Saving the Uyghurs
China has intensified
repression under the guise of a war on terror.
By Nury Turkel
Over the past few weeks,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to Europe, Asia, and Latin America,
in large part to promote President Bush's vision of democracy and freedom.
During her trip, she met with local dissidents from Belarus and Brazil. Not so
during her trip to China.
Yet that trip was
possibly the most fruitful — or at least eventful — with regard to democracy
and human rights, for it yielded the release of Rebiya Kadeer, a nominee for
this year's Nobel Peace Prize, who has been in prison since 1999. As Muslims
face tyranny across the globe, President Bush's vision of freedom and democracy
has a special resonance.
Like Rebiya Kadeer, I am
a Uyghur. We are a Turkic Muslim people who live in what is now northwest
China. China calls our homeland the "New Frontier," but we call it
East Turkistan. As the protectors of the fabled Silk Road, my people have known
and honored a diversity of ideas. Indeed, before converting to Islam, Uyghurs
were Buddhists, Shaman, and Nestorian Christians. In addition to material
goods, our central location led to an exchange of religions and cultures; we benefited
from interactions with those from the West as well as the East.
Now we know only
darkness. My homeland has been under Chinese Communist rule for the past 56
years. Uyghurs, like Buddhists in Tibet, are forbidden to pray or speak freely.
When Western reporters talk about how China's political situation is improving
alongside rapid economic growth, I know they have not visited East Turkistan.
Where I grew up, people today are still being executed for speaking out against
injustice. East Turkistan is the only province in the People's Republic of
China where people are still being executed for political reasons. Of course,
China no longer labels us "counter-revolutionaries" or "American
running dogs." Now Beijing calls us terrorists, hoping to legitimize their
oppression by describing it as part of China's war on terror.
President Bush is a man
whose strongly held personal views are reflected in his policies. He knows
about the plight of Uyghur Muslims in East Turkistan, and Tibetan Buddhists in
Tibet, and his own religious beliefs lead us to believe that he is particularly
sensitive to religious repression everywhere. It was significant that in
October 2001, just a month after 9/11, he specifically warned China not to use
the fight against terrorism as an excuse to persecute its minorities.
But China's ruling elite
wasn't listening. Instead, the government seized the opportunity to advance its
campaign to assimilate forcefully Uyghurs into the Chinese culture. Uyghur
books were burned, and now we Uyghurs can no longer speak our language in
universities (and an increasing number of high schools). It is hard to describe
to someone who lives in a free society, particularly in America, which has
never been occupied, how it feels not to be able to own and speak your
language. Our freedom to practice religion has turned into a privilege
regulated by the CCP. Chinese officials recently bragged that three million
births in East Turkistan were avoided, meaning that that unborn Uyghur children
have been forcibly aborted. In short, the Chinese Communist Party's assault on
the existence of the Uyghur nation has been intensified under the banner of
China's own war on terror.
Uyghurs who peacefully
oppose this injustice are labeled as terrorists. Many who escaped to
neighboring countries like Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were returned to
China and executed. Uyghurs want peace, freedom, democracy, and human rights,
including the right to be Muslim. That is why President Bush's message strikes
a chord with Uyghurs.
There are a few glimmers
of hope for Uyghurs. In early 2004, the National Endowment for Democracy, the
American lifeline for dissidents worldwide, gave my organization, the Uyghur
American Association, a grant to begin human-rights research to document
human-rights abuses against Uyghurs. In November 2004, Rebiya Kadeer, a Uyghur
businesswoman, was awarded the Rafto prize, a prestigious human-rights award.
Kadeer was arrested in 1997 while on her way to brief a U.S. congressional
delegation on Uyghur human rights. She was finally released by the Chinese
authorities on March 17, 2005, on "medical parole," but it was the
continued pressure exerted on the Chinese government by the United States and
international human-rights organizations — culminating in Secretary of State
Rice's visit to Beijing — that truly led to Kadeer's release.
In the past few weeks,
the resignation of Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev — one of China's main
allies in the persecution of Uyghurs — in the "Tulip Revolution"
became the most significant source of hope in recent years for Uyghurs
suffering under the oppression of the PRC.
These developments send
a message not only to China, but also to Uyghurs. As news of these
developments, including the Bush's approach to spreading democracy and freedom
around the world, reach Uyghurs in East Turkistan through the
congressionally-funded Radio Free Asia, my fellow Uyghurs are offered not only
hope, but a connection to the free world.
— Nury Turkel is
president of the Uyghur American Association.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/turkel200505110748.asp
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