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。

自由西藏学生运动示威者挂条幅抗议被警方拘留

奥运第七天，又有外国人士进行同情西藏人的示威活动，外国记者继续追踪中国对人权问题的处理方式是否违背奥运精神。另外，北京奥组委证实，在奥运比赛区之一的秦皇岛发生了爆炸，造成两人死亡，但是强调与奥运无关。本台记者谷季柔北京的报道。

法新社

自由西藏学生运动组织示威者15日在将一面写有中英文"西藏自由"条幅挂在中央电视台总部大厦广告牌旁边（法新社）

自由西藏学生运动组织十五日再次在北京奥运会期间举行未经当局允许的示威。他们将一面写有中英文"西藏自由"字样的条幅，挂在正在兴建的北京中央电 视台总部大厦广告牌旁边。参加示威的是五名外国人，包括三名美国人、一名英国人和一名加拿大人。他们挂出的条幅很快就被警方拿下。参与示威者被警方拘留。

自北京奥运会上周末开幕以来，"自由西藏学生运动"已在北京组织了几次示威活动，每次参与示威的人数不到5人，时间不过几分钟。但是，北京奥组委还是对他们的行动感到极大的不快。一向用英文回答问题的奥组委发言人王伟用中文回答说，

我 觉得“藏独”这个问题在中国是不受欢迎的，恐怕有些国外的朋友不太了解西藏的问题，但是所有的中国人民都知道西藏是中国不可分割的一部分，少数人想把西藏 分裂出去，那是徒劳的。我看现在“藏独”的游行大部分都是外国人，我觉得他们都是不了解情况的，我觉得没有必要这么做，媒体也不应该鼓励这么做。奥运会是 一个很好的氛围，大家都来交朋友，只有互相了解了，这个世界才能更加和平，解决问题才更有希望，而不是挑动。

举办奥运会给了中国展现骄傲 的机会，但也无可避免地引来国际监督的眼光。虽然北京奥组委致力于将目光集中于体育，甚至批评记者戴了有色眼镜，但外国记者仍然致力于了解中国的人权和自 由状况。在十五日的国际奥委会和北京奥组委联合新闻发布会上，记者继续追问，奥组委保证要在今天回答关于三个示威区究竟有多少人申请的问题，王伟说，他并 没有保证会在今天提供答案。只是说已经向公安询问，得到答案会向记者报告。

金融时报记者询问，有八千名法轮功练习者在奥运会之前被抓，是否属实？他还问，中国违反奥运宪章，不允许法轮功学员参与任何奥运活动，是否属实？奥组委发言人王伟的回答态度强硬。

法轮功在中国是非法的，我不知道您说的法轮功八千人的情况。北京奥运会欢迎来自全世界所有的运动员来享受奥运会的欢乐，北京乃至中国人民跟运动员都是好朋友，但是我也相信，所有的运动员来到中国都要遵守中国的法律，就像他们到任何一个举办国家一样。

北京奥组委强调依照中国法律处理法轮功和西藏人权人士。但是，这位金融时报的记者提到，禁止法轮功学员参与奥运活动是违反奥运宪章的。

图片：获得女子体操全能金牌的美国柳金(右一)和队友(RFA/谷季柔）

那么究竟奥运宪章是如何规定的呢？根据北京奥运会官方网站，《奥林匹克宪章》是国际奥委会制定的关于奥林匹克运动的最高法律文件。宪章对奥林匹克运动的组 织、宗旨、原则、成员资格、机构及其各自的职权范围和奥林匹克各种活动的基本程序等作了明确规定。这个法律文件是约束所有奥林匹克活动参与者行为的最基本 标准和各方进行合作的基础。值得注意的是，在官方网站的中文版上只介绍了宪章的历史，却没有宪章条文的详细内容，只有网站的英文版上明列了宪章的内容。

奥运会官网英文版发布的宪章第五条条文指出，对于任何一个国家或个人，在种族，宗教，政治，性别，或其他原因的任何一种形式的歧视，都是与参与奥林匹克运动不相合的。

在连续几天气氛紧张的新闻发布会之后，奥组委新闻宣传部副部长孙伟德以奥运会进行顺利为理由，宣布取消原定十六日举行的新闻发布会。

另外，中国男足和女足的比赛赛区秦皇岛发生爆炸事件，造成两人死亡，但奥组委认为是正常事故，而且与奥运无关。

他说，秦皇岛爆炸是在13号发生的，是节能空调的换热口的试验。事故大概有两人死亡，一人受伤，这是安全生产方面一种正常的事故，跟奥运会没有任何关系。

在赛事方面，十五日上午在国家体育馆举行的女子体操个人全能项目决赛是本次奥运最受关注的比赛之一。结果美国选手娜斯佳•柳金和肖恩•约翰逊分别摘得金银牌，中国队选手杨伊琳为中国添了一面铜牌。

Crackdown on Xinjiang Mosques, Religion

A Communist Party document sets out new curbs on Muslim Uyghurs after a spate of attacks.

HONG KONG—After a series of violent attacks in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, Chinese authorities have called for tighter controls over mosques and religious activities around the Silk Road city of Kashgar.

A directive issued Aug. 5 by Party authorities in Yengisher [in Chinese, Shule] county and obtained by Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur service sets out to test the loyalty of Muslim Uyghur officials in charge of religious activities.

“If, in the...management of religious affairs, ethnic minority officials merely stick to the form of the regulations, going through the motions, but do not educate, direct, and investigate the activities going on in public places of worship...the officials responsible for maintaining contact with the mosque concerned will be subjected to punishment in a case which will be regarded as a conspiracy,” the directive said.

China already subjects Uyghurs to tight religious controls, banning young people and government employees from mosques, and requiring religious teachers to interpret the Quran in a manner approved by religious affairs officials.

‘Life or death’

Sept, 2003: Xinjiang Communist Party secretary Wang Lequan.

Xinjiang Communist Party secretary Wang Lequan said following the attacks that the struggle against the “three forces”—terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism—was a matter of “life or death” in the region.

The Kashgar directive warns that Uyghur officials who fail to police their fellow Muslims in the manner proper to a Communist Party official will be subject to official sanctions, including warnings, stripping of Party posts, and expulsion from the Party.

Uyghur officials are warned against taking part in religious activities, falling into religious “temptation,” and taking sides with their local mosque in an argument.

“This will be considered a failure to carry out their duties and as a conspiracy, to be punished with a warning to the officials responsible, or a serious warning, depending on the case,” the document said.

“Such officials will also be stripped of any Party posts they hold, and either allowed to remain members only under observation, or expelled from the Party altogether.”

China says extremists in Xinjiang are bent on using violent means to re-establish a separate state of East Turkestan, the name of a short-lived Uyghur state in the 1930s and 40s. They say Uyghur extremists have plotted terrorist strikes during the Beijing Olympics.

Exiled Uyghurs and overseas rights groups counter that Beijing’s “war on terror” is a pretext for tighter controls on the region, which is strategically important and rich in oil.

More curbs

People here feel oppressed."

Han Chinese resident

The Party document also warns against underground publications or unauthorized religious scriptures, including any interpretation of the Quran that deviates from Beijing-approved guidelines.

Officials are warned against permitting religious groups to “use the platform of sermons and interpretations to propagate views which harm ethnic unity, or talk of religious extremism or ‘Jihad,’ or of pan-Islamism or pan-Turkism, or the dissemination of slander, or the defamation of government officials resulting in negative consequences."

They are also reminded to maintain tight controls over building work on mosques.

It cautions “any officials overseeing a mosque which carries out unauthorized construction work or that builds in an overly conspicuous or grand manner.”

Officials, it says, “who turn a blind eye to what goes on, and who do nothing to stop it, and who neglect to report it, will have lost political edge proper to a Party official, and could cause negative consequences and damage to society.”

China has issued repeated calls for ethnic unity amid the recent attacks, which it said were the work of Uyghur separatists seeking to use the Olympic Games in Beijing as a platform to amplify their political message.

'People feel oppressed'

A spokesman for the Kashgar municipal government said the deadly knife attack Aug. 12 in Yengisher [Shule] county differed from attacks the previous week in Kucha city, in which suicide bombers killed one police officer and injured a bystander.

“The police are still investigating this incident,” the propaganda bureau official said, amid rumors that the Yengisher attack was the work of individuals with a grievance rather than political aims.

Residents said many of the minor roads in the county were still sealed off. “You can’t get through this way, because there are checkpoints on the road. You have to go the other way round,” one resident said.

A local Han Chinese resident said he didn’t fear for his personal safety because the attacks had taken aim at official targets.

“This is an ethnic minority region,” he said. “People here feel oppressed. If you look around you will see that all the people in charge here are Han Chinese. There isn’t a single Uyghur. That doesn’t get talked about much."

Another Han Chinese employee in the tourist industry agreed. “We can’t talk about this stuff,” he said. “It’s secret. We just get on and do our jobs. But everyone here feels bad.”

Tibetan curbs

The Communist Party issued similar directives in the wake of unrest among Tibetans earlier this year, which began with peaceful protests in the Tibetan capital, erupting into riots targeting Han Chinese businesses.

