Speech at the Congress of the Transnational Radical Party
Geneve 4-7 April 2002

Honorable Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished guests,
Dear Party members,

In the year of 1949, the Chinese People's Liberation Army occupied East Turkestan, a country in the centre of Asia and the homeland to the Uighur people. Presently, this occupied country is a Chinese colonial province named Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Under the Chinese colonial occupation, the Uighurs are experiencing a life and death struggle for survival, their fundamental rights and freedom, including civil, social, political, and economic rights continue to be violated and even deprived. It is very common in today’s East Turkestan that the Uighurs are arrested, imprisoned and even executed by the Chinese authorities, among whom there are intellectuals, religious scholars, businessmen, students and peasants. The Uighurs are persecuted just because they advocate the adherence to human rights and plead to share equal rights as the Chinese in their political, economic, and social life.

Amnesty International said East Turkestan is the only place in China where political prisoners to be executed. Amnesty recorded 210 death sentences and 190 executions in two years from 1997 to 1999 in East Turkestan. Even after the Amnesty report published in April 1999, China has been executing more than 100 Uyghurs every year, and thousands are imprisoned for suspected nationalism, separatism, and so-called religious extremism. Torture and disappearance of Uyghurs are commonplace.

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region was created on the 1st of October 1955. But 47 years' experience has proved that this autonomy exists only on the paper and it is the Chinese who take full control over all matters concerning the Uighur people and their country. Furthermore, this country is divided into many autonomous prefectures, counties, and even townships, which are run by other ethnic groups rather than the Uighurs. This kind of administrative structure is a typical reproduction of an imperial policy, which is to divide and rule, applied by previous Chinese dynasties over the non-Chinese people inhabited areas, so as to manipulate the interethnic relations and to gain advantage to the Chinese ruling over the minorities. In fact, the autonomy of East Turkestan is designed to the advantage of the Chinese Government, and this unjust autonomy is maintained by heavy military and paramilitary forces deployed in this country.

Apart from the ethnic divisions, there is another phenomenon: there are two acting provincial authorities in this colony. The first one is certainly the authority of Xinjiang Autonomous Region; the second is that of the Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps, which is a paramilitary organisation and has its own administrative, educational, and judicial system. Supported by the central government in Beijing, This organisation is given absolute priority over any local needs. As a matter of fact, this organisation expands increasingly its territory within the scope of the Autonomous Region, to the detriment of the local population. Presently the Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps is made of 2.5 million Chinese, most of whom are veterans from the Chinese Liberation Army and prisoners having finished their prison terms in East Turkestan and China's inland provinces. Its 15 divisions are deployed in almost all parts of East Turkestan, occupying some 48% of this country's territory.

During its' 50 years of occupation, the Chinese Government has turned East Turkestan into a veritable military garrison, presently there are some one million men of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the General Armed Police Force stationed in East Turkestan. Most of them are generally deployed in the surrounding areas, where there are important Uighur habitations. It is evident that this kind of deployment is to watch the move of the indigenous people.
In recent years, the Chinese Government has reinforced its policy to terrorize the entire Uighur population in East Turkestan at a state level. The military and paramilitary force has been playing an important role in the accomplishment of such policy against the local population. For example, there have been numerous peaceful Uighur demonstrations and most of them were severely suppressed by the military force. In today's East Turkestan, fully armed Chinese soldiers, police men and militias can be seen very where patrolling in the streets of towns, in the fields of countryside, they can interrogate, beat and even arrest Uighur civilians without any legal process.

The process of the Chinese colonisation of East Turkestan is a process of sinicization; its dimension surpassed the single fact of military occupation, involving all aspects of the society, such as those of politics, economy, culture, and religions. The present Chinese government also considers East Turkestan an ideal place to resettle its surplus population from the inland provinces.

