "develop the west" campaign in the past decade, Xinjiang's economy has grown quickly, and living standards on the whole have risen. But many Uighurs complain about high unemployment and the growing income gap with Han Chinese, who control the largest industries in Xinjiang -- oil, agriculture and construction -- and the contracts and jobs that go with them.

Two weeks after the July riots, a senior Chinese official said the government's ethnic minority policies were "effective" and not the root cause of the deadly fighting.

Uighurs have also figured prominently in a recent court case concerning the detainees the United States has held at Guantánamo Bay Naval Camp, prompting a long legal fight.

A group of Uighurs fled what they called Chinese persecution and spent part of 2001 in Afghanistan at a Uighur encampment. They left the camp, apparently unarmed, when Americans bombed it. After being turned into the authorities by Pakistani villagers in return for an American bounty, the men were later imprisoned at Guantánamo .

Years later, American officials concluded that the men should not be considered enemy combatants, and some have been released. Disputes over where to resettle the prisoners have complicated the process.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/...index.html

Further;

Dissident Voice

An economics professor, who is a Uighur, talks about why the Han Chinese fear them and why the Uighur movement is in its "fetal" stage.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/08/2...thnicgroup

[Boboulas]

How do you pronounce Uighurs?

[Younes]

The problems in Xinjiang province goes back several hundred years, from the Dugang revolt till the First East Turkestan Republic... Shit been persecution of Hui and Uighurs the last hundred years...

[1871]

Both were persecuting eachother back there. Throughout the centuries theres been plenty persecution in China one way or another. As this commentator said in the summary;

(see above last link)

the authorities need to address the economic structural aspects and, as ever with China, the matter of freedom of expression and human rights.The Hui come from all different areas. Gansu is on the border - more there. And many Uighurs also live in Hunan further west. About 30,000 went to live in Turkey. Many Hui in Xinjiang - shops n stuff - they have a lot of connections with the Han. My grandmother grew up in Harbin - wayyyyy on the other side of the country.