Eastern Turkestan FAQ

A. General Questions

1. What is Turkestan?
2. Where is Eastern Turkestan? (and why can't I find it on the map ?)
3. What is the size of Eastern Turkestan?
4. What are the peoples of Eastern Turkestan (and use some numbers)?
5. How has the population distribution changed in Eastern Turkestan since 1949?
6. What are the natural resources of Eastern Turkestan?

B. History

1. When are the Uighur people first mentioned in historical records?
2. When was the first Uighur state founded?
3. Have any Uighur states been recognized? When and by whom?
4. How did Eastern Turkestan get the name 'Xinjiang'?
5. When was the first republic of Eastern Turkestan formed?
6. When was the second republic of Eastern Turkestan formed?
7. What is the Baren Uprising?
8. What is the Khulja (Yining) Uprising?

C. Religion

1. Are all Uighurs/Eastern Turkestanis Muslims?
2. What branch of Islam are the Uighurs?
3. Are Eastern Turkestanis fundamentalists?
4. Does the Chinese Communist government allow the free expression of religion?

D. Nuclear Testing

1. Where does most of the People's Republic of China's nuclear testing take place?
2. How many tests have been conducted?
3. Has the Chinese government ever studied the effects of nuclear testing on the people of Eastern Turkestan?
4. How has life expectancy changed since the start of nuclear testing?

E. Chinese (Feudal, Nationalist, and Communist) Policies

1. What are some of the policies which caused the Eastern Turkestanis to revolt 42 times against the feudal Chinese (Qing) rulers?
2. What are some of the policies which caused the Eastern Turkestanis to revolt against the Nationalist Chinese (ROC) rulers?
3. What are some of the policies which caused the Eastern Turkestanis to against the Communist Chinese (PRC) rulers?

2. General Questions

The name "Turkestan" comes from Iranian and means "land of the Turkic peoples". Western Turkestan is comprised of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Eastern Turkestan is under the rule of the PRC.

Eastern Turkestan lies at the heart of Asia. It borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan to the Northwest; the Mongolian Republic to the Northeast; Afghanistan, to the Southwest; Pakistan, India and Tibet to the South, and China in the East. It was renamed 'Xinjiang' in 1884.

Geographically, it consists of two basins, the Jungarian (bounded by the Altai Mountains to the north and Tangritagh (ch:Tienshan) to the south) and the Tarim Basins. The latter basin is bounded on the north and west by the Tangritagh (ch:Tienshan) Mountains; southest by the Pamirs and Karakorum and on the southwest by the Himalayas. A large portion of the Tarim Basin is covered by the Taklamakan Desert.

The area of Eastern Turkestan is 1.6 million square kilometers, which constitutes about one-sixth of total area of China including Chinese-occupied Tibet and Southern Mongolia.

According to the 1990 census:

According to PRC Government data:

5. How has the population distribution changed in Eastern Turkestan since 1949? (continued)

East Turkestan is rich in minerals, including up to one-third of the People's Republic of China's total oil reserves. Extensive areas of grasslands feed approximately 33 million livestock.

Ancient Greek, Iranian, and Chinese sources placed Uygurs with their tribes, and sub-tribes in the vast area between the west banks of the Yellow River in the east, Eastern Turkestan in the west, and in the Mongolian steppe in the northeast as early as 300 B.C.

After the fall of the Kok-Turk Empire in Central Asia, the Uygurs established their first true state in 744, with the city of Karabalgasun, on the banks of the Orkhun River, as its capital. The founder of this Uygur state was Kutluk Bilge Kul Khagan (King or Ruler).

Tang dynasty, to make peace with the Uighurs, gave 3 daughters of the royal family to the Uighur Khagans for wives during the period 757 - 840.

Kanchou Uygur Kingdom was recognized by the Chinese empire at the Chinese court along with a Tibetan ambassador in 911 AD

Karakhoja Uygur Kingdom had a Chinese ambassador named Wang Yan De, beginning in 981 AD.

In 1863, after fighting against the Qing dynasty oppression since 1759, the Uighurs established an independent kingdom. It was recognized by the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and Great Britain.

In 1876, General Zho Zhung Tang with his Qing empire army invaded Eastern Turkestan and renamed the land, Xinjiang, which means 'New Dominion' or 'New Territory'. It was annexed into the Manchu (Qing) empire on November 18, 1884.

1933

November 12, 1944

On November 12, 1944, the Ghulja Liberation Organization declared the establishment of the ETR, and voted Mr. Alikhan Tore to be its president. ETR government adopted a national flag, which is green with yellow crescent and star, representing an Islamic nature of the country.

The government published an official newspaper called Liberated East Turkestan.

The newspaper was circulated in the entire region in Uyghur, Kazakh, Russian and Chinese for more than 5 years.

ETR was declared to be a democratic state and on January 5, 1945, ETR government passed a political platform, which stated:

• End the Chinese dictatorial rule in the land of Eastern Turkestan.

• Establish a free and independent Eastern Turkestan based on equality for all nationalities.
• In order to fully develop East Turkestan's economy, promote industrial, agricultural and animal husbandry as well as private businesses. Increase people's living standard.
• Since the majority people of Eastern Turkestan believes Islam, so the government particularly advocate this religion. At the same time, promote religious freedom for other religion.
• Develop education, culture and health standard of Eastern Turkestan.
• Establish friendly relations with all the democratic countries in the world, especially with the neighboring USSR. In the mean time, promote political and economical relation with China.
• In order to protect Eastern Turkestan's peace, recruit people of all nationality to establish a strong army.
• The Bank, Post Service, Telephone and Telegraph, Forestry and all underground wealth belong to the nation.
• Eliminate individualism, bureaucratic idea, nationalism and corruption among the government officials.

Since the formation of ETR until early 1950 when Communist Chinese government gain control over the three districts, ETR had effectively existed for about 6 years and was a de facto independent nation.