Many ethnic Tibetan cadres in areas of western China where tensions between Tibetan nomads and local government are high have been replaced with ethnic Han Chinese officials, sources say.

China Detains Uyghurs Amid Attacks

Further attacks on security personnel are reported near Kashgar as police in the northwestern region of Xinjiang detain 15 suspects following explosions in the far west of the region last week.

BEIJING—Chinese police have detained 15 ethnic minority Uyghurs, including three women, in connection with a series of deadly bombings in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang last week. Meanwhile, assailants killed three security guards in the town of Yamanya near Kashgar in the third attack in little more than a week.

Assailants jumped off a vehicle passing a road checkpoint in Yamanya in the early hours of Tuesday, stabbing security guards with knives, official media reported.

“As a result, three security personnel were killed and another was injured; the assailants fled after mounting the attack,” the Chinese-language Ta Kung Pao newspaper said.

Two “militia men” and a cadre from the township administration office were killed, and a deputy secretary of a local village Communist Party branch was seriously injured, the paper said.

Officials contacted by RFA’s Uyghur service declined to comment on the attack, which was also reported in brief by the official Xinhua news agency.

The attack occurred just 30 kms (18 miles) from the site of an Aug. 4 attack on frontier guards near Kashgar.

City under curfew

In Kucha, scene of Sunday’s bombings in which 12 people died, residents said the authorities had placed the city under curfew, as officials searched nearby villages for suspects.

Twelve people were killed in the explosions, which occurred 480 kms (300 miles) west of the region’s capital, Urumqi, according to local officials and state-run media.

“One security guard was killed and another casualty was an innocent civilian,” Aksu prefectural commissioner Mutellip Qasim told a news conference.

Five of the attackers died following a confrontation with police in a Kucha marketplace. When discovered, two of the attackers detonated suicide bombs and three were shot dead by police.

Targets of the attack included the city’s main police station, various government buildings, and shops owned by Han Chinese. Many Uyghurs view Han Chinese as unwanted colonists encouraged by the Chinese government to settle in Xinjiang and dilute Uyghur cultural traditions.

Chinese officials have said extremists among the region’s mostly Muslim ethnic Uyghur population have plotted terrorist strikes during the Beijing Olympics.

'Martyred' fighters

According to the German-based East Turkestan Information Center (ETIC) “East Turkestan freedom and independence fighters attacked a Party building … a people’s government building, tax office, bazaar management, and brothel on Aug. 10.”

The group said in a news story published on its Web site that the attackers, seven men and four women, were “martyred.”

Uyghurs twice enjoyed short-lived independence after declaring the state of East Turkestan during the 1930s and 40s, and many oppose Beijing’s rule in the region.

According to ETIC, “strict martial law” has been imposed on the area around Kucha, with large numbers of troops and armed police brought in from military camps in Bugur.

Security forces from nearby army production corps, or bingtuan, had also been brought in, the group said.

While the attacks did target symbols of Han Chinese power in the city, they appear to have been timed to minimize civilian casualties.

No civilians targeted

One shop owner, whose business is located near Kucha’s main police station, said the incidents began at midnight and continued through 7 a.m. Sunday.

“At the time of the attack, there were still a lot of people in the market,” he said. “If they had targeted civilians, they could have killed a lot of people, but they targeted only police.”

Another Kucha resident said that since the start of the Olympic Games on Aug. 8, most businesses have been closed and only police appeared to be working regularly.

The resident, surnamed Li, said Kucha was now under curfew. “Police told us to stay inside and lock the door for our own safety. They said it was a terrorist attack,” Li said. “It’s not the end of it—there will be more attacks in Xinjiang.”

Another Kucha resident, who declined to be identified, said officials were conducting searches in nearby villages to track down additional suspects.

Xinhua said the explosives used were rudimentary pipe bombs and the attacks were loosely planned, with a taxi used to transport the attackers as they threw explosives from its windows.

世界维吾尔代表大会指被警方打死的五人非恐怖份子

香港消息：世界维吾尔代表大会否认日前被新疆警方打死的五名维族人是恐怖组织成员，称这些人当时只是在一起商讨民主自由的问题。

中 国新疆乌鲁木齐市警方星期三宣布在一次行动中击毙了5人、打伤两人并拘捕8人，并称这15人都是“圣战培训班”恐怖组织的成员。星期四，世界维吾尔代表大 会发言人迪里夏提表示，上述15名维族人星期二聚集在一处民宅正讨论民主自由的问题，公安包围了住宅并向屋内投掷催泪弹及开枪射击。屋内的人被激怒，有人 持刀冲出、捅伤一名公安。迪里夏提说，这些人并非当局指控的“圣战培训班”组织成员，而不过是对当局不满的维族人；他们在一起讨论问题，没有一人身带凶 器。他还说，即使是抵制奥运也不等同于破坏奥运。至于公安称在屋内缴获了一批刀具，迪里夏提说，佩带刀具是维族人的传统习俗，而且缴获的部分刀具是厨房用 具。他呼吁联合国人权委员会介入调查这一案件。

Uyghur Mosque Demolished

An exile group and local officials say authorities in China's restive northwest have demolished a mosque.

HONG KONG—Chinese authorities have demolished a Uyghur mosque in remote and restive Xinjiang amid mounting tension over security ahead of the Beijing Olympics, according to a Uyghur exile group and local officials.

“The mosque was illegal in the first place,” a Uyghur government official said by telephone. Asked for details, he replied, “It’s difficult to talk about it. It falls under classified information. I cannot give you any detailed information.”

A village elder who asked not to be named said village youths had been gathering for Friday prayers at the mosque in secret, angering local officials.

“They reject these prayers at government-registered mosques,” the elder said.

The mosque was built in 1999, without a permit, 80 kms from the Upper Kumtagh village in Kalpin [in Chinese, Keping] county, he said, adding, “The mosque was illegal.”

Local authorities recently learned of the secret gatherings, he said, after “two members of the local youth community were arrested when they went to inner China to learn kung fu, and they talked about the Friday prayers.”

According to exiled World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit, the mosque was targeted because it resisted pressure to publicize the Beijing Olympics.

The county government Web site said the mosque had been demolished because it was illegally built and has been conducting illegal religious activities. It also said those who violate religious laws and regulations will face punishment.

Resistance to curbs

“China is forcing mosques in East Turkestan to publicize the Beijing Olympics to get the Uyghur people to support the Games [but] this has been resisted by the Uyghurs,” Raxit said in a statement distributed by e-mail.

Raxit said the mosque, which had been renovated in 1998, was accused of illegally renovating the structure, carrying out illegal religious activities and illegally storing copies of the Muslim holy book the Koran.

Education campaign

The Web site also said local authorities have mobilized people from all walks of life to study Communist Party policy on ethnic minorities in a bid to curb the infiltration by separatists and terrorists.

This education campaign, the Uyghur official said, “has nothing to do with the Beijing Olympics. We are in a remote area and the demolition of the mosque has nothing to do with the Olympics.”

A primary school official in Kalpin county said Monday that the local education bureau had instructed every school to make and distribute Olympic-related pictures and artworks.

Olympic torch

The Olympic torch relay passed through Xinjiang last week under tight security.

Residents were told to remain indoors with few exceptions and gatherings were banned. Foreign media were under tight controls, and large-scale traffic restrictions were also in place during the torch rally there.

Beijing has said it fears Muslim separatists may be planning “terrorist activities” around the Olympics, vowing to tighten security in the region, where anti-Beijing sentiment is rife.

Six decades of tension

Both Tibetans and Uyghurs have chafed under Beijing’s rule for the last six decades, and Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of repression and abuse.

China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” The ETIM has denied that charge.

China Executes Two Uyghurs

2008-07-11

Authorities in Xinjiang execute two Uyghurs for alleged terror links. Fifteen others are sentenced.

WASHINGTON—Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have executed two ethnic minority Uyghurs and sentenced 15 others for alleged terrorist links, according to local sources.

The Kashgar Intermediate Court sentenced two men—identified as Mukhtar Setiwaldi and Abduweli Imin—to death and immediately executed them after a public trial July 9 in Yengi Sheher county, Kashgar, Uyghur sources and a local official said.

Three others Uyghurs were handed two-year suspended death sentences and the rest were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 years to life, the sources said.

One of the defendants shouted a slogan as he was being taken away—he raised his fist and shouted—but I couldn’t hear what he said."

-Witness

All 17 were charged as members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which Beijing accuses of terrorist ties. ETIM denies the allegation.

Authorities ordered county residents to attend the trial but police banned cameras, lighters, and recording devices, the sources told RFA’s Uyghur service.

“It was an open trial,”one official at the Yengi Sheher county court said. “The Kashgar Intermediate Court was responsible for the case. Our duty was to provide a place for this open trial. I am not authorized to speak about it. The Kashgar Intermediate Court officials can give you detailed information.”

Officials at Kashgar Intermediate Court, contacted by telephone, declined to comment.

‘Political criminals’

“I participated in the open trial,” one Uyghur woman said. “Seventeen people were sentenced. All of them were political criminals. At the open trial, the authorities announced that these people were terrorists who took part in Aktu incident and some of them donated money.”

