Today the whole world is under the spell of China’s Wuhan virus and China has adopted aggressive postures in the South China Sea and other places like Indian border. How do you now look at your freedom struggle for East Turkistan?
These developments have now made the world finally realise what we have been saying since decades. World is finally seeing the real inhuman and expansionist face of China. When they committed genocide and all sorts of inhuman crimes against the Uyghur people of East Turkistan, the world chose to ignore our cries. But it has started understanding our pain. The US officials have expressed concern that millions of my countrymen have been pushed into concentration camps by China. There are more than a million who are in prison in the name of crimes they never committed. We have lost the count of the people who have been killed by the occupying Chinese in East Turkistan since 1949. Having lived in Chinese jails myself for six years, I have seen how do they torture and kill innocent people.
What are your main complaints against China?
They have occupied my country East Turkistan since 1949 and treat us as a colony. Since day-one they are busy in destroying our national, cultural and religious identity. They are looting our natural resources like bandits to make China rich in the old colonial way. I give you example of Uyghur women. To reduce our already very small population they are sterilising the Uyghur women at a large scale. Many times these mass sterilizations are done by non medical and untrained people. In many cases they even remove the entire uterus. Many women have died due to infections. After-care is almost absent. Isn’t it genocide? My entire country is living in an atmosphere of fear and terror.
How did all this change happen over past seven decades?
I would like to go back to the time when China invaded East Turkistan in 1949. At that point China had killed a quarter million (2.5 lakh) people of my country. They attacked the rich and branded them as ‘bandits’. After that almost every seven years there have done cleansing in East Turkistan.
First thing they did was to make sure that East Turkistanis are reduced to being ‘uneducated’ by imposing Chinese language on us. They first destroyed our culture and then announced us as ‘barbaric’. During the 1957 to 1962 period they punished even such ordinary Uyghurs as ‘enemy of the State’ who had shower in their homes. They ran this campaign for months with full force just to destroy our social life and our culture of cleanliness. This should explain their long term policy of erasing our culture and our identity. They even tried giving money to those young men and women who would marry the Chinese as part of their carrot and stick policy.
Do you see a common cause with the people of Tibet?
Yes. As everyone knows there were 56 nationalities in China. Out of these most of the non-Han nationalities have practically vanished because they have been already assimilated into the (Han) Chinese. Now it is mainly the Tibetans and the East Turkistanis who still hold a different identity from the Chinese. Now they are bent upon finishing our identity too. Since both our countries are occupied and are exploited by China in the same way we have a strong common cause.
Recently, the US Congress has passed the “Uyghur Act of 2019” which is aimed at unified global response towards rehabilitating human rights of the people of East Turkistan from the onslaught of China. How do you look at it?
This is a highly welcome development in our freedom struggle against China’s illegal occupation of East Turkistan. This resolution was passed unanimously by the Senate and it condemns gross human rights violations of ethnic Turkic people in my country and it has called upon the global community to end arbitrary detention, torture and harassment of people of East Turkistan simply shows that we are fighting for a just cause. I am happy that the world has started recognising the truth of our struggle. We hope that world, especially countries like India, will soon take a lead from this and East Turkistan will be free from Chinese colonialism.
Why special expectations from India?
We have great hopes from India. Not only because both of our countries have problems with China. Since immemorial times East Turkistan and India had common borders. Our cooking, our dances, music and medicinal system too had very close influence on each other. China occupied our country because of their designs of expansionism in Central Asia, India and Pakistan. A free East Turkistan will be an additional assurance of national security and peace for India. Recently when China started problems in Ladakh for India they were worried about our people creating problem for China. That is why they have become stricter against Uyghurs after they attacked India in Ladakh. So, we see a common cause with people of India. Government of India should give voice to Uygur struggle and leaders.
China is crushing Islam in East Turkistan. But we don’t see enough support for East Turkistan among the Islamic countries. Why?
Yes, most of Islamic governments are today supporting China because they believe in Chinese lies. They don’t understand the truth about Chinese government. Today if one person burnt Quran in a country of the West then there is a lot of anger in the Muslim countries. But here in East Turkistan the Chinese communist government has burnt millions of Qurans, destroyed and desecrated thousands of mosques and killed thousands of religious scholars. But some champions of Islam and governments want to keep their eyes shut. But now things have started changing, though slowly.
Recently you were elected as the first international President of Free Indo Pacific Alliance (FIPA). How would you define its purpose?
First, all countries and peoples like Tibet, East Turkistan, South Mongolia and Hong Kong who are under Chinese occupation today must jointly defeat the Chinese Communist Party who is our common enemy. Also, countries around China like India, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam etc. who are increasingly facing threats from the Chinese hegemony also must join hands. If we remain divided or indifferent towards each other, China will succeed in buying time and bullying all one by one. We must bring justice to the crimes that China has committed to the human race. FIPA is a step in the direction of that unity.
China Pakistan Economic Corridor project (CPEC) has emerged as a major project of cooperation between the two countries. Since it starts from East Turkistan (Xinjiang), how does it impact your people?