On April 5, 1990 an armed uprising broke out in Baren provoked by Chinese Communists. Almost three thousand armed Eastern Turkestanis under the leadership of Zeydin Yusuf disarmed the police forces, occupied the Baren township Party and government building and declared war against the Chinese Communists in order to establish a independent Eastern Turkestan Republic. By late afternoon the uprising had spread to nine other townships in the area.

The Chinese Communist authorities dispatched armed police forces, militiamen and Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) units to Baren early on the morning of April 6. At the same time 200,000 special anti-riot forces from Lanzhou Military District were dispatched to Eastern Turkestan. Troops were flown in day and night by military transport planes and helicopters. The airports of Urumchi, Aksu, Kashgar, Yarkent and Hoten were closed. The Eastern Turkestani people took up hunting rifles and any weapons they could find while some Chinese soldiers threw away their weapons and fled. According to the witnesses the Chinese used tanks and fighters to bomb townships in the area. Nine townships were bombed and almost one thousand Eastern Turkestanis and 600 soldiers and policemen died.

Beginning on April 8 martial law was enforced in the area. As resistance continued almost 2,000 Eastern Turkestanis retreated to the nearby Pamir Mountains and continued their resistance until they were totally wiped out by fighter bombers.

According to witnesses, Tomur Dawamet, the governor of so-called Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region who visited the scene of the Chinese brutality, with tears in his eyes asked the Chinese officials, "How could you do this?"

Amnesty International, in a November 1992 report on Eastern Turkestan gave a detailed account of the Chinese massacre in Baren township.

Starting on the 5th of February 1997, demonstrators took to the streets to protest the manner in which many of their countrymen/women were apprehended and detained. The following is an eye-witness account:

Provided by Parhat Niyaz who escaped from Yining massacre

No. Islam came to Central Asia in 934 and was embraced by the Uighur leader Satuk Bughra Khan. Prior to this time, the Uighur people were Manicheist, Christian and Buddhist as well as Shamanists.

The Yellow Uighurs (or Yuighurs), located in what is know known as Gansu province of China, have retained their Buddhist beliefs.

In 1397, both the Buddhist and Muslim Uighur kingdoms joined and lived in harmony until the Qing came in 1759.

Sunni.

No.

First, not all the peoples of Eastern Turkestan are Muslims. Situated on the historical Silk Road Eastern Turkestan connected East and West and became the seat of various ethnic and linguistic groups, cultures and religions. This variety is preserved today and includes, besides the Chinese settlers, some 17 ethnic groups following several different religious traditions.

Among Eastern Turkestan's Muslims are Turkic peoples (Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Tartars), Indo Europeans (Tajiks) and even ethnic Chinese (the Hui people). Buddhism is practiced by Mongols, Manchus, Tibetans and Yellow Uighurs, while many ethnic Russians are Orthodox Christians. For centuries these groups with their different cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds have lived at peace with one another. It is thus incorrect to identify the Turkic peoples of Eastern Turkestan in particular, or the Turkic peoples in general, merely as "Muslims."

Second, the Turkic peoples of Eastern Turkestan, including the Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Tartars, were never fundamentalists in the Western sense. A well-known Uighur religious leader recently responded to a question about fundamentalist activity in Eastern Turkestan in the following way: "To be able to become a fundamentalist first of all you have to know your religion very well. If a Muslim knows his religion very well he cannot be a fundamentalist.

The Koran says: 'Don't fight one who does not fight you in your religion.'

It says: All God's creatures are His family and he is the most beloved of God who doeth good to God and His creatures.'

It says: 'Shall I not inform you of better acts than fasting, almsgiving and prayers? Making peace between one another. Enmity and malice tear up heavenly rewards by the roots.'

Finally, the peoples of Eastern Turkestan firmly believe that whatever injustices have been carried out in the name of religion, they are not condoned by the principle teachings of those religions. Love for humanity, peace and tolerance are at the core of all religions. Eastern Turkestanis are, therefore, troubled when some Western scholars, journalists and intellectuals confuse Muslims everywhere with the activities of extremists.

No. All religious activity is under the control of the State Council of the PRC or else is declared illegal.

Most nuclear testing has taken place in Lop Nor, 176 miles from the capitol of the so-called Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Though June 8, 1996, fourty-four (44) nuclear devices have been detonated. The first was conducted on October 14, 1961. The majority have been atmospheric blasts, the last of which was conducted on October 16, 1980. Twenty-three have been atmospheric, the remainder have been underground.

No.

No investigation findings have been released concerning the effect of nuclear testing of the people of Eastern Turkestan. The People's Republic of China has never allowed any form of independent or outside assessment of the environmental or health impacts of its nuclear testing program.

While no official statistics exist, according to the Eastern Turkestan Union in Europe, referencing reports published in Yengi Hayat, Almaty, January 21, 1995, Arab News, October 30, 1994 and EKO, Almaty, March 26,1992, estimate that almost 210,000 people have died due to radioactive fallout.

Until 1949, life expectancy in Eastern Turkestan was 65 years. Eastern Turkestan had more centenarians than any other country in Central Asia, with an average of one person per every 15,000. Current life expectancy is estimated to be around 40-45.

From Eastern Turkestan Union in Europe:

The first administrators to practice this policy in Eastern Turkestan were Zho Zung Tang, Commander-in-Chief of the Manchu-Chinese forces in Eastern Turkestan and the first two Governors general, Liu Ching Tang and Yuan Da Hua.

These three Feudal Chinese administrators were responsible for giving Eastern Turkestan the Chinese name "Xinjiang" and its direct annexation to China. Under their administration, Eastern Turkestan was divide in to four administrative regions while Uighurs, who were considered 'rebellious,' were subjected to a policy aimed at destroying their pride and self-respect. At the same time, seeds of discord were sown among the peoples of Eastern Turkestan and all cities, towns and counties were given Chinese names.