The “Aktu incident” refers to a Chinese raid on what authorities described as a terrorist camp in the Pamir mountains, in Aktu county, in January 2007. Authorities claimed to have killed 18 ETIM members and arrested 17.

“There were a lot of people. About 10,000 people attended the open trial,” she said. “The parents and relatives of the defendants weren’t allowed to attend. Members of the village committees, students, teachers, and government employees were allowed to attend.”

“One of the defendants shouted a slogan as he was being taken away—he raised his fist and shouted—but I couldn’t hear what he said,” another woman who watched the trial said.

Earlier incident

The trial came a day after police used smoke to force open a flat where 15 Uyghurs were staying in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, before shooting dead five Uyghurs inside who the official media said were planning a “holy war,” witnesses and official media said.

“The injured were sent to hospital and the other nine people were captured,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted a police officer as saying. “The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a ‘holy war.’ Their aim was to kill Han people, the most populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their own state.”

Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule-which has at times erupted in violence. But exiled Uyghurs deny the existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a crackdown.

In March, Chinese authorities said they had broken up and arrested members of a group that were threatening to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.

China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that ETIM was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” ETIM has denied that charge.

Uyghurs Killed in Raid

2008-07-10

Chinese police stage a dramatic raid on a flat occupied by ethnic Uyghurs in the restive Xinjiang region.

HONG KONG—Chinese police used smoke to force open a flat in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang before shooting dead five ethnic Uyghurs inside who the official media said were planning a “holy war,” a witness to the incident has said.

“They threw a smoke bomb at the apartment. Then police got into the apartment and during this time one of the police was hurt by the one of the Uyghurs,” a neighbor and witness said.

“After this first injury, the police began to fire their guns. Five of the Uyghurs ended up dead. Women were also occupying the apartment at this time. All of these Uyghurs were young men and women,” the man, who asked to be identified only as Duan, said.

“They were only equipped with knives,” he said of the Uyghurs. “Now the situation is pretty peaceful in our neighborhood and normal. The police told us that they were terrorists.”

Now the situation is pretty peaceful in our neighborhood and normal. The police told us that they were terrorists."

-Neighbor

On Tuesday, July 8, police in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, raided an apartment where 15 Uyghurs—a distinct Muslim minority—were hiding, the official Xinhua news agency said. It said they had rushed out wielding knives and shouting “sacrifice for Allah.”

Police opened fire, killing five and injuring two, Xinhua said. The incident comes just weeks before the opening of the Beijing Olympics under extremely tight security.

“The injured were sent to hospital and the other nine people were captured,” it quoted a police officer as saying. “The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a ‘holy war.’ Their aim was to kill Han people, the most populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their own state,” it said.

‘Terrorist actions’

A Uyghur police officer, contacted by telephone, said only that the raid was “related to terrorist actions.” He said he didn’t know where the nine Uyghurs who were arrested or the two who were wounded were being held.

Another neighbor who asked to be identified as Li confirmed the five shooting deaths but downplayed its significance. “It was an ordinary robbery case. Let’s not exaggerate it,” he said, adding that he believed the use of deadly force was appropriate.

Another neighbor described the area as peaceful, with Uyghurs accounting for about 30 percent of the population of the building. “The environment is pretty good,” he said, adding that he had never witnessed tensions between Han Chinese and Uyghur residents.

A police officer also reported that Xinjiang police had recently stepped up their own security. “We have even been afraid to take a siesta,” he said. Asked if they were feared retaliation, he replied, “Yes.”

An officer on duty at the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau denied any knowledge of the incident.

“I cannot talk about these things,” the officer said. “I don’t know anything about it.” He then hung up the phone.

Long history

Dilxat Raxit, exiled spokesman of the World Uyghur Congress, sharply criticized the shootings.

“To shoot and kill has become a new method of cracking down on Uyghurs in China. We call on the United Nations to send international lawyers and give effective legal assistance to those Uyghurs in detention so that the truth can be known,” he said.

Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule-which has at times erupted in violence.

But exiled Uyghurs deny the existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a crackdown.

In March, Chinese authorities said they had broken up and arrested members of a group that were threatening to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.

China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” The ETIM has denied that charge.

China's Other 'Forgotten People'

16/05/2008
By Amir Taheri


Last week, the Olympics flame finally reached its destination: China, which is to host this year's version of the Summer Games. The flame's global journey provided numerous occasions for opponents of the Chinese regime to vent their anger and frustration. The focus of the protests was Tibet, an autonomous region in the Himalayas, long regarded as the last bastion of Buddhism.


What most people who watched the demonstrations on television did not realise was that Tibetans are not the only people in China whose rights Beijing does not respect, to put it mildly.
In fact, the Tibetans have than comparatively well under Communism. They are the only one of China's various ethnic communities, to be exempted from the despicable "one family-one child" rule. In the past three decades, the Tibetan population has risen four times faster than the average for the People's Republic. Tibetans have also been allowed to maintain most of their schools and many of their monasteries where an army of monks continues to do whatever monks are supposed to do. Until recent troubles around the Olympics flame, Tibet was open to foreign visitors and journalists, a privilege not extended to all parts of China.

Richard Gere, the Hollywood movie star who has converted to Buddhism, speaks of "The Forgotten People" of Tibet.


However, the real "Forgotten People" in China, as it prepares for the Olympics, are the Uighurs whose homeland, East Turkestan, was incorporated into the People's Republic in 1949. A land of high plateau deserts, East Turkestan covers an area as large as Iran's. (Some 1.6 million square kilometres.) For five decades, it has been the scene of the largest colonisation anywhere in the world, with some seven million Hans, the largest ethnic community in China, settling there.
This massive colonisation movement has altered the demographic profile of the region in two ways.


First, the Uighurs, a Turkic people who have no relation to the Chinese, no longer form the majority of the population in their homeland. In 1949, they accounted for 92 per cent of the population; today they are 46 per cent. This is not surprising. Uighurs numbered around 18 million in 1949 but now number just over eight million. Thus, the Uighurs' demographic loss in their homeland is even higher than comparative figures for the Chechens in Russia.


Secondly, for the first time since the 8th century AD, East Turkestan is no longer an exclusively Muslim land. The region's Muslims have been subjected to the "one child" rule while Hans have been brought in under the pretext that the native population cannot provide the number of workers needed. At the same time, many Muslims from Xinjiang , especially women in child-bearing age, have been transferred to other parts of China, ostensibly to cope with labour shortages there! Today, Muslims account for just 54 per cent of the total population. Xinjiang is the only spot in the world where Muslims have lost in demographic competition against other peoples.


The history of Chinese efforts to annex East Turkestan goes back to the middle ages. But the first attempts at colonisation came in the mid-18th century when the Manchus, then ruling most of China, conquered the region and managed to control it for over 100 years.


However, that century was marked by more than 40 major Uighur revolts, the last of which drove the Manchus out in 1863. A year later, the Manchus returned with a larger army. The war that ensured lasted several years and claimed the lives of over a million Uighurs, mostly victims of mass starvation, cholera and the region's exceptional cold. It took the Manchus 25 more years to consolidate their rule and incorporate East Turkestan, which they renamed Xinjiang ( Newly Conquered Territories) into their empire.


In 1911, Han nationalists, led by Sun Yatsen, overthrew the Manchu empire and declared a republic. The Uighurs declared their independence, only to be crushed by the armies of the new "democracy."


However, the people of East Turkestan never stopped fighting for their rights. They staged periodical armed revolts, and, in 1933, finally established an “East Turkestan Islamic Republic” , renamed “Eastern Turkestan Republic” in 1944. The independent state of the Uighurs was destroyed by Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in 1949, shortly after the Communists seized power in Beijing.


Anxious to avoid a repeat of the 19th century tragedy in which a million Uighurs died, many tribes fled to Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, and even Iran, often on foot. Nevertheless, small groups remained to fight, and prevented the Chinese from controlling the region until the mid-1960s.


Today, a mass of documents, including some prepared for the United Nations' Human Rights Commission, provide ample evidence in support of the charge that the people of East Turkestan are among the most oppressed conquered nations on earth.
One key document is that of Amnesty International, published in 1999. Another is " The Uighur Document" prepared by a group of Canadian members of parliament in 1998.


The Canadian report accuses Beijing of framing Uighurs for “terrorist incidents”, including bus explosions in Urumqi, the regional capital. The document also accuses Beijing of using internationally popular terms such as `Muslim fundamentalists', `Muslim terrorists' and `separatists' to label those Uighurs who could not tolerate the Chinese oppression, and show some resistance towards the inhuman [acts] and the human rights abuses of the Chinese.”
It asserted that Uighurs were not "responsible for any of the terrorist activities; on the contrary, they are currently living under the very serious terrorist control of the Chinese government.”


The least that one could say is that the Uighurs' quest for national rights merits as much attention as the Dalai Lama's demands for greater autonomy in Tibet. The fact that the Uighurs, and their Kazakh, Tajik, Kyrgyz, Tatar and Mongol brothers who also live in East Turkestan are Muslims does not mean that they should be categorised as "Islamic terrorist" and left defenceless against oppression.





