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SPEAKING
FREELY
Akayev's fall brings hope to
Uighurs
By N T Tarimi
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here if you are
interested in contributing.
In the
aftermath of the breathtaking political changes
that swept through the streets of the Kyrgyz
capital Bishkek last Thursday, Uighur human-rights
activists are hoping that a new democratic
government will move away from the more
traditional views of the apparently former
president Askar Akayev - most notably, his
willingness to cooperate with the Chinese
leadership when it came to their desire to crack
down on the Uighur political and democratic
movement in the Central Asia.
According to
Uighur activists in Bishkek, in the past Kyrgyz
authorities cooperated with China, in essence
allowing Beijing to strengthen its control over
the activities of Uighurs in Kyrgyzstan and the
other Central Asian republics. The Sino-Kyrgyz
alliance stood in the path of the Uighur movement,
casting a dark shadow not only over its the
future, but also the future of the whole of the
Uighur people in Kyrgyzstan and East Turkestan,
which is perhaps better known by its official
Chinese name, the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
Region.
Not surprisingly, it was not only
the Uighurs who were frustrated by the Sino-Kyrgyz
cooperation in the so-called campaign against
terror. Numerous Kyrgyz intellectuals and
opposition party leaders, many of whom were the
same people who played key roles in last week's
shocking changes in Osh, Jalal-Abad and Bishkek,
openly criticized the Akayev government for
violating international law by forcibly deporting
Uighur political activists, sending them to China,
where they would certainly face harsh persecution.
The last accord between Beijing and the
former Bishkek government was signed by Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao and Kyrgyz Premier Nikolay
Tanayev, who resigned last Thursday. During an
official visit last September, Wen, Akayev and
Tanayev discussed further bilateral ties and
anti-terrorism cooperation. Premier Wen also
expressed thanks for Bishkek's assistance in
Beijing's efforts against so-called "East
Turkestani separatism and terrorism". The joint
declaration said, "The two countries also agree
that a crackdown on the terrorist forces of 'East
Turkestan' is a major part of the international
anti-terrorism campaign."
The Uighur
diaspora in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan is one
five Central Asian republics that gained
independence after the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991. Since then, Sino-Kyrgyz relations
have developed in the fields of politics,
economics and culture. Beijing prioritized
establishing close relations with Kyrgyzstan,
making it one of its most important foreign-policy
objectives as doing so would facilitate its being
able to maintain firm control over the Xinjiang
Uighur Autonomous Region, while further
strengthening Beijing's ability to establish a
foothold in Central Asian politics.
Uighurs are a Turkic, Sunni Muslim people
with close cultural, historical and linguistic
ties to other ethnic groups in Central Asia, which
include the Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uzbek and Turkmen
people. Uighurs are the indigenous and majority
population of the Xinjiang region. According to
the latest Chinese census data, there are 8.4
million Uighurs living in Xinjiang, but Uighurs
put the number between 15 million and 20 million.
Kyrgyzstan is one of the most important
centers of the Uighur diaspora. There, Uighurs
live in cities such as Bishkek, Karakol,
Karabalta, Osh and Uzgen. The exact number of
Uighurs living in Kyrgyzstan is unclear, but
according to official Kyrgyz statistics from 1996,
there were 45,124 Uighurs living in the country.
At present, the number of Uighurs is estimated to
be about 50,000, but this number is likely far
from accurate. According to an article by Venera
Dzhumataeva that was published in September on the
website of the Kazakhstan Political Research
Center, the total number of Uighurs in Kyrgyzstan
is closer to 150,000. What's more, several Uighur
intellectuals and Uighur organizations in the
country place the number as high as 250,000.
For the most part, the Uighurs in
Kyrgyzstan are the descendants of early Uighur
immigrants from East Turkestan. The largest wave
of Uighur immigration occurred after the Manchu
invasion of East Turkestan in 1759. Uighurs staged
many unsuccessful uprisings against the Manchu
occupation in the period 1759-1912. Such uprisings
were put down each time by the Manchus.
As
a result, Uighurs migrated into areas that are now
part of Kyrgyzstan in large numbers for fear of
persecution. This trend continued in the period
from 1912-49. The last large influx of Uighurs
into Kyrgyzstan occurred in 1962 when Uighurs in
Ili and Chockek region, which is the northwestern
part of today's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region,
left China for the former Soviet Union.
In
the early years of Kyrgyzstan's independence from
the Soviet Union, the media praised the Uighurs as
the first ethnic group wholeheartedly to endorse
and support a Kyrgyz national government. During
those years, the Kyrgyz government, along with the
governments of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, turned a
blind eye to the Uighur political movements that
aimed to re-establish an East Turkestani Republic
in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. During
this period many Uighur political organizations,
such as the East Turkestan National Independence
Front and the Uighurstan Liberation Organization,
were established. These Uighur organizations, with
the permission of the Kyrgyz government, held
public rallies, organized conferences and
disseminated information about East Turkestan.