In an effort to completely transform Eastern Turkestan into a Chinese province, Chinese settlers were brought in from Gansu, Hunan and Yunnan and other Chinese provinces.

The Uighurs were forced to marry Chinese, to wear Chinese dress, to show exaggerated respect to Chinese officials, and to kneel when they met a Chinese official. Chinese officials were given the right to punish at their discretion the Uighurs, to imprison them, and even to have them executed. Any appeal to higher authorities by the Uighurs against such punishment was strictly prohibited. Any complaint about Chinese officials brought automatic punishment against those who made the complaint.

"The presence of 100 thousand-strong Chinese troops in the region," wrote Russian explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky after a visit to Eastern Turkestan, "serves not to pacify it, but constitutes and inexhaustible source of looting and all manner of oppression of Uighur population. At the same time the entire farming population has been subjected to exorbitant and ruthlessly exacted taxation."

Zho Zung Tang ordered the closing of all traditional Uighur schools, the banning of Uighur customs, and the compulsory learning of Chinese. "Upon encountering a Chinese official," wrote the Russian traveler Kuropatkin, "in the streets, all Uighurs were supposed to dismount. If the local Chinese official was making a tour of the town, the people were supposed to kneel in the streets. If the Chinese official was on his way to the temple, all Uighurs, supposed to kneel at the entrance with their hands behind their backs."

Another Russian traveler, Grum-Grzhimailo, who visited Eastern Turkestan noted that the Chinese used to force the Uighur officials to go to the Chinese temples. This occurs, he explained, "Whenever such violence could not meet with any real resistance."

In one of his reports to the Manchu-Chinese emperor, Zho Zung Tang requested permission to kill not only armed Uighurs, but also all Uighurs, including Uighur children. "Whether he received that permission or not remains unknown," writes the Russian scholar V. Viukow, "but it is quite possible that this cruel measure was indeed taken."

Of the Uighurs who opposed the rule and policies of the Feudal Chinese administration, more than one million people were executed. About 500,000, fearing punishment at Chinese hands, escaped to neighboring countries like Russia, Afghanistan and India, and 200,000 were transported from the southern parts of the country to the Ili Valley as forced labor, to provide food for the Manchu-Chinese troops stationed in that area to control Chinese interests in Central Asia.

From Eastern Turkestan Union in Europe:

In 1911 the Feudal Chinese regime in China came to an end, and the National Chinese Republic was set up. Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the founder of Nationalist China, readily admitted that there were Turkic peoples living in China, and these Muslim peoples were the original inhabitants of Eastern Turkestan. In article 4 of the National Development Program which he presented to the first Congress of the Kuomingtang Party in 1924, he stated that these peoples had a right to self-determination and that this right should be granted. After the death of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, however, power passed in to the hands of Chiang Kai Shek's regime. This group first abrogated Article 4 and then implemented a policy to actively divide and assimilate the Uighurs with the aim of creating a "Great Chinese Nation."

According to Prof. Li Dung Fang, all nations living within the frontiers of China, originally descended from a Great Chinese nation. It is, therefore, necessary and fitting that they be once again united within the framework of a Great Chinese Nation.

Prof. Li Dung Fang proposed that the Uighurs and the Chinese shared a common ancestry. The Uighurs, he argued, were descended from the Huns, and the Huns were in turn descended from the ancient Chinese. Such theories were enthusiastically supported by Chiang Kai Shek and his associates.

In his book, China's Destiny, Chiang Kai Shek explicitly stated that all nations in China were descended from a single Chinese nation (Zhunghua), and that all these nations belonged to the same race. These nations, he held were united by race, and differed only in minor aspects such as habit, tradition, religious belief and geographical distribution. In reality, however, they were all members of a single stock, race and nation.

The Nationalist Chinese did not revise these views even after being driven from mainland China and taking forced refuge in Taiwan. More than 300,000 Uighurs of Eastern Turkestan who opposed this policy have been liquidated.

From Eastern Turkestan Union in Europe:

The Provisional Constitution of the Chinese Communists, approved by the First All-China Congress of Worker's and Peasant's Deputies in 1931, proclaimed: "In such regions as Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang... the nationalities have the right to determine for themselves whether they want to secede from the Chinese Soviet Republic and form their own independent states, or to join the Union, or to form autonomous regions within the Chinese Soviet Republic... At the 7th Congress in 1945, Mao Zedong, in his report on Coalition Government, having denounced the Kuomintang's oppressive policies as great power chauvinism, said that the Communists fully endorsed Sun Yat Sen's position on "self-determination" after the Communist takeover in China. After he seized power in China, however, Mao Zedong completely ignored his own promises of self-determination. Faced with this situation, the Uighurs pleaded that they might be permitted at least to form a federated republic, but Mao Zedong rejected this request citing the following grounds: "For two thousand years Xinjiang has been an inalienable part of an indivisible China; therefore, there would be no sense in dividing China into federated republics; this is a demand hostile to history and socialism..."

Faced with Mao Zedong's hard attitude, Uighurs requested that the name Xinjiang, given to their country during the feudal rule, be changed to the historical name of Eastern Turkestan. If this was not acceptable they asked that the country be called Uighuristan. Mao Zedong also rejected this and decided to form the "autonomous regions," "autonomous provinces," and "autonomous districts" within the territories of Eastern Turkestan. At the same time the ethnic groups living in that country were promised "equality."

In another turn-about, Mao Zedong ignored his own dictum, "there is no need to divide China into federated republics, because China has been a single, united land from earlier time," by dividing the peoples of Eastern Turkestan who have been united throughout history, into autonomous regions, and provinces. This was a continuation of the nationalist policies aimed at dividing the peoples of Eastern Turkestan and assimilating them into the body of the "Great Chinese Nation."

