1. 26.7.04This is part of a series that deals with the quandary of the Uyghurs, a Turkicethnicminorityliving in western China. The Uyghurs (pronunciation in English: wee-gher) make up abouthalf of the population of Xinjiang, China’smost western and expansive province. Xinjiang province is aboutthreetimes the size of France—consumingone-sixth of China’s overall geography—yet it has an overall population of less than 19 million people, slightlymorethan that of metropolitan Shanghai.Historically, the natives of this region havereferred to it as Uyghurstan or East Turkistan. For the purposes of this series, Xinjiang provincewill be referred to as Uyghurstan. It even has itsown flag—though it is illegal to behold in China—nearlyidentical to that of Turkey’s: a star and crescentmoon in the upperleft corner on a red background; instead of red, however, the Uyghur flag has a sky bluebackground.This particularblogwill not go intotoomuchdepth on anyissues, butwillinstead briefly introduce the Uyghur (also spelled Uighur, Uygur, and Uigur; for the purposes of this article, the spellingwill be U-Y-G-H-U-R, because this is what the authorlearnedwas the closesttransliteralspelling from studying the language and from consulting with thosefamiliar with bothlanguages) people and theirculture. In the articles that follow, muchmorewill be explored in depth, muchmoreinsightwill be given, and manyexamples, eitherwitnessedfirsthand or related from reliable sources and told secondhand, will be conveyed.The People’sRepublic of China is a country of nearlyone and a half billion people, and around 93% of the population is made up of Han Chinese. The remainingsevenpercent is divided up amongst 55 ethnicminorities; this includes the Uyghurs, who themselvesonly make up roughlyone-tenth of onepercent of the total population of the People’sRepublic of China.The Han are descendants of the Han Dynasty, whichlasted from about 206 BC-AD 220. It is because of the considerableinfluence that the dynastyexerted over what is considered “Chinese” culture that the Chinesepeople are known as Han Chinese. In fact, in denoting a person who is Chinese, the Chinesecharacters for this mean, literally, “a man of Han.”Traditionally, the Uyghurshavebeensemi-nomadic, living for countless generations under theirownauspices, as it were. Theytracetheirorigins to Altay, a fairlymountainous region that today encompasses parts of central-southernRussia, western Mongolia, extreme northeast Kazakstan, and the north of Xinjiang; it is from this region that the Altaiclanguages are believed to havearisen—suchlanguagesinclude Korean, Finnish, Hungarian, and, of course, Uyghur.The Uyghurs are not related to the Chinese in anyway: not in language, culture, religion, looks, personality, food, business acumen, hospitality, or train of thought—in fact, Uyghurs are morecloselyrelated to Europeans, Caucasians, Koreans, and Mongoliansthanthey are to the Han. Many a Uyghurhaveblue or green eyes, red or light brownhair, and bodytypes that are less stereotypicalAsian and more like that of Europeans or MiddleEasterners—prominent noses, shapelybody features, a proclivity for bodyhair, and more. Too, there are severaldistinguishingbody marks that Uyghursshare with Koreans, the mostparticular of which is a purplish mark resembling a bruisenear the base of the spine.The Uyghurshave a history that is approximatelyfourmillenniaold. Theyhavelived in the Uyghurstan area for abouthalf of thosefourmillennia. Being at the crossroads of the old Silk Road that served as the connectionbetween the East and West, the Uyghursdevelopedthemselvesinto a highlycivilizedculture. ThoughUyghurculture is largelyunknown to so manypeople in today’s world, Uyghurtreasures and artifacts, whichhighlighttheir high level of civilization and sophistication, fill up vast parts of museums in all parts of the world, includingsome of the world’smostrenowned museums in London, Paris, Tokyo, New Delhi, and St. Petersburg, amongothers.Suchaspects of the Uyghurs’ highlycivilized world include the following:· the written script of the Uyghurlanguagewas so revered by Genghis Khan that headopted it into Mongol culture (untilthen, the Mongols had no written script for theirlanguage);· the Uyghursknowledge of medicine was extensive, too, and manyscholarsnowbelieve that acupuncturewas not, in fact, a Chinese invention, but, instead, an invention of Central Asia that wasperfected by the Uyghurs;· the Uyghurs are believed to havebeenprintingbooks, poetry, legal contracts, and othersuchdocumentslongbeforeGuttenburginvented his press;· thoughliving in a generallydryclimatewheremuchraindoesn’t fall, the Uyghursinvented an irrigation system—called “kariz”—that takesadvantage of meltingsnowfall and canferry water underground for many kilometers to fields and farms that need water. Farmers and agriculturists from places all over the world with similartopography and climatehave come to Uyghuristan to learn this method of irrigation and it is still used in manyplaces in Uyghuristan today.Because of itslocation, Uyghurstan has been the subject of invasion and/or occupation by China and/or Russia for

