Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Akayev's fall brings hope to Uighurs

In backing at least some of the Kyrgyzstan opposition, Bush among other things sought the protection of a U.S. base.

Kyrgyzstan hosts an American base, Kyrgyzstan had started to tilt toward Moscow.
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More importantly is the Uighur question. In the same manner that Bush and previous U.S. administrations have used the Chechens as a prelude to dismantle Russia, Bush is using the Uighurs to break China into more manageable pieces. The China/Kyrgyzstan alliance has until now stood in his way.

China has already protested the establishment of a Uighur Government-in-Exile in Washington and Beijing has repeatedly made it clear that it will not tolerate any political interference from abroad, where pro-independence Uighur organizations exist. This means us. It would seem we are orchestrating a riot in the Xinjiang province of China. Kyrgyzstan is one of the countries that borders the Xinjiang region.
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-Am

Akayev's fall brings hope to Uighurs
By N T Tarimi

March 31, 2005

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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