This continued until 1994.
There were four major factors
that made this possible:
The nature of the new Sino-Russian relations
had yet to be clearly defined.
The Chinese government was pressing the Kyrgyz
government to resolve border issues.
The Chinese government did not really take
these newly independent countries seriously,
believing that they would eventually become
dependent on China because of their weak
economies.
China mistakenly believed that none of these
countries, including Russia, would play their
"Uighur card" as the Soviet Union had in the past.
During the early years of Kyrgyz
independence, while claiming that his country was
the most democratic in Central Asia, President
Askar Akayev allowed the Uighurs to be active in
their campaign for independence. At the same time,
Kyrgyzstan was praised as "an oasis of democracy
in Central Asia" in the Western media. Akayev was
the first Central Asian president to visit Uighur
communities in person, even going as far as to
hold meetings with Uighurs to show his support for
their aspirations. Encouraged by the seemingly
tolerant attitude of the government, Kyrgyzstan
Uighurs established the organizations named above.
They also established groups such as "Tangritagh"
and the "Uighur Merchants Association". These
latter two organizations were founded with the
goal of achieving the independence of East
Turkestan through the development Uighur culture
and appeals to international law.
Uighurs
who were members of the Kyrgyzstan National
Assembly also formed an alliance that openly
campaigned for the Uighur cause. The president of
this alliance, Nurmuhammed Kenjiyev, became a
member of the Kyrgyz parliament. He participated
actively in meetings held by international Uighur
organizations abroad.
The Uighur movement
in Kyrgyzstan established close ties with
movements in other Central Asian countries as well
as Turkey and Germany. In essence, Uighur
movements in Central Asia were about to form a
fully fledged national independence movement, and
this became a source of great anxiety for Beijing.
Shanghai Five: Turning point for Uighur
movements
The formation of the Shanghai
Five, later formalized as the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO), was the result of Chinese and
Russian strategic cooperation that involved newly
independent countries such as Kyrgyzstan in
Central Asia that hoped to secure their borders
with China.
In order to expand its fight
against Uighur separatism beyond its borders,
Beijing issued the "No 7 Document" that pressured
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to crack down on Uighur
independence movements within their borders. The
No 7 Document demonstrates that preventing the
"internationalization of the Uighur Issue" and
eliminating any possibility of Western
intervention in Xinjiang in the future are
important parts of China's long-term strategy.
In making this strategy one of the
cornerstones of its foreign policy, Chinese
authorities sought to improve their relations with
Central Asia further. As a result, in 1996 and
1997, Chinese president Jiang Zemin and defense
secretary Chi Haotian paid several visits to
Bishkek, reaching agreements on border issues. In
April 1998, with the cooperation of Chinese
state-security forces, Kyrgyz authorities carried
out their first mass arrest in Bishkek, taking
about 30 people into custody. According to some
sources, Uighurs with Chinese, Kyrgyz and Turkish
citizenship were among those arrested.
In
June 2000, leaders of the Shanghai Five member
countries met in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. After the
summit, they issued a joint declaration on
fighting religious extremism, separatism and
terrorism. One week after the Dushanbe
Declaration, Kyrgyz authorities carried out raids
in Osh and other cities.
Uighurs:
Victims or perpetrators of terrorism?
The
changes that characterized the world of
international relations after the September 11,
2001, attacks on the United States had a profound
impact on Kyrgyzstan's foreign policy. Sino-Kyrgyz
relations entered a new era once the war on
terrorism began, notably with the stationing of US
troops in Central Asia. Understanding the
strategic importance of their country, the Kyrgyz
government started playing the diplomatic game
with the three great powers in the world - the
United States, Russia and China.
According
to some experts, the real intent of Akayev's
so-called "Silk Road Diplomacy" was to benefit
from everyone, while making enemies of no one. By
allowing an increased US military, political and
economic presence in Kyrgyzstan, the government
forced China to pay more attention to and increase
its own cooperation, especially economic
cooperation, with Kyrgyzstan.
Akayev was,
on one hand, creating a geopolitical situation
that was somewhat unsettling for the Chinese by
strengthening political, military and economic
ties with the United States while, on the other
hand, he was relieving Chinese anxiety through his
cooperation with the Chinese. As a result, Akayev
was able to reap the maximum possible political
and economic benefits from China.
According to observers and Uighur
political activists in Kyrgyzstan, after September
11, Akayev's government began curbing Uighur
activity more than before. The Chinese government
also stepped up its repression of Uighurs in the
days after September 11.