The newspaper Xinjiang Ribao expressed this policy in December 1960: "... The Chinese make up 94 percent of the whole population of China and from the view of political, economic and cultural development they are most advanced. Consequently, the merging of nationalities should be realized on the basis of one nationality. It is China we are speaking of, so the basis should be Chinese. The characteristics of the Chinese nation are be transformed (sic) into the general national characteristics of national minorities. This merging is Marxist and Communist assimilation, the inevitable tendency of social development. Language must serve the unification of motherland; in other words, the language of national minority peoples must be made as close as possible to the Chinese language. Whoever, opposes this assimilation, opposes socialism and communism, and historical materialism..."

In accordance with this view, Chinese Communists have tried to completely transform Eastern Turkestan into a Chinese province and to culturally sinocize the Uighurs eliminating their beliefs. The following is the legacy of the Chinese Communist authority over years:

SELF-RULE

At present Eastern Turkestan is called "Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region," but there is no self-rule or self-government for the Uighurs.

In the first Joint People's Democratic Government of Eastern Turkestan, 29 of the 31 members were representatives of the local nationalities and only two were Chinese. It reflected the proportion of Chinese among the total population, - about 3 per cent. Soon, however, the ratio began to change. The proportion of Chinese in leading government and party bodies quickly rose to 50 per cent, and now 90 percent of the important posts in Eastern Turkestan are occupied by Chinese.

For instance, the Regional Party Committee's Standing Committee, the ruling body of the Chinese Communist Party in Eastern Turkestan, has 15 members. Of these, three are Uighur, one is Kazakh, one is Mongol, and 10 are Chinese.

The Regional Communist Party Central Committee has 56 members. Thirteen are Uighurs, four are Kazakh, two are Kyrgyz, two Mongol, two Hui, and 33 are Chinese.

The Regional People's Government has nine members. Three of them are Uighurs, one is Kazakh and the rest are Chinese.

At present, only Chinese are represented on Party, administrative and economic bodies of the so-called Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

With the disappearance of local-inhabitant majorities in Party, administrative and economic bodies of Eastern Turkestan little "autonomy" is left.

For statistical reasons the Chinese have given some important posts to members of local nationalities in Eastern Turkestan but they have no authority. For instance, if a Uighur chairman, director, or manager has made a decision which is in favor of his people, and if the decision is not in the interests of the Chinese, this chairman, director, or manager is removed from his post with a "promotion" and sent to Peking. If a Chinese and an Uighur quarrel, it is usually the Uighur who is punished in order to intimidate the Uighurs. In areas where judges, prosecutors and chiefs of police are Uighur they avoid punishing a Chinese who are involved in a quarrel with Uighurs so as not to be labeled "nationalists."

POPULATION TRANSFER

In order to transform Eastern Turkestan into a completely Chinese province millions of Chinese have been settled there. Before 1949 there were only 300 thousand Chinese settlers in Eastern Turkestan. Now there are more than 6 million. At present almost seven thousand Chinese settlers pour into Eastern Turkestan daily. Hu Yaobang, the late Chinese Communist Party Secretary, said that Northwest China could easily absorb 200 million Chinese settlers.

In its October 1992 issue, Trend magazine published in Hong Kong disclosed a secret program approved by the Chinese State Council which planned the settlement of five million Chinese in Eastern Turkestan by the year 2000.

These figures do not include Chinese Liberation Army (PLA) units, "qualified" Chinese personnel and the convicted Chinese criminals sentenced to hard-labor camps in Eastern Turkestan.

It is estimated that at present there are more than 500 thousand Chinese soldiers in Eastern Turkestan. The number of "qualified" Chinese personnel sent to "help develop an economically backward" Eastern Turkestan is not known. During the last three years more than 40 thousand convicted Chinese criminals have been sent to hard-labor camps in Eastern Turkestan.

These criminals, sent to labor camps in Eastern Turkestan are not allowed to return to mainland China after their term. Instead they are settled in Eastern Turkestan as "Bintuan" or "reformed farmers," and allowed to invite their families. It is estimated that the total number of "reformed farmers" is one million.

With the "reformed farmers" crime in Eastern Turkestan has also risen sharply. It has been reported that Chinese offenses against Uighurs, including robbery, rape, and kidnapping have gradually increased in recent years. During the same time hundreds of Uighur children have disappeared without any trace. Uighurs claim that these kidnapped children are taken by Chinese to mainland China and sold to Chinese families who do not have children or those who want to have more than the one child allowed by law. Police, mostly Chinese, pay no attention to Uighur complaints and demand money before taking any action. Most of the Uighurs cannot pay this money, and even if they are able they never see any results. Some Uighur parents have claimed that kidnapped children are killed in order to sell their organs.

With the steady flow of Chinese settlers into Eastern Turkestan Uighurs are faced with the danger of becoming a small minority in their own country.

As a group that made up 75 percent of the total population of Eastern Turkestan in 1953 the Uighur percentage of the population had dropped to 55 percent by 1982 and 40 percent by 1990. The Chinese population, on the other hand, which had been at 6 percent in1953, had increased to 40 percent by 1982, and 53 percent in 1990. Even Tomur Dawamet, Chairman of the Regional Government, who has often been considered loyal to Chinese interests in Eastern Turkestan had to complain about this situation. In a recent speech he said the following: "...By the way, a considerable floating population has entered Xinjiang and is staying here. This has resulted in a relatively high population growth and has brought about quite a few problems in various fields. We hope that all the departments concerned will do a good job in keeping population under control and will try their best to convince these people to return to their home provinces, so as to ensure social stability and smooth the progress of economic development in this region..."

MIXED MARRIAGE

To speed up the assimilation of the Uighurs the Chinese Communists encourage mixed marriages by offering special bonuses to those who participate. If, for example, an Uighur marries a Chinese, they receive 100 Yuan. Chinese girls born in Eastern Turkestan are sent to remote villages and given a stipend of 3000 Yuan to attract an Uighur spouse. Young Uighur males who work in remote regions where the majority of the settlers are Chinese are promised better jobs in the cities if they marry Chinese women. In addition they are promised 2000 Yuan when marriage takes place.

