WHY ARE NOT OBAMA, PUTIN, & MEDVEDEV NOT TELLING CHINA: “Quit Persecuting and Killing the Uyghurs, Your Own People!”??? By Kevin Stoda, Germany

WHY ARE NOT OBAMA, PUTIN, & MEDVEDEV NOT TELLING CHINA: “Quit Persecuting and Killing the Uyghurs, Your Own People!”???

By Kevin Stoda, Germany

I must admit that in Germany (and in all of the EU), the public leadership speaking out against the recent massacres against Uyghurs in Xinjiang has been close to zero. In the USA, the same story seems to be enfolding. In short, people and government leaders are much more interested in the burial of Michael Jackson than they are in the deaths and false-arrest of hundreds--and thousands--of ethnic Chinese. However, since Russia neighbors China and because Obama is visiting there, I think the world can and must expect the two governments of the USA and Russia to tell China, “Enough is Enough!”.

Meanwhile, the silence in Russia and Eruope is deafening. I note that even the Uyghur news websites have been totally shut down somehow. Try this link!

http://www.uyghurnews.com/

Imagine if the Tibetan websites were simply shutdown in such an easy manner. Long before the shut-down, in April of 2009 in fact, according to the Uyghur News, “Obama and Hu [Head of China]appear to have deferred the question of human rights, one of the greatest points of friction between the two sides. ‘The two sides agreed to resume the human rights dialogue as soon as possible,’ the White House statement said. China did not immediately confirm the details of the U.S. announcement.”

Meanwhile, amongst the worldwide press silence and the U.S. government’s silence, Democracy Now (DN) finally noted very clearly this morning, “New protests have erupted in China’s western Xinjiang region, two days after at least 156 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades. On Tuesday, some 200 ethnic Uyghurs–mostly women–took to the streets to protest over the mass arrest of more than 1,400 people following Sunday’s clashes. Later, hundreds of ethnic Han Chinese marched through the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. The two sides blame each other for the outbreak of violence.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/7/uyghur_protests_widen_as_xinjiang_unrest
Nury Turkel was invited on DN to finally give a Uyghur condemnation and to call for a proper world-wide rebuke of the Chinese attacks on Uyghurs. DN’s Amy Goodman began the interview by noting, “New protests have erupted in China’s western Xinjiang region, two days after at least 156 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades. On Tuesday, some 200 ethnic Uyghurs, who are a Muslim minority, took to the streets to protest over the mass arrest of more than 1,400 people following Sunday’s clashes. The protesters–mostly women and children–were surrounded by riot police armed with rifles and tear gas. Later, hundreds of ethnic Han Chinese marched through the streets of Urumqi–the capital of Xinjiang province–armed with clubs and machetes, smashing shops and stalls belonging to Uyghurs. Security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowds. The two sides blame each other for the outbreak of violence. Officials say 156 people–mostly ethnic Han Chinese–died in Sunday’s violence. Uyghurs groups say many more have died, claiming 90 percent of the dead are Uyghurs. The Uyghur demonstrators say they had been demanding justice for two Uyghurs killed last month in a fight with Han Chinese at a toy factory in southeastern China. Chinese authorities have tried to crack down on dissent since Sunday’s protests, carrying out mass arrests, restricting media access and cutting off cell phone and internet services. For more we are joined by Nury Turkel, a Uyghur American Attorney. He is the co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and past president of the Uyghur American Association.”

Nury Turkel describes the Uyghurs as the forgotten Tibetans of China. “The Uyghurs are the other Tibetans that you never have heard of. The Uyghurs are ethnically a Turkic people. They speak a language that is similar to the one spoken in the Uzbekistan and all the way to Black Sea region of Turkey or Central Turkey. The Uyghurs historically have been a very politically active people in the region. They have had their own Uyghur empire throughout history. In the modern memory they had two short-lived Republics, known as East Turkistan Republic. The first one was established in 1933, the second one was established in 1944. The second one was destroyed mainly by Stalin’s aim to collaborate with the Chinese, firing the most prominent Uyghur leaders. They were killed on their way to negotiate the final status with the Chinese. Five of the most prominent leaders of the Uyghur Republic killed in a mysterious air crash in 1949 in Kazakhstan airspace, on their way to negotiate the final status of East Turkistan with the Chinese. Ever since, the Uyghurs fall into the Chinese communist regime. Today, the Uyghurs feel that they live in an open prison.”