In the
post-September 11 period, the US government
admonished China not to use the "war on terror" as
a way of stifling dissent, especially among
Uighurs in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Amnesty
International, along with other human-rights
organizations, later criticized China for doing
just that - intensifying its crackdown on
political and religious dissent in Xinjiang under
the pretext of fighting "terrorism". In spite of
these warnings and condemnations, the Kyrgyz
government has cooperated with Chinese
public-security and state-security forces under
the framework of the SCO to clamp down on Uighur
activity in Kyrgyzstan, including extraditing
political activists to China.
According to
Russian experts such as Andrey Chebotariyev and
Uighur experts, after the Chinese government
released the confidential "No 7 Document" in 1996,
Uighur leaders in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Uzbekistan were secretly killed one after another.
Among those killed though the end of 2004 were
Hashir Wahidi, the chairman of Uighur Liberation
Organization; Dilbirim Samsaqova, chairwoman of
the Nuzugum Fund in Kazakhstan and a member of the
standing committee of the East
Turkestan/Uighurstan National Congress; Nighmet
Bosakov, chairman of the Kyrgyzstan Uighur
Association and vice president of the East
Turkestan National Center; Ilshat Abbasov, a
famous Uighur businessman and activist in
Kyrgyzstan; and famous writer Imin Osman,
president of Uzbekistan Uighur Culture Center.
According to Uighurs in Bishkek who wished
to remain anonymous, authorities arrested Uighurs
who were listed and documented by the Kyrgyz
office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees. Authorities also announced that they
would neither recognize nor accept Uighur
political-asylum cases. Sources speaking on
condition of anonymity also indicate that Kyrgyz
police regularly conduct unreasonable searches of
Uighur merchants from Xinjiang. According to an
interview published on the website IRINnews.org,
Tursun Islam, the chairman of "Democracy" in
Bishkek, Uighur merchants have lots of problems
with the police openly robbing them. These were
simple merchants who had nothing to do with
politics, but were nonetheless victimized. In
spite of the apparent harassment of Chinese
citizens, the Chinese Consulate in Bishkek has
never investigated these alleged incidents. The
consulate is, however, still unflinchingly strict
in enforcing passport regulations and has banned
the extension of passports for Uighur merchants
abroad.
This maltreatment is not limited
to Uighurs who happen to be Chinese citizens, but
also extends to those who are Kyrgyz citizens. On
one occasion in 2002, five to six Kyrgyz police
went into a restaurant and assaulted several
Kyrgyz Uighurs.
Uighurs expect tough
times
The independence of the former Soviet
Central Asian republics was a source of great hope
for Uighurs. Almost all of them welcomed the
creation of these new republics. In return, they
expected support from Kyrgyz, Kazakh and Uzbek
people for their centuries-long struggle for
independence. Uighurs have always regarded such
people as brothers because of their linguistic,
ethnic and religious ties. Uighurs not only showed
their support for the development of these newly
independent countries, but also paid special
attention to their unique friendship. The Uighurs
were clearly disappointed when their brothers
instead cooperated with the Chinese government,
openly identifying Uighur political activities as
terrorism. Uighurs watched in frustration as
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian
states became among the few nations in the world
that defended Chinese repression of Uighurs.
The Uighur issue has always been at the
heart of military, political and economic
relations between China and Kyrgyzstan. The nature
of Sino-Kyrgyz relations pre- and post-September
11 proves that the Uighur issue is among the most
important topics with regard to the two nations'
bilateral ties. It is very clear that the Chinese
campaign against ethnic separatism and terrorism
is aimed at eliminating the Uighur national
independence movement. The Kyrgyz government took
advantage of this issue to acquire desperately
needed Chinese economic aid.
In May 2002,
the SCO (Uzbekistan had by that time been added to
the original Shanghai Five - China, Russia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) countries
held talks about security cooperation. In June of
the same year, Akayev visited Beijing and signed
the "Strategic Cooperation Treaty" with president
Jiang Zemin. As a result, the Chinese government
agreed to give US$15 million in economic aid to
Kyrgyzstan. Terrorism and ethnic separatism were
once again front and center. When the current
Chinese president, Hu Jintao, visited Uzbekistan
last June 16, China also announced that it would
give Central Asian countries, including
Kyrgyzstan, $900 million in credits.
Uighurs in Kyrgyzstan still remember Askar
Akayev's declaration "Kyrgyzstan is our common
home". According to some Uighur intellectuals,
these same Uighurs are doing some hard thinking
about their roles and their future in the Krygyz
republic.
N T Tarimi lives in
the US and is an independent scholar on Central
Asia and China's ethnic issues.
(Copyright 2005 N T Tarimi.)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here if you are
interested in contributing.
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