The exact number of actual Chinese population in East Turkestan is a state secret, not only to the outside world, but also to China's ordinary people, especially the ethnic minorities. As the Chinese Government declares only the Chinese under the jurisdiction of Xinjiang Administration, and those under the direct jurisdiction of the central government in Beijing, are never included in the Chinese population in East Turkestan's census. A latest report, released by the Bureau of Statistics of Xinjiang People's Government after China's 5th National Census conducted in November 2000, declares that there are 7'497'700 Chinese residents in East Turkestan by November 1st 2000. And this very report has specified that the figure of 7'497'700 excludes those from the departments not under the jurisdiction of the regional administration, which mainly involves the People's Liberation Army, the Armed Police Force, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, professional units from Chinese inland provinces deployed in the exploitation fields. "The Xinjiang Statistical Year Book 1999 confirms the number of persons under these departments totals up to 4'526'500. The effective figure of the Chinese population in East Turkestan should be 12'024'200. Today the Chinese population in East Turkestan has surpassed 12 million and become a majority ethnic group. The Uighurs have become a real minority in their own autonomous region; massive human settlement in that country has created both human and ecological disasters.

Together with the sinicization and population transfer, the present Chinese Government is also applying series of policies, so as to accelerate the economic exploitation in East Turkestan, favouring the Chinese population to the detriment of the indigenous people, particularly in the exploitation of oil, gas and other natural resources.

In order to exploit the natural resources in East Turkestan, industrial and commercial companies have been sent from China's inland provinces with proposed jobs in East Turkestan, bringing together with them their own labour force. The Chinese government is in fact encouraging its citizens to go to East Turkestan with a job in prospect. The Chinese monopolise absolutely the local labour market and they only engage people who speak Chinese. Thus, the local people, who don't speak Chinese, are excluded. The enlarging scale of economic exploitation in East Turkestan doesn't benefit the local population so far as the Uighurs are concerned. In Job fairs you read the sign “Uyghurs do not need to apply! As a matter of fact, more than 85% of the Uighur population work in agricultural plantation; the illiteracy is as high as 25%.

The destruction on the Uighur culture is not a simple phenomenon, but a programmed and systematic process imposed by the Chinese Communist Government. This destruction is carried out to the full, which involves as many details as one could imagine, such as Uighur terminology, music, gastronomy, clothing, architecture, etc. The ultimate objective of this destruction is the integration of Chinese culture into the Uighur life. After 1949, the Chinese Government has closed down many non governmental Uighur organisations and institutions relating to Uighur culture, education, and history; and all non-official activities of these characters are strictly banned. Thus, during the 1950s, the Uighur cultural and educational work was at a standstill. In the second half of 1950s, the Chinese Government initiated a series of reforms in the domain of the Uighur culture and literature work, setting up special organs to supervise the reform execution. One of the most notorious is the reform of Uighur alphabet.

The Arabic alphabet had been used for many centuries by the Uighurs, In 1957, Zhou Enlai, the then Chinese Prime Minister proposed that the Uighurs should adopt the Chinese Pinyin alphabet, which, according to him, would fit better the Uighur phonetic inflections, and the idea of Zhou Enlai was generalized in 1965. But in 1982, the government ordered again the re-establishment of the Arabic alphabet. On could imagine the disorder thus caused by the alphabet changes to the Uighur young generations and the heavy damage brought to the Uighur literature.

In today's East Turkestan, there are two kinds of schools, one in Uighur language, and the other with Chinese teaching. Although an Uighur school-age child is free to choose either of the two, the problems come later when he has finished school: If he followed the Chinese teaching school, he would have a better chance in his professional choice. Otherwise, he could hardly find a job without any knowledge of Chinese language, as all the vacant posts considered good job require the Chinese language. It seems there is no direct intervention in the Uighur educational system, but the Chinese style economic structure is pushing it aside, and the survival of the Uighur language itself has become a serious question and this situation will go worse in the years to come.

The development of Uighur literature is also facing serious problems in recent years, and little by little, it gives way to the Chinese literature along with the accelerated sinicization. On the one hand, the Chinese restrictions on the Uighur literature are very severe, no text containing Uighur patriotic thinking is allowed for publication. On the other hand, the Uighur authors have, if they want their books to be published, to appreciate the history of the Chinese presence to the detriment of the authentic Uighur history.