Amir Taheri

was born in Iran and educated in Tehran, London and Paris. Between 1980 and 1984 he was Middle East editor for the London Sunday Times. Taheri has been a contributor to the International Herald Tribune since 1980. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Taheri has published nine books some of which have been translated into 20 languages, and In 1988 Publishers'' Weekly in New York chose his study of Islamist terrorism, "Holy Terror", as one of The Best Books of The Year. He has been a columnist Asharq Alawsat since 1987.

Original from: http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=12759

China Worries Over Xinjiang Energy

China’s growing reliance on the energy wealth of Xinjiang is a major concern for the government in connection with protests in neighboring Tibet, analysts say.

Photo:

A pool of oil gives a reflection of an oil refinery in Lunnan, 13 September 2003, on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in western China's Xinjiang province.

The far western region of Xinjiang has become a primary source of energy for China. In January, state media reported that Xinjiang had surpassed the northeastern province of Heilongjiang as China’s leading oil and gas producer.

The good news for the government is that its eight-year-old “Develop the West” policy has shown results in Xinjiang, at least in terms of energy growth. Last year, the region produced 26.4 million tons of crude oil and 21.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas, according to China’s official Xinhua news service.

But the bad news for the government is that China’s growing dependence on the remote region’s resources may make it more vulnerable to unrest.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia, June Dreyer—a University of Miami political science professor and an expert on the region—said that Beijing’s concern about Xinjiang resources is helping to drive its tough policy in Tibet.

Copycat demands

“One of the reasons the Chinese feel they cannot compromise and allow Tibet either independence or a considerable degree of autonomy is because it would trigger copycat demands from Xinjiang,” Dreyer said.

“And because of Xinjiang’s extreme wealth, as opposed to Tibet’s comparative poverty, they feel they can’t do it.”

Dreyer said that China’s double-digit economic growth rates also depend on continued energy supplies.

“So the Chinese government absolutely, positively needs adequate sources of energy to fuel the continued growth of this miracle. And if they don’t have them, they’re probably in big trouble potentially with the population,” Dreyer said.

Xinjiang’s oil production last year of 530,000 barrels per day was more than China imported from Saudi Arabia, its largest foreign supplier. But Beijing has more than doubled its strategic stakes in the region since 2002, when it launched construction of a giant 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) West-East gas pipeline from Xinjiang to Shanghai.

In 2005, China opened its first oil import pipeline from Kazakhstan to Xinjiang’s Alataw Pass, with extensions to refineries and petrochemical plants throughout Western China. The route will eventually serve as a gateway for some 3,000 kilometers of pipelines linking China to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.

China National Petroleum Corp. has also begun work on a 2,000-kilometer gas pipeline from Turkmenistan that will be routed through Xinjiang in 2010 as part of China’s second West-East project.

But Dreyer said the long pipelines and the projects needed to build them could easily become targets for dissidents, adding to China’s energy concerns.

“It’s going to be impossible to provide security for the entire length of that line,” Dreyer said. “There are just so many precautions that can be taken for something that’s so potentially vulnerable.”

A ‘strategic bridge’

S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, said that Xinjiang has now emerged as China’s strategic overland corridor not only for energy but also for transit and trade.

“This is the key to their land bridge to Europe, links with the roads that the TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) program of the EU [European Union] is trying to support, and that too is very important, not to mention the new railroad lines,” Starr said.
“So all in all, this becomes a strategic bridge for contemporary China.”

Starr said that China’s leaders regard Xinjiang’s resources as belonging to the state, with little thought that the region’s Uyghur population is entitled to an equitable share.

“[But] for all their claims of this having been pure Chinese territory for thousands of years, which is absurd, there is an awareness of the fragility of the situation, which is why it’s such an exceedingly sensitive issue in Beijing,” he said.

“It should not be ruled like every other province of China. It is an autonomous region, and it should have a good Uyghur component in government. Without that, I think there will be instability.”

-Original reporting by Michael Lelyveld

Protest in Muslim Province in China

By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: April 2, 2008

SHANGHAI — Chinese officials said Wednesday that they were grappling with ethnic unrest on a second front, in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslims protested Chinese rule late last month even as Tibetans rioted in the southwest.

One Uighur demonstration, which appears to have been quickly suppressed, took place in the town of Khotan on March 23, at the same time China was deploying thousands of security forces across a broad swath of its southwest to put down Tibetan unrest.

Officials said the protest was staged by Islamic separatist groups seeking to foment a broader uprising in Xinjiang. China often blames any ethnic disturbances on what it calls splittists and terrorists. Human rights groups say that Chinese Uighurs, like Tibetans, have fought for greater freedom to practice their religion as well as more autonomy from Beijing.

The news of the protest in Xinjiang underscored the breadth of China’s problems with ethnic and religious minority groups in the country’s vast western regions, where there is a long history of unhappiness with Chinese rule. Ethnic groups Beijing has sought to pacify with economic development programs and suppress with heavy police presence appear to be using the upcoming Olympic Games, to be held in Beijing, as an opportunity to press their grievances and attract international attention to their causes.

“A small number of elements tried to incite splittism, create disturbances in the market place and even trick the masses into an uprising,” a statement published on the Web site of the Khotan government said in the first official acknowledgment of the disturbances.

Uighur residents of Khotan reached by telephone either claimed not to understand Chinese or refused to talk about recent events there. But Han residents said that as many as 500 Uighurs protested in the center of the city. Some reports have said the Uighurs, who are Muslim, were objecting to restrictions on wearing Islamic scarves and head coverings. Some interviewees, however, said the protesters were seeking independence. The demonstrators were quickly arrested by security forces who took control of the area.

Zhu Linxiu, a senior police official in Khotan, declined to comment in detail about the incident, saying it was “inappropriate to publicize.” He refused to confirm the number of protesters or arrests, but said the demonstrators were “instigated by bad elements.”

Two weeks before the reported protest in Khotan, China announced the discovery of what it called a terrorist plot in Xinjiang, which it said involved the smuggling of combustible liquids onto a commercial airliner by a Uighur woman who had spent time in neighboring Pakistan.
Officials called the incident part of a terrorist campaign by a radical Islamic independence group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Uighur groups have denied the reports, and called them part of an effort to justify heavily stepped-up security in the region and the suppression of dissent before the Olympics.

In recent days, Beijing has also accused supporters of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of plotting a suicide bombing campaign against China, as part of a separatist campaign.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International criticized the government for its crackdown on protest in Tibetan areas of China, and said the country’s efforts to silence dissidents before the Olympics violated Beijing’s pledges to improve human rights before it hosts the games in August. “The Olympic Games have so far failed to act as a catalyst for reform,” the international human rights groups said in a statement. “Unless urgent steps are taken to redress the situation, a positive human rights legacy for the Beijing Olympics looks increasingly beyond reach.”

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, denounced the Amnesty statement as “biased,” saying “anyone planning to use the Olympics to threaten China, or planning to put pressure on China, has miscalculated.”

Like Tibetans in Tibet, Uighurs have historically been the predominant ethnic group in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. In both Tibet and Xinjiang, indigenous groups have chafed at the arrival of large numbers Han Chinese, the country’s predominant ethnic groups, who have migrated to western regions with strong government support.

Uighurs, like Tibetans, have complained that recent Han arrivals now dominate their local economies, even as the Han-run local governments insert themselves deeper into schools and religious practices to weed out cultural practices that officials fear might reinforce a separate ethnic or religious identity. In telephone interviews, Han residents of Khotan and nearby areas said there was a long history of distrust and tension between Han and Uighur communities. Some Han migrants insisted the atmosphere remained volatile, and said that the Uighurs had been inspired by the recent Tibetan unrest.

“Some of jobless people here have heard about the situation Tibet, and they also want to make trouble,” said Wang Guoliang, a Han grocery store owner in Khotan. “They want independence and they want to expel the Han, whom they dislike. Most of the main cadres in the Party, from counties and the cities to the provincial level are all Hans, while the local level officials are Uighur.” Mr. Wang called the purging of Uighur officials several years ago after a previous bout of tension “the root of the protest.”

Another Han, a clerk in a local bank who would only give his name as Chen, said there had been a long history of discontent in the region, and that people had been “on the lookout” since mid-March. At his bank, Mr. Chen said there had been grumblings over the restrictions on Muslim headgear, which he disagreed with, saying: “It is their national custom and we should respect it.”

Uyghurs Protest in China's Remote Xinjiang Region

ISTANBUL, April 1—Several hundred ethnic Uyghurs have staged protests in China’s remote and restive Xinjiang region following the death in custody of a prominent Uyghur businessman and philanthropist.
Witnesses report protests at two locations in Khotan prefecture—in Khotan city March 23-24 and Qaraqash county March 23, RFA’s Uyghur service reports. Several hundred protesters were taken into custody, numerous sources said, and security remains tight.
Numerous sources said the demonstrations followed the death in custody of a wealthy Uyghur jade trader and philanthropist, Mutallip Hajim, 38. Police returned his body to relatives March 3 after two months in custody, saying he had died in hospital of heart trouble. According to an authoritative source, police instructed the family to bury him immediately and inform no one of his death.
The unrest comes two weeks after ethnic Tibetans in neighboring provinces staged riots against Chinese rule, prompting a deadly crackdown and countless arrests. Both Tibetans and Uyghurs—two of China’s major religious and ethnic minorities—have chafed under Beijing’s rule for the last six decades, and Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of repression and abuse. But while exiled Uyghur leaders have voiced support for the Tibetan protesters, the Uyghur unrest appears unrelated.