2. centuries, thoughuntil the last century and a quarter, none of the occupationshadlasted for very long. The first invasion was in 104 B.C. and lasted less thantwodecades. For the next 850 years or so, China invaded the Uyghurstan region severalmoretimes, butonlymanaged to sustaincontrol for less than a total of 160 years. This last ruleended in 751 A.D. and Uyghurstanenjoyed over a thousandyears of progress and self-autonomy, save for a voluntary span of twocenturieswhen it was part of the Mongol empire; evenduringthesetwo hundred years, Uyghurstanretaineditssovereignty.It was not until 1876 that the Manchu empire invaded and forcibly, brutally, annexedUyghurstan, killing around a million Uyghurs in the process. WhenUyghurstanwasofficiallyintroducedinto the empire, itsnamewaschanged to Xinjiang, whichmeans “new territory’ in Chinese. Uyghurstanwas under nearlyconstant Manchu ruleuntil 1949; however, during this period of nearly 75 years, Uyghurstaninhabitantsstagedconstant revolts and evensuccessfullymanaged to regaintheirindependencetwice: once in 1933, for threeyears, when the Eastern Turkistan IslamicRepublicwasformed, and thenagain in 1944, for fiveyears, when the second Eastern Turkistan Republicwasformed.When the People'sRepublic of China wasformallyfounded in 1949 by Mao, Uyghurstan—now, of course, known in China as Xinjiang—waspromisedself-autonomywhile still being part of the Republic—henceXinjiang’s present formal name of Xinjiang UyghurAutonomous Region. Of course, such a promisewasneverhonored, for reasons that wouldsoonbecome as clear as a star-encrustedUyghurstan night sky: the mid-1950s discovery of oil under Karamay, a city in the northern part of the province.Anynotions that the Chineseauthoritymayhaveentertained at that time of allowingUyghurstan to be freewerescattered like desert sand in a Xinjiang windstorm.Uyghurstan is quite an inhospitableplace to live for the most part, much different from the majority of the vastlyagrarianremainder of China. Han Chinesehistoricallyhadn’tlived in Uyghurstanbecause the topography and climateweretoohostile. Uyghurswere and are accustomed to living in this climactically and topographicallyhostile region, butit’s not a place to which a farmer from Sichuan, a businessman from chic Shanghai, a vendor from steamy Guangzhou, a pencil-pusher from Beijing, or a fisherman from Qingdao wanted to migrate.Uyghurstanseesmore extreme winter and summer temperaturesthananyotherplace in China, as high as 45* Celsius in summer and as low as –30* Celsius in winter are common; the south of Xinjiang is home to the Taklamakandesert, the world’s second largest (and maybemoredifficult to traversethan is the Sahara because of itsconstantshifting sands; countlessstoriesaboundaboutcities and townshavingdisappeared in Taklamakan’ssadisticembraces over the centuries); it is home to the western fringes of the Gobidesert, known as the Junggar Basin, in the north; and threevastmountainrangesborderUyghurstan to the north (the Altay), west (the Tian Shan and the Karakoram), and south (the Himalayas).At the time of oildiscovery, the population of Uyghurstanwas 90 percentUyghur. Yet, with the discovery of oil, the Chinesegovernmentstartedforcefullymass-populatingUyghurstan with Han Chinese. The majority of Han live today in Urumqi, the provincialcapital, butthere are Han majoritiesinhabitingmost of the area north of Urumqi. South of Urumqi, however, still seesUyghurs as its resident majority, even in the once-thriving major Silk Road stop of Kashgar, thoughhere the Han population is catching up with that of the Uyghurs. Indeed, though the Han might still be in the minority in Kashgar, it is with Chineseflavor that onenowsees the surface of this oncelovelytown: the largest Mao statue in all of China, broad streets in the flavor of manylargeeastern China cities, Chinesenames for thesestreets, and largebuildingserectedwherethereused to be Uyghur markets.As onemightsurmise, the Uyghurreaction to the Chineseinsipience has not been an amiableone. The Chineseregard the Uyghurs in the same mannertheyregardmost of the rest of the world: inferiorculturally, substandard intellectually, and impureethnically. Uyghurs, on the other hand, regard the Chinese in the same wayanyotherculturewouldview an occupyingpeople: with suspicion, barelyconcealed intolerant rage, and mistrust.Uyghurs in manytowns and small cities all over Xinjiang have over the pastfivedecades, expressed in a variety of waystheirdispleasure to whattheysee as the