In the domain of the religion, things are even worse, numerous regulations on the religious activities. For the Chinese government the religious question is a political one as they consider it a threat to the stability of the region. Now, especially after 11th September Islamic clerics are subject to political re-education…

East Turkestan, once venue of peace, tolerance and civilisation and a rich country, with no hunger, now most Uyghurs live under the United Nation’s poverty level, and the land is centre of state sponsored violence with weekly executions of several Uyghurs for asking for their rights to live in dignity as human beings. Why?

Presently, the Chinese communist government has not only deprived the Uyghur nation of her basic right to self-determination, but also been implementing a policy of total assimilation, through planned population transfer of Han Chinese into this land, coercive birth control, economic exploitation, sinicization of educational and other institutions of social and economic characters, and deployment of extra proportional PLA, Armed Police Force and the so-called “Bing Tuan” Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Especially, beginning early 1990s, with the dawnfall of former Soviet Union and emergence of new independent Turkic republics in Central Asia, who share common linguistic and cultural heritage with the Uyghurs, alarm bells have been ringing in Beijing. Thus, the Beijing government launched various campaigns of repression and persecution against the Uyghur nation: peaceful demonstrators, believers, freedom seekers and advocates of democracy are being arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned, tortured with inhumane methods, killed in hundreds, if not thousands, extra-judicially executed. What Jiang Zemin said a decade ago was repeated recently by Wang Lequan, the regional first secretary in Urumqi, “Take in thousand if necessary, but no single so called “separatist” should escape." In short, a Nation who contributed much to the world civilization is very much on the verge of disappearing from the scene of mankind, and the Uyghurs at home are forced to a “life-and-death” struggle. The whole Uyghur nation is in desperation and frustration. Such a situation could lead to explosive events, which in return would contribute to destabilization of the entire region.

The democratic world community is not aware of the facts, partly due to the restrictions to free flow of information imposed by the communist Chinese regime, and partly due to negligence. Amnesty International said, what was found in Xinjiang, concerning gross violations of human rights might be just the pick of an iceberg, and the world community can NOT stand idle and do nothing.

Bevore 11. September, the Chinese government accused all Uyghurs who dared to speak up, asked for their basic human rights and expressed their desire to live as human beings as “separatists” and “Islamic extremists”. After these tragedy, the Beijing leadership, decided to take advantage of the international situation and launched a campaign of branding us as “terrorists” and to justify its policy of “ethnic Cleansing” against Uyghurs. It even claimed, that the organisation I lead, namely the East Turkestan National Congress (ETNC) was part of “international terrorism”.The ETNC is the umbrella body of diaspora Uyghur organisations in 14 countries, established in Munich, in October 1999, and registered in Germany as an Association with affiliates abroad. The ETN is the international voice of the Uyghur people abroad. It deplores all kinds of violance, abhores terrorism in any form, adheres to international law and covenents and seeks political solution to the problem and calls for constructive dialogue.

Thanks to international human rights organisations, especially the Transnational Radical Party, and its courageous secretary Mr. Olivier Dupuis, demokratic Western governments, led by the U.S. administrations and non the less the free media this Chinese propaganda campaign has backfired.

Immediately after the TRP and the ETNC last August announced to host an international human rights Conference on the Subject of “the Situation in East Turkestan After a half century of Communist Chinese Occupation couppled with the third General Assembly of the East Turkestan National Congress in the meeting rooms of the European Parliament, in Brussels, from October 17 to 19, and among others invited to attend the Chinese representation to the European Parliament, the Beijing regime unsuccesfully tried every means to torpedeo it.

It was the personal courage and steafasstness of Mr. Dupuis who stood against any kind of both internal and external pressure and a solid support and solidarity of all Radicals in the European Parliament which made it possible for us to discuss our problems with international scholars, polititicians, human rights activists and lawyers at the European Parliament. I would like to recall a part of the Mr. Dupuis’ letter sent to Mrs. Nicole Fontaine on October 9,2001.
Quote:

“I think you will agree with me that the cancellation of this Conference on the fallacious grounds of security would not constitute a particularly positive signal towards the Moslem world. It would be even more incomprehensible and therefore inopportune, in that recent plenary sessions have seen numerous moments of heated debate on the part of certain colleagues who rise up against any attempt to place the current events in the framework of a “conflict of civilisations” between Islam and the Christian world, forgetting due to a strange phenomenon of selective amnesia that a conflict of civilisations does exist between the world of democracy and that of non-democracy, authoritarianism or totalitarianism.