China is using this CPEC project and relationship with Pakistan to suppress the Uyghurs and change the East Turkistani identity. By becoming more active in Pakistan, China is trying to push back those Uyghurs who had migrated to Pakistan in the past due to Chinese atrocities. Another sad part of this development is that most of those Uyghurs who were pushed back, have been already killed by Chinese police and Army. Another major impact of CPEC is that China is using it to further separate East Turkistan from neighbouring India by linking itself more with Pakistan.
But Chinese government calls your movement as ‘terrorism’?
Truth is just the opposite. Beijing government is consistently engaged in killing Uyghurs for past 70 years. They have been mainly focused on those Uyghurs who were educated, who were cultured and who were forward thinking. If you look at the recent Yarkand incident, over 10 thousand people were killed. On July 5, 2009 in Urumqi, thousands of people disappeared. Many people were killed overnight. In February 1997, there was also rebellion in the city of Ghulja (Yining). At that time over 11,000 people were arrested. More than hundred Uyghurs were killed but their exact number is not clear.
Since occupation of our country, China has carried out the policy of assimilation through harsh punishment. But they have realised that these policies are not effective. Now with their new policy of One-Belt One-Road the Chinese are realising that they don’t have much time. That is why they are desperate to tame and assimilate the Uyghurs in their own Han culture.
The Chinese have realised that only Nazi style will work in East Turkistan. A person who has been known for his Nazi-like policies in Tibet – Zhang Chunxian, who is the former Secretary of Tibetan Autonomous Region is now handling East Turkistan. In Tibet, more than 150 Tibetans have committed self-immolation to protest against the colonial policies of China in Tibet. Genocide appears to be the state policy.
For past few decades, China has adopted the policy of demographic change in the various regions. How has this policy worked in East Turkistan?
This migration and settlement policy of Chinese (Han) citizens in Inner Mongolia, Tibet, East Turkistan and Manchuria has been going on for a long time. It has been most successful so far in Manchuria, and, almost equally in Inner Mongolia. In Manchuria they have completely lost their culture and lingual identity. However, this policy of assimilation into Han Chinese culture has not been successful fully in Tibet and East Turkistan. Just because their assimilation has not been successful, China has undertaken population transfer in a massive way and cultural genocide is being carried out through overwhelming also.
Do you think you can withstand this Chinese pressure?
Chinese are even misusing our education system by pushing the concept of East Turkistan being always a ‘part of China’ while every citizen of East Turkistan knows that we are a colony of China. They first destroyed our boundaries. Then they tried to kill us and destroy us so that they could expand. After failing in this game, they are now destroying our identity by outnumbering us in our own country by settling millions of Hans in East Turkistan. They want our land and our natural resources. We are very rich in natural resources. We did not give up in past seven decades when situation was loaded against us. We will not give up now when world opinion is shifting in our favour.
Chinese government is publicising that the Uyghurs are followers of radical Islam.
It is sad that instead of welcoming and celebrating the peace loving and forward looking mindset of both the Tibetans and Uyghurs, the Chinese government sees them as a threat to their single party system and exclusive Han dominance.
Just like me, many other Uyghur ladies wear our cultural hat called Doppa. Many older ladies who cover their head, as I do, consider it stylish. For example, headscarves were more popular than Abhaya or Burqa among old ladies. The new radical way of covering face by women has been systematically brought in and encouraged by the Chinese into East Turkistan over past about 15 years. They wanted us to look radical Islamic.
We are hearing of cordoned areas and concentration camps in Xinjiang where people of East Turkistan are being confined and are given, what Chinese claim to be ‘Patriotic Education’ and vocational training. What is this about?
This is a typical example of the Chinese Communist government trying to terrorise and brainwash our people. Chinese government is claiming that they are creating vocational camps and educating our people for a positive political agenda. If that is so, then what is the need of people being forcefully brought to camps and kept under cover? Why police is watching them continuously? Why are they forced to write down notes about their own thinking, as confessions? It is no ‘education’. It is simple brainwashing. Everyone knows that the business of organ harvesting has become a big medical business in China. And everyone knows who makes this money?
Some international observers have studied the satellite images of these camps. They have found out that there are at least 276 such type of camps in East Turkistan. Based on this information our estimate is that there are over three million people in these camps.
There have been reports in the international Press that Chinese government has introduced rules in Xinjiang which bars Muslims from supporting beard beyond certain length. Typical Islamic Skull cap too is banned or people can no more name their children like ‘Mohammad’?
Situation is worse than this. As Muslims, we are supposed to offer Namaaz (prayers) five times a day. But if someone is caught offering Namaaz even once, he is sentenced to jail for seven years. If someone is found fasting in Ramadan, he will be sentenced for seven years. And if you are caught giving religious education to someone then you will be sent to jail for whole life.
Why religion alone? Even those people who are scientists or Ph D holders, they are treated as enemy of the State. Even well-known musicians and artists have been sent to prison.
For example, Tashpolat Teyip, a reputed geographer was the Dean of Xinjiang University. He was awarded death sentence. Then there is Yalqun Rozi is an author and literary critic. He was not known for political activities. But he was sentenced for life imprisonment. Another prominent name is Muhammad Salih. He was 83 years old. He was a Chinese appointed religious leader and doctor. He too was killed in the prison. Luckily, I am out of those controls in the free world to fight for my countrymen.
Leave a Comment