Uighurs who have married Chinese are generally hated by the local people. The locals have no contact with them, do not invite them into their homes, and do not greet them on the street. Some Uighurs who have married Chinese have tried to divorce their wives, but the Chinese have imposed heavy penalties for divorce. An Uighur wanting to divorce his Chinese wife has to pay 4000 Yuan alimony, and as most come from poor families, they are not able to meet such payments. Children born of these marriages are automatically registered as ethnic Chinese. They are normally educated by their mothers and are sent to Chinese kindergartens and schools. Many Uighur fathers have been unable to cope with this situation and have committed suicide.

The Chinese have also established an institute called Chun Tang for the purpose of propagating and encouraging intermarriages between groups. The institute also examines how closely the Uighurs of Eastern Turkestan cling to their traditions and reports its findings to the government in Peking. A recent report by the institute found that the sinification process in the cities of Chochek, Gulcha, Altay and Sanchi was a "great success".

COERCIVE BIRTH CONTROL

To restrain the growth of the Uighur population coercive birth control is being carried out among the Uighurs, under the pretext of "ensuring a steady growth in the minority population", "improving the equality of the population", and "eliminating economic inequalities". Uighurs living in cities are allowed to have two children and those in rural areas three.

Contrary to the "one child" policy in mainland China, Chinese settlers are allowed to have two children in Eastern Turkestan.

According to Chinese settlers in Eastern Turkestan, "this policy was a major way of pacifying and rewarding Chinese settlers in this country."

After soft-pedaling the new policy for two years, enforcement was steppe up in 1990. In Kashgar, the penalties range from salary cuts to the denial of health benefits.. In Zepu, a small town to the south, the penalty for exceeding the limit is 800 Yuan - nearly twice the average yearly income in Eastern Turkestan.

A source from Eastern Turkestan who did not want to be identified has reported that in a town of 200 thousand, there were 35 thousand child-bearing women who were subject to government checks. Of that number, 686 women were forced to undergo a curettage, 993 were forced to discontinue their pregnancies and 10,708 women were forced to undergo sterilization. This birth control system has led to the deaths of many women and children, according to the source. In another town, which had a population of 180 thousand, only one thousand women were allowed to give birth to their children. In other words, only one out of 35 women in the city were allowed to deliver a child. In the same town, 40 civil servants were fired from their jobs because their wives were pregnant. The same situation exists throughout the country, according to the source. This directly contradicts China's stated policy of implementing special, preferential population policies for nationalities. How can "inequities" be eliminated of coercive birth control is practiced among Uighurs on the one hand and almost seven thousand Chinese per day are encouraged by "hardship money" to settle in Eastern Turkestan? It is clear that the aim of such a policy is to expand the Chinese population in Eastern Turkestan in every way. An Uighur health official in Urumchi, whose remarks were published by

Newsweek magazine on October 1, 1990 said, "If our children are limited, we will disappear."

LITERARY LANGUAGE

To sinocize the literary language of the Uighurs, a fierce campaign is being carried out under the pretext that "language must serve the unification of the motherland."

For many centuries Uighurs have possessed a highly developed literary language. Albert von Lecoq, a European scholar of Uighur culture commented:

"The Uighur language and script contributed to the enrichment of civilizations of other peoples in Central Asia.

Compared to the Europeans of the Middle Ages, the Uighurs were far more advanced. Documents discovered in Eastern Turkestan prove that an Uighur farmer could write down a contract, using legal terminology. How many European farmers could have done that at the same period ?" Until the Chinese Communist invasion of Eastern Turkestan in 1949, the literary language contained almost no Chinese words.

The traditional Arabic script which the Uighurs had used for almost one thousand years was replaced by the Latin alphabet, adapted to suit Chinese phonology, and steps were taken to introduce Chinese words and expressions. In the city of Urumchi alone stood some 370 thousand books written in Arabic script, including the Holy Koran, Hadith and other valuable works were destroyed as "remnants of the pasts".

Twenty years later the Arabic script was reintroduced placing under great strain the tens of thousands of Uighurs who had for two decades received their education in the Latin alphabet. These Uighurs were now obliged to re-learn the Arabic script in order to follow the daily newspapers.

Although evening classes were organized to teach the Arabic script, the effort has not been much of a success so far. Members of the same families can only correspond with each other in the Chinese alphabet, because some have been educated in the Latin alphabet and some the Arabic alphabet. The aim is to destroy the unity of the Uighur literary language.

EDUCATION

Official educational policy aims to keep Uighurs in ignorance. At present, almost 70 percent of schools in Eastern Turkestan are taught in Chinese. It is estimated that 60 percent of the adult population in Eastern Turkestan is illiterate. The proportion of the Turkic peoples of Eastern Turkestan attending school does not correspond to their share of the population. According to official statistics the Turkic peoples still represent 60 percent of the total population, but in primary schools they make up only 52.3 percent of the total and 31.5 percent at the secondary level.

In the hope of receiving higher education, each year thousands of Uighur students come to the major cities of Eastern Turkestan from different parts of the country. Most of them are very poor. There are no student dormitories and they cannot afford private rooms, but the Chinese government does not support them. Ninety-seven percent of Uighur graduates from senior high schools cannot enter higher education. Very few Uighur students who graduate from higher educational institutions are given jobs appropriate to their qualifications. They are forced to take blue collar jobs, a situation that discourages interest in further study.

The outlook for improved literacy in Eastern Turkestan is not good because Chinese authorities have begun charging 200 Yuan annual fees from students entering elementary, middle and high schools. Those students who want to attend higher educational institution are forced to pay between 1,000 and 4,000 Yuan annually. In a country where per capita income is 350 Yuan annually how can Uighur families afford this money to send their children to school?