Protesters’ demands

In both areas, the protesters were demanding that authorities scrap a bid to ban head scarves, stop using torture to suppress Uyghur demands for greater autonomy, and release all political prisoners, sources said.
In Khotan, the crowd of several hundred protesters comprised mainly women. Hotel employees said police produced lists of alleged protesters, mainly women, and told them to report to police if anyone using tried to register as a guest under any of those names, they said.
The protesters, who according to several accounts numbered around 600, began their march at the Lop bus station. An unknown number of men joined their 2-km (one- mile) march to the Big Bazaar shopping area, where they were surrounded by police who arrested around 400, the sources said. How long they were held was unclear.
The sources, who declined to be identified, reported six casualties, although no details were available. Police in Khotan city and its Chinbagh district, contacted by telephone, denied any protests had taken place.

Police say protest ‘peacefully dispersed’

In Qaraqash, a police officer on duty said protesters there “peacefully dispersed.”
“There were no injuries or deaths, and we persuaded the people gathered for the protest to leave,” the officer said. He told a reporter to phone back later for an accurate crowd count but hung up when the reporter rang back after 15 minutes.
Two additional sources in Khotan said they knew nothing of protests but had witnessed extraordinary security measures there, including an order for all local residents to remain in their homes.
One local worker told RFA’s Mandarin service that police were quick to quash what she described as riots in Khotan. “There was an immediate crackdown. Now everything is stable,” she said. “Protesters were arrested although I don’t know how many were. Now travel is back to normal.”
A local restaurant employee said: “Indeed there were some riots, but now it’s calm and the restaurant is open. Some rioters were arrested but I don’t know how many were arrested. The restaurant was closed for a few days while the riots were going on.”
But an employee at another restaurant had a different account. “The restaurant is still closed,” the employee said. “There’s no chef, and there aren’t any customers either.”

Tense area

Khotan, a rich oasis fed by a several rivers, is located on the southwestern edge of the historic Tarim Basin and about 2,000 kms (1,300 miles) from the regional capital, Urumqi.
Uyghurs, who number more than 16 million, constitute a distinct, Turkic-speaking, Muslim minority in northwestern China and Central Asia. They declared a short-lived East Turkestan Republic in what is now Xinjiang in the late 1930s and 40s but have remained under Beijing’s control since 1949.
China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.
In March 2008, Chinese authorities announced that they had foiled a plot by Uyghur terrorists targeting the Beijing Olympics. In the early 1990s, Uyghurs in Xinjiang launched large-scale riots, attacking and killing Chinese officials. Chinese authorities alleged that such acts killed 162 people and injured another 440, prompting a harsh crackdown.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” The ETIM has denied that charge.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says authorities in Xinjiang maintain “a multi-tiered system of surveillance, control, and suppression of religious activity aimed at Xinjiang’s Uyghurs...At a more mundane and routine level, many Uyghurs experience harassment in their daily lives.”
“Celebrating religious holidays, studying religious texts, or showing one’s religion through personal appearance are strictly forbidden at state schools. The Chinese government has instituted controls over who can be a cleric, what version of the Koran may be used, where religious gatherings may be held, and what may be said on religious occasions.”
Original reporting from Istanbul, Washington, and Hong Kong by RFA’s Uyghur and Mandarin services. Translation by Omer Kanat and Jiayuan. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

World Cannot Turn a Blind Eye: Rebiya Kadeer

WASHINGTON—Exiled leaders of the Uyghur ethnic group, the other large, restive minority in western China, are expressing support for protesting Tibetans, but experts say that's unlikely to spark a parallel wave of Uyghur unrest.

Uyghur American Association president Rebiya Kadeer, a self-made businesswoman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who spent five years in jail for subversion, has accused the Chinese authorities of “atrocities” and defended the Tibetans’ right to protest peacefully.
“His Holiness the Dalai Lama has dedicated his entire life to the peaceful promotion of legitimate aspirations of the Tibetan people for cultural autonomy and survival,” she said, referring to the exiled Tibetan leader.

“The world community cannot turn a blind eye to the obstinate refusal of the Beijing regime to fully engage in open, serious, and meaningful negotiations with leaders of Tibet and East Turkestan,” Kadeer said, using the Uyghurs’ own name for China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Beijing’s heavy-handed control over the millions of Tibetan and Uyghur people in China—its “fierce repression of religious expression, policies aimed at cultural assimilation, and intolerance for any expression of discontent, no matter how peaceful, have led to tremendous social tensions in Tibet and East Turkestan,” Kadeer said.

Kadeer met Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, for the first time in 2005, soon after Kadeer was paroled and expelled from China to the United States. The met on stage in front of some 16,000 people at the Washington DC’s MCI Center.

Protest in Munich
Dolkun Aysa, chairman of the Eastern Turkestan Union in Europe and general secretary of the World Uyghur Congress, led a three-hour protest in Munich on March 18 to show solidarity with the Tibetans.
“The main purpose of this demonstration is to show solidarity and cooperation between Tibetan and Uyghur people and to inform the world” about Chinese repression, Aysa said in an interview with RFA’s Uyghur service.

“We are cooperating with Tibetans to organize demonstrations expressing our full support for the Tibetan people, while at the same time informing the public and the media regarding the existence of the same problems, the same political reality, and the same suffering of the Uyghur people in Eastern Turkestan,” he said.

Rustam, a Uyghur participant in a Tibetan protest march to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, echoed the sentiments of many overseas Uyghurs when he voiced sympathy for the Tibetans.

“The Uyghurs and the Tibetans are oppressed, and the Chinese government uses all methods to oppress our people,” he said. “That’s why we are supporting the Tibetans....We just need freedom.”

Experts doubt stepped-up Uyghur unrest
Experts on Chinese ethnic minorities, interviewed this week but unwilling to be identified for fear of losing access to sources in China, doubt such declarations mean the violent unrest in Tibet will spread to the mainly Uyghur region of Xinjiang.

Overseas Uyghurs “probably hope that Uyghurs inside Xinjiang will take inspiration” from the protests in Tibet, one American scholar with vast experience in the region said.
“I think the Chinese government is really worried about that. And I think it’s highly unlikely that they will…The Chinese government has made clear in the way it cracked down on Tibetans that it’s still operating in a Tiananmen mode.”

Beijing’s strategy, the scholar said, “is to crack down quickly and ruthlessly, hunt down leaders and hold them up for public punishment, and in this way try to intimidate anyone else who has the idea that somehow public protests are going to achieve political ends.”

Another expert noted that Uyghur, Tibetan, and sometimes even Mongolian groups appear together in public in the West, but whether that translates into solidarity inside China is unclear. “Outside of China, all these groups have in some ways a common interest, then they have been making some common cause,” the expert said.

“Whether there’s any coordination and whether the Uyghurs have come out [in Xinjiang] and marched in solidarity with Tibetan monks and Tibetan laypeople, I haven’t seen any reports that it’s happened … Certainly the Chinese are afraid of it, so that’s why they’ve clamped down.”
The Muslim Uyghur people account for most of the population of China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Kadeer received an eight-year sentence in 2000 for “endangering national security” but was paroled and exiled to the United States on March 17, 2005.
Uyghurs, who number more than 16 million, constitute a distinct, Turkic-speaking, Muslim minority in northwestern China and Central Asia. They declared a short-lived East Turkestan Republic in Xinjiang in the late 1930s and 40s but have remained under Beijing's control since 1949—two years before China annexed neighboring Tibet.

(Tibetan ) What witnesses are saying

Following are first-hand accounts from people who spoke to RFA on Tuesday, March 18, through Saturday, March 22, 2008, in which they notably report spreading protests and a sharply increased police and troop presence. For security reasons, we do not identify some of our sources by name in order to protect them from retaliation.

