In February 1997, a peaceful protest by Uighurs in Gulja city of the Ili valley was brutally crushed by the chinese army. The city was sealed off for two weeks and thousands of Uighurs were arrested. There were reports of torture and summary executions.
Since 9/11, any Uighurs asserting their own minority identity, desire for equal rights or democratic ambitions for East Turkestan have been branded by beijing as 'terrorists' and 'religious extremists'. Though there have been bombings in Xinjiang's cities in recent years, the vast majority of Uighurs campaigning for their cultural and economic rights do so peacefully. It is understandable that the chinese dictatorship should fear that East Turkestan may become Asia's Kosovo, but their repression of the region's historic Uighur language and culture only make anger and violence more likely.
How is Uighur freedom of expression violated?
Uighur writers are doubly vulnerable. Like other chinese writers they are subject to censorship and an arbitrary judicial system, but, as members of a Muslim minority, they are particularly targeted as victims of cultural repression.
Li Yi, head of the Propaganda Bureau for the xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, was reported in Xinhua on 17 January 2008 as stressing the importance of censoring 'illegal' religious and political publications. It was stated that in 2007 the East Turkestan chinese oppressors confiscated 6,999 copies of 'illegal political publications' and 11,580 copies of 'illegal religious propaganda materials'. In late May and June 2007, for example, there was a 13-day campaign which focused on censoring political and religious publications, alongside pornography. According to a July 2007 report on the changji city government website, the authorities in that city targeted items that they considered to incite religious fanatacism, propagate terrorism, advocate holy war, or to incite negative sentiments against the Han Chinese and/or promote the expulsion of Han from the region. No standards for determining whether works fall within these categories were cited.
List of Uighur Writers Currently in Prison
Abdulghani Memetemin
Writer, teacher and translator from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, arrested July 26, 2002 after providing information to the East Turkestan Information Centre (ETIC), a Uighur rights and pro-independence group run by exiled Uighurs in Germany. Memetemin was convicted in June 2003 by the Kashgar Intermediate People's Court of 'violating state secrets and sending them outside the country' and sentenced to nine years in prison. He was reportedly denied legal representation at his trial and has been tortured in prison.
Since 1999, Memetemin had provided information on a voluntary basis to the East Turkistan Information Centre (ETIC), a Uighur rights and pro-independence group run by exiled Uighurs in Germany and described by China as a terrorist group although the group is not known to have advocated or conducted any acts of violence.
Charges against him are believed to have included translating State news articles into Chinese from Uighur and forwarding official speeches of the Government to the ETIC, which is banned in China. He was also accused of recruiting other reporters for the ETIC.
Nurmuhemmet Yasin
English PEN Honorary Member
A young freelance Uighur writer, arrested on November 29, 2004 for the publication for his short story Wild Pigeon (Yawa Kepter), which Chinese authorities consider to be a criticism of their government's presence in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. After a closed trial in February 2005 at which he was denied a lawyer, Yasin was sentenced to ten years in prison for 'inciting Uighur separatism', and is currently being held in Urumqi No. 1 Jail. He has been denied all visitors since his arrest.
Nurmuhemmet Yasin first published Wild Pigeon in the bi-monthly Uighur-language Kashgar Literature Journal, issue No. 5, November 2004. According to Radio Free Asia's Uighur service, the story comprises the fictional first-person narrative of a young pigeon - the son of a pigeon king - that is trapped and caged by humans when he ventures out to search for a new home for his flock. In the end, he commits suicide by swallowing a poisonous strawberry rather than sacrificing his freedom, as his own father committed suicide under similar conditions years earlier. "The poisons from the strawberry flow through me," the unnamed pigeon remarks to himself at the end. "Now, finally, I can die freely. I feel as if my soul is on fire-soaring and free."
The story was widely circulated and recommended for one of the biggest Uighur literary websites in the Uighur Autonomous Region for outstanding literary award. It also attracted the attention of the Chinese authorities, who considered the fable in violation of an anti-secession law.
Nurmuhemmet Yasin had previously published many highly-acclaimed literary works and prose poems, including the poetry collections First Love, Crying from the Heart, and Come on Children. He is said to be a mature writer with an established literary reputation among Uighur readers. He is married with two young sons.
Korash Huseyin
Editor of the Uighur-language Kashgar Literary Journal, arrested for publishing Nurmuhemmet Yasin's short story Wild Pigeon in late 2004 (see below). Chinese authorities consider the story to be a criticism of their government's presence in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Huseyin was sentenced to three years in prison. Presumed freed on the expiry of his sentence on 2 February 2008.
Tohti Tunyaz (pen name: Muzart)
English PEN Honorary Member
Ethnic Uighur historian and writer, arrested April 1, 1998 while on a research trip in Urumqi for his studies at Tokyo University, where he was working towards a Ph.D. in Uighur history and ethnic relations. Tunyaz was sentenced on February 15, 2000 to eleven years in prison and two years' deprivation of political rights for 'stealing State secrets' and 'inciting national disunity'. He is currently being held in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Prison No. 3 in Urumqi. He was released on the expiry of his sentence on 10 February 2009. We are now calling upon the chinese authorities to drop all remaining restrictions against Tohti Tunyaz so that he can rejoin his family in Japan, in accordance with Article 12 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.
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