Chinese infiltration of their land, culture, and life. Most of thesewayshavebeen and are peaceful and withoutviolence, such as protests, demonstrations, and localgatherings. Therehavebeen at leastthreeincidences of violence, however, in the form of bus bombings, in the past ten years—in fact, these bus bombings are really the only forms of violent protest in the last couple of decades. Unfortunately, these rare acts of violencehavebeenmade by the Chineseauthorities to seem as ifthey are a commonoccurrence and haveonlyserved to tighten the alreadyvise-like grip the theyhave on the region; moreover, thesehavealsoresulted in the Chinesemedia’s international portrayal of all Uyghur shows of discontent or separatism as “terrorist” insurrections, when for the most part, these shows of displeasure with the Chinese status quo havebeennothingmorethanmerecalls for basictreatment as human beings, or againstdiscrimination, or for the same rights to education and raising a family as the Han Chinese are afforded. In many of the towns and cities that wereoncemajorityUyghur, but are nowminorityChinese, traditionalbuildings, houses, places of worship, and restaurants havebeenrazed to make way for varicose shopping plazas, fast-food joints, cardealerships, high-rise apartment buildings, and karaoke clubs. Monuments to pastlocalheroeshavebeenextirpated and enormousstatuesreflectingadmiration for Mao and otherChineseCommunistheroes of the pasthalf-centuryhavebeenerected in theirplaces. An overwhelmingmajority of the best jobs in fieldssuch as

3. banking, oil, engineering, teaching, tourism, and business were taken not by whatoncewere the moreeducatedUyghurs, but by the government-favored, newly-migrated Han.In the pastdecade or two, the situation has worsened for the Uyghurs, as well, for their rights to thingssuch as educationhavebeendiminished or taken awaycompletely. The chances for equaleducationbetweenUyghurs and Chinese are becoming less and less. Therewas a time whenUyghurswereallowed to learntheirownlanguage in school; in fact, all of theirlessonsweretaught in Uyghur, as well, and theywereallowed to learnUyghur history. Thesedays, ifUyghurparentswanttheirchildren to learnUyghur, theyhave to teachthem at home; iftheywanttheirchildren to have a chance to a decentfuture, theysendthem to integratedschools, schools for bothChinese and Uyghurchildren—theyfeel that therechildrenwillhavelittlechance for futuresuccesswithout this. A culture that as highlywas as advanced as the Uyghurswere just a century and a halfago is losing not onlyitsidentity, butalsoits high level of education.Additionally, the job market is not muchbetter. The Han Chinese are the recipients of morejob promotions, there is rampant discrimination, and jobless rates for the Uyghurs in Uyghuristanrun at leastdoublewhat it is for the Han, and in someplacesit’sfour or fivetimes the rate of the Han. The Chinesegovernment is pouring the equivalent of hundreds of millions of American dollars intoUyghurstan to improveitsinfrastructure and takeadvantage of hermanyresources, yet the Uyghurs, as a whole, seeabout as much of it as doKenya’s Bantus.And why is there so muchChinese and international investment in Uyghurstan? It’svery simple: oil, oil, and moreoil. Unfortunately, as much as the Chineseauthorities try to sayotherwise, the wealth distribution is decidedlyone-sided.Thus, to say that the last five and a halfdecadeshavemerelybeencontentiousbetween the Uyghurs and Chinese is to say that Israel is a passive observer in all American Middle East politicalmisadventures. Not much of the world knowsabout the Uyghurstan situation because of the Chinesegovernment'sabilitieseither to keepsuchthingshidden from the world or because of their expert spinning of propaganda. This situation is akin, thoughyetneither as continuouslyviolent nor as widelyknown, to the situation in Palestine and Israel.The intent of this series is to illuminate the reader as to the iniquities of what is happening to the Uyghurs in Uyghurstan. The objectivealso is to try and portray as even-handed a view of the situation as is possiblebecause, for the most part, any news the world receivesregarding the issueheretofore has been and is decidedlybiased in favor of the Chinese or is under- or benignlyreported by international media because of the pressure applied by the Chinesegovernment. Because it, too, hidesbehind the cover of September 11, 2001, the Chinesegovernment has been given carte blancheapproval by a complicit United States to wageitsown “war on terrorism”, as bogus a war as is the American one.Once the world has a moreeven-handedviewpoint of the abominationstranspiringinsideUyghurstan, then it will be a boost to the Uyghurs and theirgoal of achievingwhat it is that many, if not a majority of, readers of this articlealreadyhave: freedom