"Right now, we are protesting in the area of Tsolho. We are demanding that the Chinese leadership open a dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and peacefully resolve the Tibetan issue. We are also demanding that His Holiness be allowed to visit Tibet. Our protest is peaceful and involves about ten to fifteen monks from Serlho monastery in the Tsolho (in Chinese, Hainan) prefecture. Just now we are marching toward the subdistrict headquarters, and from there we plan to go to the county government center. Hundreds of local Tibetans, mainly nomads, have joined us ... We have marched about four to five miles from Serlho monastery, but we fear that the Chinese security forces will not allow us to proceed to Shang and the county government center. This protest march is also an expression of our support to those Tibetans who launched peaceful protests in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet. Now, security forces seem to be coming. Thank you. Please let others know what we are doing and broadcast it to the world." --Monk protestor, speaking live during protest march, in interview with RFA's Tibetan service, March 22, 2008

"On March 18, we--the monks of Palyul Darthang monastery in Amdo Golog (in Chinese, Guoluo)--marched to the local county government center. There were about 300 of us, joined by local Tibetans. At that time, there were no PAP there, but only about 40 local police. We marched to the local government office compound, pulled down the Chinese flag, and put up the Tibetan flag. The local police didn't dare to interfere. They simply watched from a distance and took photographs. We then marched to the local school and hospital and pulled down the Chinese flag and replaced it with the Tibetan flag. We also stormed the local detention center and demanded that the authorities release all the prisoners, which they did. We conducted all these protests peacefully, harmed no one, and did no damage. Then, later in the afternoon, four trucks full of armed security forces arrived ... They arrested about five to six Tibetans, and possibly more. Right now, only those monks who took no part in the protest are still in the monastery. The rest are hiding up in the mountains. The head monks are being pressured to hand over the main culprits. [The Chinese] are also announcing that anyone who surrenders voluntarily will be spared. The rest will face 'serious consequences.' The monastery is now surrounded by security forces. Please let others know what we did and what our condition is. Thanks." --Monk at Palyul Darthang, speaking to RFA's Tibetan service, March 22, 2008


Map of the protest areas. Graphic: RFA >> View larger image">>> View larger image

"On March 20, Chinese security forces arrived in the town of Kiku in Serthar (Seda, in Chinese) county. There were about 1,000 of them. They tried to pull down the Tibetan flag that had been raised by protestors at the town headquarters building on the 17th, and when the protestors peacefully resisted, the security forces opened fire, killing two protestors. Their names were Kyari and Tsedo. Both were from Tseshul village. Another eight persons, including Yeshe Dorje and Tabke, were seriously wounded and were taken to Serthar county hospital. In the same county, over 1,000 Tibetans led by monks from Serthar Sera monastery began a protest march, walking about 30 miles to the point where the two Tibetans were killed. They carried Tibetan flags and pictures of the Dalai Lama and shouted slogans like 'Long Live the Dalai Lama!,' 'Human Rights for Tibet!,' and 'Tibet is Independent!' They also distributed leaflets calling for Tibetan independence. The security forces threatened them with 'serious consequences,' but the protestors are determined to continue with their peaceful demonstrations. So far, there have been no [additional] shootings." -- Source in Serthar, interviewed by RFA Tibetan service, March 21, 2008.

"I am in Lhasa at my brother's house, but we cannot go into the town. The security forces have blocked everything off … Those who have residence permits are allowed to move around, but those who don't are not allowed to go out. On the 15th and 16th, any Tibetan going out was detained. Now, the Chinese security forces are still blocking us. Chinese security personnel are bringing photos taken by security forces and asking people if they know who these persons are and where they can be found. We heard that one monk was recently arrested. The Chinese have jammed RFA and VOA broadcasts, and we can not hear programs in Lhasa." -- Tibetan American citizen who is still in Lhasa, interviewed by RFA Tibetan service, March 20, 2008.
“Many Chinese security forces have arrived in the Serkar monastery in the Kham Gapa area to impart re-education programs among the monks. But all the monks refused to participate in the program and instead raised slogans demanding religious freedom and human rights. There are around 500 monks. The Chinese army before leaving the monastery threatened the monks that they were going to come back the next day to deal with them. I have not received any further information after that.”—Tibetan witness in Ngaba [Aba], March 20, 2008.
“In Qinghai, Tibetan students from the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous area protested on March 19. There are about 800 students, and roughly 400 participated in the protests. They brought down Chinese flags and set them on fire. Security forces came in and the student protesters were surrounded. The local security forces issued a warning that they have orders to shoot anyone if they create problems in the area. The Tibetan students aren’t allowed to make any contact with other Tibetans in the area for fear of protests.”—Source in Qinghai, March 20, 2008

The local security forces issued a warning that they have orders to shoot anyone if they create problems in the area.
Source in Qinghai

“In the Tseko area of Amdo, the monks are continuing peaceful protests as of March 20. About 2,000 Tibetans, both monk and laypersons, are involved in the protests. The protesters are calling for the Chinese leadership to open peaceful dialogue with the Dalai Lama and resolve the Tibetan issue peaceful. They are demanding a meaningful autonomous status inclusive of all Tibetan areas. They were also demanding the Chinese leadership to allow the Dalai Lama to visit the Amdo region. Right now there are no security forces in the area but we heard that they are coming. We have no freedom inside. We are right now protesting in front of county government offices. We are about 2,000 protestors, and we are protesting peacefully.”—Amdo protester, speaking above the sound of a demonstration to RFA-Tibetan, March 20
“As of today, the Chinese police are conducting house-to-house searches of all Tibetan homes in the Amdo Ngaba [Aba] area. Pictures of Dalai Lama or any articles, objects, and documents that are politically sensitive in nature are being confiscated—and at the same, they arrest Tibetans when any such items are found in their homes. Tibetans are also told that they will be detained until the end of Olympics and once the Olympics are over, court proceedings will then begin.” —Tibetan witness in Ngaba, March 20, 2008, March 20

“We must show IDs when going in and out of the city. The curfew is still in effect and the streets are basically abandoned. The shops are not doing much business. People are staying home.” —Tibetan resident of Lhasa, speaking to RFA-Mandarin, March 20
“People are getting arrested for saying even one sentence that they oughtn’t say. I am scared. I cannot tell you anything.”—Tibetan woman resident of Lhasa, speaking to RFA-Mandarin, March 20

“A lot of people have been arrested. I have been staying home and haven’t been able to keep in touch with my friends. My cell phone has no signal. When people call me on my cell phone the message says it’s turned off. But in fact I never turned it off.”—Tibetan man, resident of Lhasa, speaking to RFA-Mandarin, March 20
“In Lhasa, Tibetans without IDs are being detained—regardless whether they participated in the protest. A lot of Tibetans are nomadic herdsmen who do not carry IDs. Prisons in Lhasa are filled to capacity.”—Spokesman, Tibetan exile government, speaking to RFA-Mandarin, March 20

“Last night 60 police trucks arrived in Bora area. Seven to 10 were already placed in the area. But this morning all 60 police trucks were gone. Monks in the local monasteries aren’t allowed out and those who are outside aren’t allowed in. On March 18, Tibetans from different remote areas came to the county center on horses, and many young Tibetans come on motorcycles. The motorcycles were run over by Chinese police trucks and over 30 of them completely crushed. So far there are no reports of arrests and shooting in this area.”—Kunchok Gyatso, of Drepung Goman monastery in India, after speaking with sources in Bora
Tibetans who go into town are being searched. Male Tibetans and youths are thoroughly searched, but they go a little easier on the women. They search their handbags but not their whole body. It is frightening to see Lhasa entirely filled with armed forces.

Tibetan witness in Lhasa
“In Lhasa, many Tibetans are being arrested. Just this morning I saw three Tibetans arrested in the Taring market area. They were severely beaten and then handcuffed and taken away. Additional troops are said to have been called from China and the Kongpo area. Tibetans who go into town are being searched. Male Tibetans and youths are thoroughly searched, but they go a little easier on the women. They search their handbags but not their whole body. It is frightening to see Lhasa entirely filled with armed forces. The license plates of Chinese armored vehicles are covered in order to mask their [unit] identity.”—Tibetan witness in Lhasa
“There is no peace in Karze city. As of yesterday, one person was killed and nine were beaten and taken away. The families of those who were taken away have no hope of seeing their relatives alive; they are just waiting for the bodies. However, the families have no regrets and believe that they have died for a good cause. Meanwhile, seven more Tibetans were arrested: Gyurme, Penpa, Dorje, Jamyang, Kunga, Chime Gonpo, and Namsa Wangden. No Tibetan is allowed to move freely near the main Karze County Center—only the People’s Armed Police (PAP) can go there. The local county government officials have no authority, and administrative control has been taken over by the PAP. Local people saw the arrival of 40 new vehicles and two planes and estimate that close to 10,000 armed police are now here.”—Tibetan witness in Karze
“The Tibetan students at the Maerkang Normal College—their homes and parents are in Ngawa [Aba]. They heard some rumors and wanted to go back home. The school stopped them from going, saying that it would be safer on campus. I am not sure on which day the clash occurred. But there is a curfew in place on campus and from March 15 the students haven’t been allowed to go home. When they are on campus, their safety is assured. The school is concerned about people causing trouble.”—Han Chinese teacher at Maerkang Normal College, Maerkang county, Gansu province, interviewed by RFA’s Mandarin service
“It is inconvenient for me to talk about the situation. I cannot reach my folks back home by phone. I kept calling but kept getting a busy signal and could not get through. I am deeply concerned about my family’s well-being. I know nothing about what’s happening there. Communication channels are not working.”—Tibetan student enrolled at the Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu, interviewed by RFA’s Mandarin service
The World Community Cannot Turn a Blind Eye, Rebiya Kadeer"His Holiness the Dalai Lama has dedicated his entire life to the peaceful promotion of legitimate aspirations of the Tibetan people for cultural autonomy and survival," more