You will therefore not be surprised, Madam President, that this mechanism of selective amnesia is also at work in the present case. It is, in fact, no secret - as eminent representatives of the Commission, the Council and the Parliament have stated informally - that the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (a country not known for its democratic leanings) has been working for weeks, with the servile assistance of the small-time quislings in permanent service in our Parliament, to scupper a conference that threatens to bring to light a policy of occupation, humiliation and destruction that is as serious, although less widely known, than that pursued in Tibet.

In the hope, Madam President, that our Parliament will demonstrate through your voice that it does not intend to submit to the diktat of the People’s Republic of China by considering as terrorists those defined as such by a terrorist State, and at the same time by disregarding the decisions of the competent consular authorities of the Union or of the European democracies, nor to give up its role as the voice of the forgotten and murdered peoples of the world, please accept my kindest regards.
(End of Quote)

The following is just a paragraph of a top secret document of the CC of the CPC, issued in March 1996.
Quote:

Through diplomacy, urge these countries to limit and weaken the activities of separatist forces inside their border. Take full advantage of our political superiority to further develop the bilateral friendly cooperation with these countries. At the same time, always maintain pressure on them. Considering the ethnic separatism activities outside of the border, carry out all necessary dialog and struggle. Strengthen the investigation and study outside of the border. Collect the information on related development directions of events, and be especially vigilant against and prevent, by all means, the outside separatist forces from making the so-called "Eastern Turkistan" problem international. Divide the outside separatist forces, win over most of them and alienate the remaining small number and fight against them. Establish homebases in the regions or cities with high Chinese and overseas Chinese populations. Develop several types of propaganda. Make broad and deep friends and limit the separatist activities to the highest degree.

Thus, against this background we have managed to internationalize our just cause with tremendous efforts of international human rights organisations, with sympathy of some political parties, like the Greens of European countries, and at last, but not the least with the genuine solidarity and support of the Radicals in the European Parliament. (Here I would
like once more to express my gratitute to our de facto national leader Mr. Erkin Alptekin,
who made great personal effort to open the gates of the Western institutions to our cause).

Today and even more in the future we need, the world needs political parties, NGOs and peacefull, dedicated radicals, like the Radicals in the European Parliament, even more then before. The planet Earth is getting polarized, the so called globalisation process is well underway, some dictatorships like the Chinese communists are being tolarized due to economic and other reasons, we notice double standards in regard to human rights and war against terrorism is applied selectively. Many Western democratic governments often hesitate to vote against a strong dictatorship considering their internal political and economic interests. This kind of democratic weakness used to be abused by the former USSR and it is the case with China.

In such a development, more and stronger Radicals, NGOs and human rights activists who work to defend the rights of oppressed peoples, regardless of their religion, ethnic origin or race around the world are needed. We need more such activists who are ready to endanger their lives, who are ready to bring personal sacrifice and who would go for hunger strike for the right of peoples of this mother Earth! We should strengthen them morally, politically and non the less financially. It will be a profitable investment in long run, it will pay off in long run, because they will be able to contribute more for a more socially just, politically stable and peacefull, and environmentally cleaner world which our grand children need more than we do!!!

The aim and objectives of the TRP are well described and are achievable. Achievable, only if it receives due support, through dedication, hard work, steadfastness, high moral and readiness to sacrifice for the cause.

- Lets turn the TRP part of a process of globalisation of democracy and right!
- Lets make it a part of a process that will lead to the creation of a full pfledged World Organisation of Democracies!
- All together, lets contribute to the process of construction of international organisations, institutions and jurisdictions that can guarantee the respect of of the fundamental rights!
- Lets make it stronger and donate it with the tools it needs to fight more effectively for the rights of oppressed peoples around the world!

Thank you for your attention, Thank you Mr. Chairman.