Albania: Getting Out of Gitmo

Watch video:
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/watch/player.html?pkg=albania801&seg=1&mod=0

Life in the Heart of China

By Brent E. Huffman

INTRODUCTION: Why China, And Why Me!

Growing up in rural Ohio surrounded by cornfields in the heart of Amish country, I never imagined going to China. But these days I always seem to find myself in unexpected places.

In 2004, I fell in love with Xiaoli Zhou, a talented television producer from Shanghai. We met at the journalism school in Berkeley, California, where we were both studying for our master’s in documentary filmmaking.

Xiaoli was my first real introduction to the mysteries of this tightly controlled country.

In late 2005, we met Wong How Man, a native of Hong Kong and president of the China Exploration and Research Society (CERS). He was looking for a filmmaking team crazy enough to spend six months or more traveling through China’s remotest corners to shoot and produce five documentaries for the Discovery Channel. The themes of these films would vary from endangered exotic animals to vanishing minority cultures. During those six months, we would be traveling the entire western perimeter of the country and back again. The scope of the project was daunting, but I knew it was a challenge I couldn’t pass up.

How Man would supply us with a vehicle, a driver and essential survival gear, including professional expedition tents and clothing to stay alive in high altitudes and freezing temperatures. He was also connected enough to get us into areas normally off limits to Westerners and Chinese alike.

We broke the lease on our comfortable apartment in Oakland, California, and sold most of our belongings. Our cars went back to the dealership and we put the remaining tidbits of our lives into storage. I packed film equipment and a supply of Thomas Mann novels and took a 15-hour flight to Shanghai.

It’s perhaps naïve, but I try to live my life in the vein of a favorite quote of mine by poet John Berryman: “We must walk in the direction of our fear.”

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May 21, 2006
Region: Border of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region

We are finally closing in on Xinjiang. We could have gotten here by air, but we are driving because of the huge amount of film equipment we are carrying.

Perhaps the notion of traveling along the Silk Road, made famous by 13th-century explorer Marco Polo, also swayed our decision. In reality, much has changed since then. Today, the 7000-mile-long trade route -- through China at least -- is a series of expensive highways.

Xinjiang is the Islamic region of China, and we’d read reports that many of China’s minority cultures had been suppressed into a meager and quiet existence.

Like the Tibetans, China’s Muslims fought hard for independence and attained it with the founding, in 1933, of East Turkistan in western China. But East Turkistan was squashed by Chairman Mao’s Red Army in the 1950s when the Communists took control of China .

“Be afraid -- these people steal and can be violent,” Han Chinese warn me about the Muslims. I hear this so often that I start to worry.

The Hui are one of China’s largest minority groups, totaling more than 10 million people. You can distinguish them by their small white caps, and the old men usually grow long white beards.

We pass through many small Hui farming villages heading west. Xiaoli would translate Chinese propaganda messages painted on the mud walls of many of their houses. One hand-painted sign reads, “Join together to fight against AIDS.” Another reads, “The government wants citizens to fight to prevent the spread of AIDS.”

We wonder if these messages will help in China’s fight against the AIDS epidemic or just confuse poor minority people who may not even know what AIDS is.

See whole article:

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/chinadiaries/index.html

China - Silenced

• Who Are the Uighurs? A Contested History
• Westward Ho: China's Next Frontier
• Separatists or Terrorists?
• U.S.-China Partnership in the "War on Terror"
• The Guantánamo Controversy
• Strike Hard: The Uighur Crackdown
• A Dissident View
• Other Sources for Uighur News
• Reporting in China


Source:
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/china401/links.html

Long Cleared of Terrorism Charges, Uyghurs Languish in Gitmo Prison and Albanian Exile

Uyghur prisoners at Guantanamo have long been determined to be not guilty of terrorism. But seventeen of these ethnic Muslim Chinese are still imprisoned at Guantanamo after almost eight years. Five were forcibly resettled in Albania, isolated and away from their families. We speak with their lawyer, Sabin Willett, and PBS FRONTLINE reporter Alexandra Poolos, who has followed their story for a new report.

Watch Video:
http://i1.democracynow.org/2009/1/30/long_cleared_of_terrorism_charges_uighurs

Uyghur Radio Worker Sacked, Detained

An official radio station in Xinjiang sacks an outspoken employee, who is now detained.