Today, only 26 percent of teachers in higher educational institutions are Turkic. In technical schools the rate is 40 percent. The rest are Chinese. All text books used in higher educational institutions and technical schools are in Chinese. Graduates from Uighur language schools have difficulty with examinations at higher educational institutions, because the exam papers are in Chinese. Many Uighur students graduating from Chinese language schools cannot properly speak their mother tongue. To express what they really want to say, they constantly use Chinese words, they forget their traditions, creating strong negative reactions among many Uighurs.

Because more support is given to Chinese language schools, their quality is far higher than Uighur language schools. Chinese language schools can afford many special facilities. They hire qualified teachers and foreign languages like English, Japanese, and Russian are taught in Chinese language schools. Many Uighur language schools in Eastern Turkestan cannot afford to heat classrooms in winter.

Every year thousands of Chinese students are sent to study abroad, but very few Uighur students are given permission to study in foreign countries. In Uighur language schools in major cities in Eastern Turkestan there is a shortage of teachers. In the country and township schools there is an excess. Chinese authorities do not give residence permits to Uighur teachers who want to work in the major cities so that if they are able to find work there they cannot shop in subsidized government stores.

They are obliged to buy provisions from the free market and in the long run, with insufficient salaries they are obliged to return to the country.

LITERATURE

Under Chinese domination modern literature is charged with falsifying Uighur history and undermining Uighur culture and traditions. Uighurs of Eastern Turkestan lack a modern literature. Only 16 percent of all publications in Eastern Turkestan are in the Uighur language. Uighurs do not even have a modern encyclopedia, a contemporary Uighur dictionary or basic scientific books in their own language.

Fearing persecution, Uighur scholars have been hesitant to write on any topic which is not in the interest of the Chinese Communist Party. If an Uighur scholar writes about Uighur history, culture or civilization he is accused of propagating "nationalism", separatism", or "endangering the unity of the Chinese people and the great motherland". Scholars are punished, their works banned and publishing houses closed.

In May 1991 Chinese authorities launched a scathing attack on three books, The Hun, Ancient Uighur Literature, and The History of the Uighurs published in Eastern Turkestan. The books were denounced as efforts to break up the country and create an independent Eastern Turkestan. Although printed by a governmental publishing house the books have been banned.

The harshest attack was leveled against The History of the Uighurs by Turgun Almas, a veteran Uighur writer living in Eastern Turkestan. It is reported that Turgun Almas has been under house arrest since then. Most scholars researching scientific fields, are Chinese. They write books on Turkic history, culture, civilization, archaeology, folklore, traditions, etc. All these publications are aimed at manipulating history in order to prove that Eastern Turkestan has been a part of China from the Stone Age and to undermine Turkic beliefs, culture and traditions.

This policy has caused tension throughout China as a whole and in Eastern Turkestan in particular. In 1987, hundreds of Kazakh students from six colleges, including the Ili Teachers College, in Eastern Turkestan, went on strike to protest the publication of a novel entitled White House in the Distance in the Chinese Writer's literary bimonthly. In the view of the Kazakh students, the character of Saliha, a fickle and lascivious Kazakh woman who lived toward the end of the last century, distorted the habits and customs of the Kazakhs in a way that slandered the Kazakh people as a whole.

In December 1988 hundreds of Uighur students staged a protest against the showing of two films of historical fiction that Uighur students found disrespectful to their race. One of the films was about Ipar Han, an 18th century Uighur heroine, who with her husband Jihangir Hoja, the ruler of Eastern Turkestan, fought the Manchu-Chinese. She was captured by Manchu-Chinese soldiers and brought to Peking after Jihangir Hoja had been killed. Later, instead of marrying the Manchu-Chinese emperor, Chien Lung, she killed herself. For this she has become an honored historical symbol among Uighurs as the Mother of Uighur Pride. Chinese film makers' distortion of the historical facts was extremely offensive to Uighurs.

The book, Sex habits, published by Shanghai Cultural House, has seriously besmirched Islam, harmed the religious feelings of Muslims, and aroused strong resentment in China as a whole. In May 1989, thousands of Muslims in China staged protest marches in Peking, Xian, Lanzhou, Ningsha, Qinghai and in several cities in Eastern Turkestan. Thousands of Turkic Muslims who staged a protest in Urumchi attacked the organs of the regional Party Committee, Regional People's Congress Standing Committee, regional Advisory Committee, and the regional Discipline Inspection Committee, creating a serious disturbance rarely seen since the Chinese Communist takeover of Eastern Turkestan. During the clashes three people were killed, 152 people wounded and 53 cars were burned.

ECONOMY

The economy favors only the Chinese. Despite Eastern Turkestan's natural wealth, Uighurs live at a bare subsistence level.

Almost 80 per cent of Uighurs live below the poverty line, 45-50 dollars income per year. The new economic reforms that allow Uighurs to trade on the free market is a measure, not to provide jobs for them, but to eliminate them from the job market. The first private businesses were all contracted out to Chinese who quickly prospered. Another reason for poverty in Eastern Turkestan is that the resources of Eastern Turkestan including uranium, petroleum, gold, etc. are transported to mainland China. The exploitation of these natural resources, is a strict monopoly controlled by the central government in Peking. The regional government has no control over these resources. Uighurs have no access to information on profits generated by these resources and have no chance to benefit from their own wealth. In the first quarter of 1989, for example, Eastern Turkestan sent 7.68 million barrels of crude oil, 906 thousand tons of coal and 444 thousand tons of raw salt to China.

Last year 70 percent of Eastern Turkestan's cotton was transported to Shanghai, Xian and Beijing. Eastern Turkestan produced 10.4 million metric tons of crude oil in 1993, but all profits went to the Central government.