“It is inconvenient for me to talk. My cell phone is under surveillance. I cannot tell you if there have been protests on campus. It’s inconvenient…”—Tibetan university student in Shanghai, interviewed by RFA’s Mandarin service
“All major thoroughfares leading to the Tibet Autonomous Region’s office in Chengdu are manned by riot police and also armed police sitting in cars waiting. I walked around the neighborhood and saw no fewer than 60 vehicles, including minivans and cars, with tags indicating that they were from public security. All cars traveling toward the direction of the TAR office are subject to inspection. Car trunks are searched. The drivers must get out of the cars and show their IDs.”—Huang Xiaomin, a Han Chinese activist in Chengdu, interviewed by RFA’s
Mandarin service
“Using Free Gate, I was able to see on the Internet that in Lhasa protesting monks were dealt with in a very rough manner, and that even tanks were mobilized. I think it was too much. I heard that people died. I used to work in areas with a lot of Tibetans. I have known many ethnic minorities. I am especially fond of Tibetans. Let me give you an example. If I lack food and water, I can knock on the door of any Tibetan home and they will take care of me. They will give me food and shelter. This actually happened to me and five or six of my friends. If they really tried to cause trouble, it was most likely because there was something inappropriate about our policy. I call on our Tibetan friends not to hate all Han Chinese. I am deeply saddened by what I saw –tanks…Where there are tanks, bad things happen…”—Beijing-based Chinese caller to RFA’s Mandarin-language Listener Hotline program