HONG KONG—Authorities at a Chinese government-run radio station in the remote Xinjiang region have fired and detained an ethnic Uyghur woman working there, apparently for criticizing government policy, Uyghur sources have said.
Mehbube Ablesh, 29, was removed from her post at Xinjiang People's Radio Station several weeks ago, according to two colleagues at the government-run station in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Ablesh, who studied journalism, was employed in the station’s advertising department, although her exact duties there weren’t immediately clear.
“She was fired a month ago. Now we hear she is in prison and we don’t have any information about Mehbube’s prison situation,” one colleague said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We tried to lead her in the right direction but she didn’t listen to us.”
"Our department is a journalism department—people should be very careful because it is a very sensitive place."
Uyghur employee
“Management already held a meeting and told all 60 employees that Mehbube committed mistakes. She wrote articles for Web sites. I don’t know which Web sites, and I don’t know what she wrote about or what she discussed, [but] she wrote articles for Web sites and so she has been arrested by the police,” the colleague said.
Another colleague confirmed her removal from the station “about one month ago."
A third source, based in Europe, said he had been in contact with Ablesh and that in her messages she had sharply criticized top provincial leaders and the government's policy of requiring Mandarin-language teaching. She may have been detained because of this, he said.
“Our department is a journalism department—people should be very careful because it is a very sensitive place,” the first source said.
"She prayed. But she didn’t wear a headscarf. What she did was wrong. The government provided her everything—a good job, everything. It is the same everywhere, in America too. If the government provides you a good job, everything, and you speak out against the government, you will be punished. Isn’t it so?”
Multi-lingual radioA radio station employee, contacted by telephone, declined to discuss the matter.
"It is too sensitive to talk about issues like this. You can verify the issue through other channels. It may be a normal thing to talk about it somewhere else, but this is Xinjiang. It’s too sensitive," the employee said.
Radio employees declined to comment further and referred questions to the police and Public Security Bureau. Officials at both offices declined to comment.
Xinjiang People's Radio currently broadcasts a total of 111 hours daily in Uyghur, Mandarin, Kazak, Mongolian, and Kyrgyz, according to its official Web site.
Following a string of violent attacks in remote, northwestern Xinjiang, Chinese authorities are stepping up restrictions on Muslim Uyghurs during the fasting month of Ramadan. Police say women are being forced to uncover their faces in public, while restrictions on teaching Islam to Uyghur children are being intensified.
Restaurants run by Muslims are forbidden to close in daytime during the fasting month, as is the custom in other Islamic regions of the world, according to official statements on government Web sites in Xinjiang.
Exiled Uyghur groups said Uyghur government cadres throughout Xinjiang had been forced to sign “letters of responsibility” promising to avoid fasting, evening prayers, or other religious activities.
Xinjiang is a vast region bordering Central Asia rich in natural resources with several key strategic borders with China’s neighbors.
China is home to up to 11 million Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking minority group that formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
In its 2008 report on human rights worldwide, New York-based Human Rights Watch cited "drastic controls over religious, cultural, and political expression" by Muslims in Xinjiang.
"There is widespread evidence that the government uses isolated incidents to conflate any expression of public discontent with terrorism or separatism," it said.

Ramadan Curbs on China’s Muslims

After the worst violence there in a decade, officials in China's northwesternmost region tighten curbs on the observance of Ramadan.