In recent years the Chinese started to transport horses, ponies and donkeys from Eastern Turkestan to China. It is not clear why they want the donkeys but this has caused jokes and piques among the Uighurs. An aged Uighur lady lost her balance after riding a bus and fell on a neatly dressed Chinese couple from Shanghai. The Chinese husband losing his temper, angrily turned to the Uighur lady: "When you don't know how to ride a bus, why don't you ride your donkey." The Uighur lady in composure: "You have taken away to China the donkeys which I could ride and have eaten them up, on what should I ride now."

Until 1949, Eastern Turkestan was famous for its carpets. The carpets woven in Hoten, Yarkent, and Kashgar were exported throughout the world. After 1949 the quality of Eastern Turkestan's carpets gradually declined. The reason was that the high quality wool produced in Hoten was sent to mainland China. The Uighurs do not have the means to import high quality wool.

LAND LEASING

The system of land leasing system is aimed at driving Uighurs into poverty. Almost 85 percent of Eastern Turkestan's population consists of farmers. While the introduction of the land leasing system has benefited some farmers, the majority endure a miserable situation.

According to the system, between one and ten mu of land are leased to each person in a family. In some places this figure goes up to 25 mu. One mu is 667 square meters. Under normal conditions one mu in Eastern Turkestan produces almost 250 kg grain which, according to 1988 figures, brings about 100 Yuan. The total cost of farming one mu, including the costs of leasing, water, tractor, seeds etc., is about 65 Yuan leaving a net income from one mu of about 35 Yuan.

If a family of five farms ten mu land, their net income will be about 350 Yuan. The same family will consume approximately 750 kg grain per year at a cost of 300 Yuan. It is impossible for the family to survive on the remaining 50 Yuan. Cooking oil, for example, costs about five Yuan per kg or 200 Yuan annually for the family. A kilogram of meat costs about 13 Yuan, and the family has, of course, many other needs. At present, Uighur farmers income tends to average only 732 Yuan per year compared with Chinese farmers whose annual income is more than 2,680 Yuan.

It has been reported by the farmers living near Hoten, Kashgar, Aksu, Kucha, Turfan and Ili, that the land leasing system has brought nothing but misery to hundreds of thousands of farmers in Eastern Turkestan. At present thousands of farmers have returned to their land because they could not pay the leasing costs. According to a 1987 report to the Urumchi government by the Xinjiang Public Relations office in Hoten alone there are 1,7000 farmers without even a house to live in. During the night they sleep by covering themselves with the sands of the Taklamakan desert.

In the southern part of Eastern Turkestan people are dying of starvation. An epidemic of a rare strain of hepatitis caused by poor sanitation has killed 650 Uighurs in the Hoten area in late 1987. Similar deaths have been reported from Kargalik, Yarkent, Yenisar and around Kashgar. Before Chinese rule, Uighurs were never faced with problem of famine. Today 80 percent of Uighur children in Eastern Turkestan grow up with poor sanitation. Although Eastern Turkestan has an area of 1.6 million square kilometers, it has little arable land and a low yield grain output. With the steady flow of Chinese settlers into Eastern Turkestan the ratio of cultivated land per inhabitant has shrunk by almost half.

FORCED LABOR

Another major problem facing the farmers of Eastern Turkestan is "hasher" or the forced labor. Every year the Party Committee asks each citizen in Eastern Turkestan to work for 45 days without being paid. But the ethnic-Chinese dominated Party Committee makes the Uighurs work more than the period required by law. Sometimes they are forced to work for 6 months without pay. With most of their time devoted to the 'hasher' Uighur farmers have no time to work in the fields leased to them.

The new system is also harming the future of hundreds of thousands of Uighur children in Easter Turkestan. As there is no obligatory educational system, instead of sending their children to school, farmers make them work in the field. In the schools of Eastern Turkestan many classes are now empty. Directors of schools send teachers in search of students. Fathers demand that teachers guarantee their children will find a job after their studies. Obviously, the teachers cannot make such a guarantee, and the farmers do not send their children to school. If this tendency continues illiteracy among the Uighurs will continue to rise.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The Chinese in Eastern Turkestan have monopolized not only official ranks of authority and influence, but positions in almost all walks of the life. There is no unemployment among the Chinese settlers in Eastern Turkestan, but among the Uighurs the unemployment is very high.

Only ten percent of the 200 thousand industrial workers around the capital, Urumchi, are Uighurs, the rest are Chinese.55 At a textile plant near Urumchi only ten percent of the workers are Uighurs.56 Only 800 of the 12 thousand workers of a textile plant near Kashgar are Uighurs. There are 2,100 workers in a tractor factory near Urumchi, but only 13 of them are Uighurs.

In 1986 a new petro-chemical plant was opened in the city of Poskam, All of the 2,200 workers are Chinese.59 In the vast oil-rich Aksu region of southwest Eastern Turkestan, 70 percent of the 1.74 million population are Uighurs, but almost all of the workers in the fields are Chinese.

Since 1989, Chinese oil companies have flocked to Eastern Turkestan in search of oil employing some 20,000 workers in the Tarim Basin alone, but almost none of the workers are Uighurs. Throughout Eastern Turkestan the same situation exists. Even the tourist guides in Eastern Turkestan are Chinese. They do not have any idea about the history, culture, civilization, religion, traditions, folklore etc. of the Uighurs so that most visitors from foreign countries return with a wrong impression of the Uighurs.

HEALTH CARE

It has been reported that at present health care in Eastern Turkestan is almost non-existent. In most of the hospitals there are no operating tables, no gynecological equipment and no disinfectants. Some hospitals have no examination tables, medicine cabinets, or telephone. At the best facilities some antibiotics or TB medicine may be available. Almost sixty percent of the medicine, even in hospitals, is substandard.