Buddhist monks march in Xiahe, Gansu Province on March 14, 2008. AFP
“A total of 18 dead bodies were confirmed in the Ngaba [Aba] protests. In Kirti monastery alone, 15 bodies were brought in for final death-rites. Three bodies were also confirmed in a neighboring nomadic area. There are many other monasteries in the Ngaba area, and other bodies could have been brought to these monasteries for final rites. So 18 deaths are confirmed for this area...They don't dare go to Chinese hospitals and are receiving treatment at home.”—Tibetan witness account
What Asian listeners are sayingOn our message boards, blogs, in emails and talk shows over the air, Asian listeners and Web readers react to Tibetan turmoil. From the Vietnamese message board: Can RFA, please, explain for me: why none of the 700 newspapers in Vietnam has the stories on Tibetan unrest? What are they afraid of or are they waiting for Vietnamese government’s order? U Nguyen Thai - Saigon, March 15, 2008. more
“Chinese police backed by the People's Armed Police [PAP] are raiding Tibetan houses in the Lhasa area. They are looking for residential permits, and if anyone doesn't have these permits they are taken away without explanation. Even those Tibetans who have the permits, but who are suspected for any reason, are taken away. For example, around 10 p.m. on March 15, a group of police backed by the PAP began raiding Tibetan houses. One family from Kham Tsawa Pasho was raided. The father Kalsang Gyaltsen has two sons, Lochoe and Jampa, and a daughter. The daughter had a residential permit, and the other family members had applied for permits, but these were still pending. So the Chinese police arrested the father and two sons and took them away. The daughter has no idea where they were taken. The police searched the house and found 10,000 yuan, since the family were running a small stall in the area ... The police did not listen to their pleas and took the money ... The daughter has been left in the house all alone with no money and does not know where her father and brothers are detained. She is extremely worried and concerned about their welfare. In the same courtyard there was another family from Kham Dege in Sichuan. The father's name is Tsonyi, and he also has two sons. That same night, their house was raided and they were also arrested. It is said that all six members of these families are innocent and did not participate in the protests. As policy, the Chinese are arresting almost all young Tibetans—both male and female. Nobody knows where they are taken, and if anyone tries to leave their own courtyard they can be arrested. There is no way to ask about or search for family members. Nobody knows if they are being killed, detained, or beaten, or even if they are alive or dead, and there is no way to find out. So there is virtual terror in Lhasa.”—Jampel from Canada, who called his relatives in Lhasa
“On March 18, around 2:05 p.m., a protest took place in Karze [in Chinese, Ganzi] town, Sichuan province. ...Both monks and laypersons took part. It was led by two people, Pema Dechen and Ngoga. The protesters shouted ‘Long live the Dalai Lama,’ and ‘Free Tibet,’ and they distributed leaflets. Several hundred paramilitary police were stationed there to block them… When the protests went on, the Chinese authorities arrested 10 protesters. Some of those who were arrested are Pema Dechen, Gonpo, Tseten Phuntsog, Lobsang, Zangpo, Palden, Gonpo, and so on. One person, Ngoga, who led the demonstration, was killed by gunfire. The other nine were dragged away, and they looked injured, but it wasn’t clear... Now all Karze is filled with Chinese police and paramilitary. Not one Tibetan is allowed to go out or move in the downtown area.”—Tibetan source in Karze [Ganzi], Sichuan province
“More than 200 monks from Dargye monastery came out to protest, but a Chinese spy informed the Chinese authorities. So when the protesters were marching towards Karze downtown, the Chinese police stopped them on the way. The monks protested, and one monk was killed by gunfire.”—Tibetan source in Karze [Ganzi], Sichuan province
“Yesterday and the day before, students from our school [the Tibet Institute of Nationalities in Xianyang, Shanxi province] shouted lots of protest slogans. The university residence building has seven floors and most of the slogans were coming from the third to the seventh floors. Students were throwing thermos flasks and other articles from the top of the building down to the street. There are around 1,000 Tibetans students in the school. Today the school authorities called all the students to a big meeting, where they told us that anyone involved in the incident must submit a written confession and warned that those who are party cadres will lose their party membership. There is no police presence at the school so far. However, we are told at the meeting that this whole incident will be reported to the provincial government, and they will take all the necessary action.”—Tibetan student at the Tibet Institute of Nationalities in Xianyang, Shanxi province
“I told you earlier about a man who died from a gunshot. Yesterday, his family had planned to take his body away for a funeral, but then the police came to their house and seized the dead body. The police told the family that they are taking away all the dead bodies to conduct post-mortem and other investigation. They were also told that all the dead bodies in the recent unrest will be cremated together, and that prior to the cremation, the individual families will be contacted and that they will be allowed to pay a visit to the cremation site after the cremation. With this, the dead body was forcibly taken away with the family powerless to do or say anything.”—Tibetan eyewitness in Lhasa
“Lhasa in general is under heavy security. There's a lot of cleaning up going on after all the recent destruction. Within the city, people are able to go around with their city identity cards but anyone from outside such as pilgrims, or tourists, is barred from entering the city or leaving the city if they are here. I came on a pilgrimage and for the last four days I holed up in my guesthouse, not able to travel or take a walk outside.”—Tibetan source in Lhasa
“More than 300 Tibetans protested in Lithang on March 18. While leading the demonstration, a girl [known as Appa Bumo] carried a picture of the Dalai Lama and a khata [scarf] in her hands. She was arrested by the Chinese security personnel. There is a heavy presence of Chinese military and restrictions have been imposed in the area. All the news media are blocked. Schools, offices, and shops are closed.”—Tibetan witness in Lithang
Following are interviews with Tibetan and Chinese sources on Monday, March 17:
“Today is better, so I can go out. Many people have come out to buy food, too. But there are many armed police standing guard on the street and checking the identification of some passers-by. There are many police on the street. The local government hasn’t asked us foreigners to leave Lhasa, but if you want to go, the Foreign Office will help you.”—Hong Kong businesswoman in Lhasa
“There are about 2,000 students in the Tibetan studies department of the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing—about 40 of them staged a silent protest to mourn the people killed or injured in other parts of Tibet. The police came in, and they are being held now in their classrooms.”—Protest participant, Tibetan, in Beijing
“The Lhasa People’s Hospital has been damaged. The local Tibetans suspect it was damaged by the Chinese so that injured Tibetans couldn't receive treatment. Tibetans who are taken to Lhasa hospitals are now being turned away.”—Tibetan source who declined to be identified
“Monks from a local temple had a clash with armed police, and there were casualties from the armed police.”—Tibetan resident in Ngaba [Aba], Sichuan province
“Riots erupted in town and in rural areas, and there were many police on the streets, but I was not worried about my safety.”—Chinese resident in Ngaba [Aba], Sichuan province
“Tourists were ordered to leave the Ngaba [Aba] area. Three groups of foreign tourists who just arrived here were told to leave immediately.”—Chinese hotel worker in Ngaba, Sichuan province
“On Saturday afternoon, about 400-500 monks took to the streets. They smashed windows and left in less than an hour. There were about 2,000 soldiers who stayed to guard the area.”—Chinese witness who lives near a temple at the junction bwteen Gansu and Sichuan
“Although the scale of protests was small, they still continue…There were about 1,000 armed police stationed in each county, Machu [Maqu] and Luchu [Luqu].”—Chinese witness, describing ongoing protests that began March 14
“Because of riots in Tibet, local authorities has took measures to prevent protests from taking place here. There were about 200 armed police in our county.”—Chinese resident in Tongren county, Qinghai province
“No foreigners are being allowed into the region.”—Hotel worker in Tongren county, Qinghai province
“We could not find hotels …in Xiahe, Gansu province. We were expelled from Xiahe after we finished our coverage. We tried to enter Xiahe again, but we weren’t allowed. Our IDs were carefully examined by roadside checkpoints. The only road leading to Xiahe was blocked. All vehicles had to stop for inspection. Passengers’ IDs and vehicles plate numbers were checked and registered. Journalists couldn’t sneak in. All vehicles leaving Gansu were also carefully examined just as they entered the province. There was a backup of vehicles leaving Gansu.”—British journalist
“They [the police] are deleting all the photos they find of the riots. They won’t let people bring these things out.”—Tour guide, Gansu province
Following are excerpted interviews from Tibetan sources who spoke with RFA on Sunday, March 16, 2008:
“Just now eight bodies have arrived in Kirti monastery.”—Source at Kirti monastery, Ngaba [in Chinese, Aba] prefecture, Sichuan province
“Four Tibetans were killed by sniper fire while they were marching near Kirti monastery… Then a little later, another three were killed. They were shot from a distance. Before they were shot, the protesters had smashed the windows at two police posts....There looked like 5,000 to 6,000 protesters....The names of the three people killed later are Tsezin, Norbu, and Lobsang Tashi.”—Tibetan protester from Ngaba [in Chinese, Aba] prefecture, Sichuan province
“On March 15, there were protests in Kham Tawo ([in Chinese, Daofu] in Ganzi prefecture. Suddenly 10 PAP trucks arrived…Kham Sershul monastery was surrounded by PAP. They are patrolling streets and randomly checking IDs—the situation is very tense.”—Tibetan witness in the Kham region, Karze [in Chinese, Ganzi], Sichuan province
“Five Tibetans succumbed to injuries at the nunnery hospital in Lhasa—it’s the Tsangkhug nunnery in Lhasa. Two Tibetans who were at the hospital were injured and they complained their legs were broken. The body of a young boy is still lying here unclaimed. Several other dead bodies were brought, and many of them were claimed by relatives.”—Source inside Tsangkhug nunnery, Lhasa
“I haven’t been back to my house for two days now. There are troops all over, and we are completely locked inside. I have no information about what is happening outside.”—Tibetan resident of Lhasa
“The Chinese authorities in Lhasa have started arresting Tibetans and searching from house to house. Official warnings were issued to all Tibetan residents of Lhasa that all Tibetan houses will be searched for photos of the Dalai Lama and for Tibetans who were involved in the riots. They were warned that no one should attempt to stop the searches and arrests, and people are not allowed to gather in groups when arrests are made. The TAR [Tibet Autonomous Region] government issued an order to all government departments that Tibetan government workers in different parts of China should report back to Lhasa within three days—they are needed to secure TAR railway lines. Failure to report in will result in ‘consequences.’...” —Witness from Lhasa
“Tibetan students in the Tibetan language department of North West National University of Lanzhou, in Gansu, staged a peaceful demonstration on the school grounds. More than 1,000 Tibetan students took part, and Tibetan students from other departments tried to join in but were blocked. They declared that their protest was peaceful, and they urged the Chinese authorities to stop their crackdown on Tibetans in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas. They also expressed solidarity with those Tibetans who protested in Lhasa, Labrang, and others outside Tibet. They had a banner that read, ‘We stand together with Tibetans, for glorious democracy and life.”—Witness from the Amdo region
Following are excerpted interviews from Tibetan sources who spoke with RFA on Saturday, March 15, 2008:
“I am in the Lhasa area. There was shooting today. Many Tibetans who were dead and barely alive were collected at the TAR [Tibet Autonomous Region] Security Office area, and I heard from a reliable source that there were 67 bodies. Some were alive and most were dead when they were brought in... This included male and female, and I don’t have the details… But it’s confirmed that there were in total about 67 bodies collected at this place. I cannot tell you the source of my information, but 67 bodies were seen by my source. It was officially announced by TAR officials that martial law was imposed. Right now I can hear shootings. We saw many tanks. Sometimes they fire in the air to threaten the Tibetans. At some places, like the Karma Kunsel area [near Lhasa], they are firing right now. Every Tibetan is stopped and their IDs are checked. Even Tibetan government workers are checked, but the Chinese are free to move around. Many Tibetans who were arrested were taken toward the Toelung area and several other jails in different parts of Lhasa. Even in Penpo, six monks were arrested last night and today there were demonstrations and Chinese shops were burnt. I think they might impose these restrictions for at least another seven to eight days. If they are not allowed to move around, the Tibetans won’t get food supplies, and the Tibetans are already suffering shortages of food. Right now the Chinese authorities are cracking down, but there are indications that this could spread further in rural areas. …There is no indication of any organization planning these demonstrations. It was a spontaneous response of Tibetans, and they jumped into the rally. They were shouting ‘Long live the Dalai Lama’ and ‘Independence for Tibet,’ and burning Chinese flags. Right now I was told that Tibetan monks in Samye monastery in Lokha are protesting too.”—Source in Lhasa
“Today there was a huge demonstration in Labrang. It was started at 11:45 a.m.. Yesterday there were roughly 3,000 to 4,000 but today is different. There are many thousands shouting 'Long live the Dalai Lama,' 'Tibet is independent,' and so on. They marched towards local government offices and damaged several windows and a big demonstration is going on.”—Source at Labrang monastery, Amdo
“On March 15, there were two demonstrations in the Lithang area. During the morning, the nomads from Othok Nyakchuka [home of detained lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche] rose up and demonstrated for quite awhile. One of the main leaders in the area was detained. Then on the same day the nomads from the same area as [jailed nomad] Ronggyal Adrak also demonstrated and shouted for quite some time and one monk was arrested. So the atmosphere in Lithang is very tense. The Tibetans were seen gathering in groups in Lithang town and planning something. At the same time, government officials are also planning to sabotage Tibetan plans. It is extremely difficult to get through. About 1,000 Tibetan independence flyers were distributed in Sershul county of Ganzi prefecture. Both Lithang and Sershul are in Ganzi prefecture.”—Source in Lithang area, Kham
“The Chinese authorities are locking up as many Tibetan protesters as possible in different jails. Many of them are detained in a jail behind the Potala Palace and four other prisons in the Lhasa area. The Tibetan protestors were locked in all these jail like animals. When we contacted them this morning, no killing was reported—this could be due to international pressure. It is difficult to give an exact figure for a death toll, but if we total up the deaths from different information, more than 100 Tibetans were killed. As of Saturday morning, the Chinese authorities are imposing martial law and arresting and detaining any Tibetan who comes out in the street and dumping them in jail. There is no sign of calm and stability in Lhasa at this point of time.”—Source in Lhasa
“When I called my contact this morning, several hundred Tibetan youths from Bora, Achok, Tsu, Gaja, Sang-kha, and other areas gathered at Labrang were demonstrating. There were several thousand police and PAP [People’s Armed Police] deployed in the area but so far there was no incident of firing at the crowd. However, several tear-gas shells were fired into the crowd. My contact didn’t see any ransacking in the area but due to smoke from tear-gas, the whole area is clouded and it’s difficult to get a full view of the whole area and any incidents. It is a fact that the number of protesters increased from yesterday. A rough estimate is over 3,000 [at Labrang monastery]. Tibetans are gathering from different directions and increasing the strength of the demonstrations. The demonstrators are shouting, ‘Long live the Dalai Lama,’ ‘Release the Panchen Lama,’ and ‘Start the Sino-Tibetan peace dialogue.’ Some were shouting, ‘Independence for Tibet.' Since there is no open leadership, different groups are raising different slogans and most of them are saying ‘Long live the Dalai Lama.’”—Source in Lhasa
“Today there are army [troops] everywhere. There is no way to go and come. We are confined to our own homes. On Chinese media and TV, they are talking of only 10 Tibetans killed—and those killed were those who committed crimes. According to them, all this is the work of 'the Dalai Lama clique.' Right now, Lhasa city seems to be quiet, without incident, as no-one is allowed to move about, but there have been some clashes between Chinese and Tibetans on the outskirts of Lhasa in rural areas.”—Source in Lhasa
Earlier, on Friday, March 14, a Tibetan witness who joined the Lhasa protests reported as follows:
“Today when the Tibetans were demonstrating, many Tibetans were killed. We Tibetans had no weapons to fight back. When the Tibetans were gathered in front of the Jokhang [temple], the Chinese fired at us. I have personally seen more 100 Tibetans killed when the Chinese fired at the Tibetan crowd. It was the Chinese army who fired and that happened in Lhasa and I personally witnessed the tragedy. Many of those killed were young Tibetans, both boys and girls. ...It started around 10 a.m. ... Young kids, youths, male, female, and old, Tibetans of all ages were taken away to jail. The Tibetans who participated in the protests were from the whole Lhasa area. When I looked back all the Chinese shops were destroyed. I think not one Chinese shop is intact in the Barkhor area. All kinds of things were piled up on the main road and burned. Many vehicles were burned and destroyed. When I look right now, I can still see smoke. The Tibetans collected all the dead bodies in front of the Jokhang [temple] and offered prayers, and scarves. Those family members whose relatives were among those killed took their bodies away. None of my family members are among the killed but I was almost killed too, and many bodies looked familiar. If anybody moves around in town they get arrested and killed. I think the number of Tibetans killed could not be less than 100, as I reported earlier. Those who are dead sacrificed their lives for 6 million Tibetans. My disappointment is that we were not armed and the Chinese fired on unarmed Tibetans. The Chinese threw some poisonous gas and that gas made the Tibetans dazed and blurred. Then they were arrested and taken away. I also saw tanks in the area too, though I did not see many, but they were sent to threaten us. Right now Lhasa is quiet but I still see black smoke in Lhasa town. It was the Chinese army who fired on us.”