HONG KONG—China is stepping up restrictions on its Muslim Uyghur population during the fasting month of Ramadan, following a string of violent attacks in its northwestern region of Xinjiang.
Women are being forced to uncover their faces in public by police, while restrictions on teaching Islam to Uyghur children are being intensified, police said.
“We are...checking the identities of those who have beards or mustaches, and women who cover their faces,” an officer who answered the phone at the Charbagh village police station, in Lop county, Hotan prefecture.
“We uncover the faces of veiled women by force if necessary,” he said. “We also arrest anyone teaching religion to children illegally,” he said, adding that police were also helping to enforce a ban on Muslim restaurant closures in Ramadan.
Restaurants run by Muslims are forbidden to close in daytime during the fasting month, as is the custom in other Islamic regions of the world, according to official statements on government Web sites in Xinjiang.
"This is government policy. It covers only Uyghur restaurants."
Lop county offical
Official decree
In Atush city, in the far west of the remote Tarim Basin, “It was decided after general discussion to produce a document titled ‘Promise to remain open for Atush city’s Muslim restaurants during the Ramadan period’,” according to a statement issued by the municipal commerce and industry bureau.
Officials have been dispatched to count all the restaurants run by Muslims and to “educate” their owners so that they sign the agreement of their own accord, it said. Officials in other parts of the region cited similar measures.
“The new instructions target only Uyghur restaurants,” an official from the Lop county taxation bureau in Hotan prefecture in the far south of Xinjiang said. “We don’t issue such orders for [Han] Chinese restaurants.”
“This is government policy. It covers only Uyghur restaurants. It is only for one month—I mean September. The order came from the prefectural level of government in Hotan,” he said. “In September, all the restaurants must be kept open.”
'We will be punished'
During Ramadan, Muslims who are able should take no food, water, or cigarettes during daylight hours. Restaurants in Muslim countries close during the day, re-opening to break the fast after sunset.
A Uyghur restaurant owner in Hotan’s Keriye county confirmed the policy: “We must keep our restaurant open during Ramadan,” he said. “If we don’t follow government’s orders, we will be punished.”
“The order says that if we close our restaurant during Ramadan, the government will close the restaurant for between six and 12 months as a punishment, and that also we will have to pay a fine,” he added.
Exiled Uyghur groups said Uyghur government cadres throughout Xinjiang had been forced to sign “letters of responsibility” promising to avoid fasting, evening prayers, or other religious activities.
“Leading cadres of townships will be severely punished or investigated in accordance with law if the ban on fasting is violated,” the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress said in a statement signed by spokesman Dilxat Raxit.
Special groups have been set up in schools to educate Uyghur teachers and students not to fast, and to monitor their activities on pain of expulsion from school, Raxit said.
Similar restrictions are in force in Toqsu [in Chinese, Xinhe) and Shaya counties, near Kucha, where up to 10 alleged Muslim attackers were reportedly killed after assaulting a local police station Aug. 10.
Xinjiang is a vast region bordering Central Asia rich in natural resources with several key strategic borders with China’s neighbors.
China is home to up to 11 million Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking minority group that formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.

胡锦涛借奥运推出新思路 (刘晓竹)

胡锦涛上台以后，最重视两件事，一是十七大，取得权力，二是奥运，运用权力。就像民间儿歌中唱的，小小子，坐门垛，哭着喊着要媳妇，要媳妇做啥？胡锦涛为 什么要这个权力呢？显而易见，胡锦涛想实现自己的治国路线。今天，借着奥运，胡锦涛治国新思路大白于天下，也是一个中心，两个基本点。一个中心就是以作秀 为中心，务求漂亮，两个基本点就是假大空与公安，两手都硬。

奥运之后，中国向何处去？很简单，沿着办奥运的方向，依照办奥运的模式，继续 作秀，长期经营。托洛斯基有一个不断革命论，胡锦涛创造性地发展了马列主义，叫做不断作秀论。借着奥运，胡锦涛把假大空与公安有机结合起来了，用北京人的 话说就是，齐活了。不但访民不见了，其他问题不都压下去了吗？新思路的重点在于，既然稳定不能压倒一切了，就用作秀压倒一切。假大空配合公安，两手都硬， 如此一来，和谐社会不就实现了吗？

然而，这是一个什么样的和谐社会呢？中国人常说，驴粪蛋，表面光。奥运开幕式上，据说烟火脚印做了假， 小孩唱歌也做了假，大家觉得不可思议。因为，这些做假完全没有必要，完全不值得。但是，不值得为什么还要做假呢？林彪曾经说，不说假话，办不成大事。今 天，一党专制到了垂死阶段，大事小事都要靠做假，做假成为一种生活方式，不假怎么活？所以，奥运做假只是一个开始，奥运后将大行其道，叫做全面假大空。

当 然，假大空的背后是暴力，公安武警。奥运期间，胡锦涛动员的警力空前，此外还雇用各种闲杂人员充斥保安队伍，打着反恐的旗号，其实是对付老百姓的。在北京 四周，在车站路口，截访的几乎比访民还要多。民脂民膏大量投入保安，奥运如此，奥运后更要如此。凡是奥运时有效的，奥运后更要坚持。换句话说，奥运开启了 警察国家的新思路，以作秀为中心，以做假为基础，以公安为后盾，以保安为首要任务。如此一来，腐败透顶的驴粪蛋，漂漂亮亮的表面光，相互为用，相辅相成。

但 是，胡锦涛治国新思路能否奏效？关键要看老百姓。如果假大空这一套可以唬住老百姓，骗住老百姓，假如公安黑道可以吓住老百姓，镇住老百姓，那么，驴粪蛋表 面光就可以延续下去，大家继续做奴才。但是，如果老百姓不吃这一套，而像瓮安百姓一样，路见不平，街头起事，那么，这个新思路就是一党专制的回光返照，漂 亮也蛮漂亮的，就像奥运的烟火一样，来也匆匆，去也匆匆，随风而逝。