Instead of being seen as persecuted peoples, almost the entire world looks at the Uyghurs as a handful of unfairly kidnapped peoples from Afghanistan who were then taken to Guantanamo over half a decade ago by USA forces. In the interview, Turkel considered the ignorance and unfair fear worldwide that the USA Guantanamo arrests and other kidnapping of Uyghurs. “The Uyghurs, specially, particularly after 9/11, the Uyghurs have been pressured in all fronts. The Uyghurs literally lost any thing that they had, even their native language and their own cultural heritage that they had been proudly been adhering to. The economic pressure, social pressure, political pressure, made the Uyghurs feel they had been suffocated by the communist regime. Today in their society, the Uyghurs do not have the right to worship, the right to fair employment, do not have the right to enjoy their cultural heritage. The women and children under 18 years old, and even retired government workers are not allowed to participate in any religious activities. The Uyghur language has been banned in higher education system. They imposed Chinese language based education system. Despite economic boom in China, the experience the highest unemployment rate, and the Chinese government openly discourages and discriminates—discourages Uyghurs applying to high paid positions. And also, the job advertisements, if you look at them openly discouraged the Uyghurs to apply for certain types of high paid jobs in the society.”

Finally, the lawyer Nury Turkel summarized the cultural clashes in China today, “Several years ago, Chinese government started this program bringing the Uyghurs into inner Chinese city, that includes women, from the countryside, to locate them in countries all around Chinese coastal cities. Today, you can find Uyghur workers in factories manufactures, making Nike sneakers and in some toy factories. This particular one is very large factory located in Guangdong Province where the have roughly around 800 Uyghur workers from a southern city of Kashgar . One of the disgruntled Chinese workers post a message claiming that two Uyghur men raped a Chinese woman, which turned out to be false. Triggered a mob and local Han Chinese workers to attack the Uyghur workers at night. And the government reported only two deaths, but based on the Radio Free Asia reporting after the interview of two of the injured Uyghurs, the number is much larger than that. As we speak today, more than 400 Uyghur workers previously worked for this toy factory had been locked up in an undisclosed location. The claim is the government is protecting their safety. If the government is protecting their safety, they should be allowed to be returned home to Kashgar. The government is obviously not allows them to do that. Also, the local Guangdong provincial government failed to exercise its obligation to investigate the criminal act. This Radio Free Asia report also indicates the security guards for the manufacturer allowed outside mobs to come in with clubs and lead tubes to beat up the Uyghur workers, including women. So, this is unacceptable to any standard. The Uyghurs in Urumqi could not accept this brutal act against the Uyghur workers who were from the countryside of the Uyghur region, who simply just want to earn some money and go back. Another displeasure the Uyghurs have expressed is, back in 1949, the Han Chinese population only three percent. But now reached over 45%, the Han Chinese are still coming. They can work, they and get all types of loans, they can get all types of government high-paid positions, where as poor Uyghurs cannot even work in peacefully go on with their lives in a manufacturing, minimum paid jobs in Guangdong Province. This created a natural resentment. Not only to the Uyghurs inside China, the worldwide Uyghur community is outraged. Several hundred Uyghurs tried to make a living in a factory where millions and millions of Chinese still keep coming and taking over and making the Uyghurs second class citizens in their own land.”

The bottom line for me as a world citizen is that the Uyghurs need not simply be either the butt of bad jokes in the USA, e.g. by President Obama, nor are they to be feared unfairly as terrorists worldwide.

The Chinese are paying sometimes for such propaganda but are getting it now free from all corners—from Germany to Ho Chi Minh City..

Op-Ed News and Other new sources in the USA and in Europe need to see that the Chinese bullying of world opinion ends now. HELP THE UYGHURS!!!! SPEAK OUT!!!!