Almost all of the doctors working in the hospitals in Eastern Turkestan are Chinese. They do not speak Uighur and cannot communicate with Uighur patients who have difficulty explaining their problems. In many cases the illness has progressed beyond treatment before the situation can be clearly understood. The salaries paid by the government to doctors is very low and most prefer to treat private patients who can afford to pay cash. While most of the doctors are visiting private patients there are no doctors to care for emergency patients many of whom die on their stretchers before a doctor can be found.

In recent years, cholera and leprosy have become common diseases like Hepatitis. According to a 1988 World Health Organization report a cholera outbreak in Eastern Turkestan infected 3,961 people killing 55. According to the annual report released by the Statistical Bureau of Public Health in Peking in March 1994, Eastern Turkestan's death-case ratio was the highest of all China's provinces. Until 1949, life expectancy in Eastern Turkestan was 65 years. Eastern Turkestan had more centenarians than any other country in Central Asia, with an average of one person per every 15,000. The infant mortality rate in Eastern Turkestan is 200 per 1,000.65 At present because of the lack of proper medical treatment results in that almost 70 percent of all illnesses are fatal.

NUCLEAR TESTING

Despite the fierce protests of the Uighurs, the Chinese Communist leaders continue to order nuclear testing at Lop Nor in Eastern Turkestan that has for three decades produced ecological disaster endangering human life, polluting drinking water and food supplies and affecting millions of animals. Since October 14, 1961 there have been 40 nuclear tests at Lop Nor. There are no official figures for the number of nuclear victims in Eastern Turkestan, but it has been reported that almost 210,000 people in Eastern Turkestan have died because of the radioactive fallout. Radioactive fallout is causing an increase in human cancer. It has been reported that 10 percent of the population are ill with cancer. According to a report released by the Registry of the People's Hospital of Urumchi in 1993, the rate of fatal cancer was only several cases per year in the late 1960s and tens of cases per month in the 1970s. Now reports are of cancer in this hospital number at least 70 a day out of an average 1,500 daily sick visits. As a result, babies with horrible deformities are born. Most important, the polluted districts bordering the nuclear test site do not even receive elementary medical aid. During the almost 30 years of nuclear testing in Eastern Turkestan, no medical investigations have been carried out.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST RELIGION

The Chinese Communist Party's campaign against Islam has been particularly severe. It began with an attempt to cut off Islamic financial resources by confiscating vaqif (charity foundation) land and properties under the pretext of "land reform". Then mosques were ordered to display portraits of Mao Zedong and Communist cadres were assigned to propagate Communist doctrines during religious services. Many mosques in Eastern Turkestan traditionally supported a medrese, or mosque school, for Uighur children. These schools were important facilities, not only for teaching Uighur children reading and writing, but specifically Islamic subjects such as kalam(theology), tasawwuf(ceremonies or practical theology), ilahiyat(metaphysics), arud(metrics) and kafiye(prosody) as well as more general subjects such as mantik(logic), aritmatik (arithmetic), handese (geometry), hai'a (ethics), astronomiye(astronomy), tibb(medicine) and falaha(agriculture).

Before 1949, eighteen medreses, existing in the city of Kashgar alone, and up to two thousand students were enrolled in the schools in any given year. But under the pretext of "unification of national education" all schools operated by the mosques were closed and the Uighur children were transferred to other primary schools where Marxism, Leninism and Maoism were taught. Under the pretext that attendance in the mosques, Islamic gatherings and Koran recitations "hindered production", the Chinese Communist prohibited Uighurs from fulfilling their religious duties. Throughout Eastern Turkestan more than 29 thousand mosques were closed and turned into barracks, stables, slaughter houses etc. More than 54 thousand Moslem clerics were arrested, tortured and used as forced labor, cleaning sewers.

After a decade of relative tolerance in the area of religion the Chinese are once again trying to curb the activities of the so-called unofficial Islam, which organizes and provides religious training for Muslims. Tomur Dawamet, the former Chairman of the Regional Government of Eastern Turkestan, in has said the following:

Huang Baozhang, Deputy Chairman of the Regional Government of Eastern Turkestan, in a recent press conference in Beijing told foreign reporters that "people have smuggled reactionary materials inside copies of the Koran." He said "calling for independence is a counter-revolutionary crime. We oppose religious infiltration."

Similar statements have been made by Hamidin Niyaz, Deputy Secretary of the Regional Party Committee. Son Hanliang. Secretary of the Regional Party Committee and Ismail Ahmet China's State Minister for Minority Affairs. The number of mosques opened in Eastern Turkestan has not been sufficient to meet the needs of the Muslims. In many places in Eastern Turkestan Muslims have undertaken restoration, renovation and building of new Mosques, but it has been reported that since 1991 some 1,500 Mosques in Eastern Turkestan have been closed by the Chinese authorities on the grounds that these Mosques were built without permission. Construction on 153 Mosques has been discontinued in 1993.

At present there are no private religious schools in Eastern Turkestan and private religious instruction is banned. It has been reported that in official religious schools religion is taught only as a negative example with Marxist explanations of correct attitude. In these schools, children are taught to regard religion as something to be ashamed of, as primitive belief practiced by lower forms of Chinese society. Social pressure has eroded the importance of religion among young people, and tens of thousands of Muslim children have moved away from Islamic beliefs. It is only in day-to-day activities that Islamic teachings can be passed on.

Today, there is a shortage of clerics, Korans and Islamic publications. Since 1991 some 25 religious workers have been purged for disloyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. Investigations have been initiated on around 12,000 religious figures and 500 religious personalities have been punished for "illegal religious activities". Today, the Muslims of Eastern Turkestan do not have a single Islamic publication in their language.

The reason for the particularly severe political oppression by the Chinese Communists on Islam is that it is regarded as a major shield against the Chinese Communist policy of assimilating the Uighurs of Eastern Turkestan. The Chinese Communists believe that before eliminating the belief they cannot assimilate the believers.