Xinjiang unrest

On July 5, 2009 the Muslim Uighurs took to the streets, leading to China's worst ethnic unrest in decades, which was quelled by the Chinese security forces, causing over 180 dead. The Uighurs say that security forces over-reacted to peaceful protests and used deadly force. The Uighur World Congress condemned what it called "the brutal crackdown by China in Xinjiang." The Chinese president, attending the G-8 Summit, rushed back to China to handle the situation, which has turned so serious. The Chinese government however blamed the Muslim émigré Rabiah Kadeer, working for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which receives a yearly appropriation from the US government, for its international work. "The NED money is challenged through some core foundations, such as The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, linked to Obama's Democratic Party; the International Republican Institute and the US State Department," W Engdal

The Urumchi protests spread to other parts of the region, such as Kuytun, Vining, and Kashghar and caught the attention of the world media, calling it as the "world's first ethnic pandemic." The Xinjiang region is known as Eastern Turkistan, which was brought under Chinese control in 1949, having 90 percent Muslim majority and a Han Chinese minority of 5 percent only. In 1954, the Uighurs rebelled for autonomy, but the movement was suppressed ruthlessly, forcing migration of the Uighurs to USA, Europe and Turkey. Since then the un-checked migration of the Chinese Han into Xinjiang region had continued, in the form of security forces: members of the administration and skilled and unskilled labour, who enjoy preferences for jobs, public appointments, business and development projects, thus marginalising the Uighurs.

The present unrest has a double tone - first 'the social inequality', because the Uighurs majority has been reduced to 55 percent and the Chinese Han has risen to 35 percent from the original 5 percent, and the second, is the 'Islamic Resurgence', receiving impetus from the Afghan War of Liberation since 1980. The Eastern Turkmenistan Liberation Front (TLF) was formed during this period and under its banner, the Uighur dissidents, in large numbers have been trained and armed at Faizabad, Badakhshan, by the Indian intelligence network, supported by the coalition forces in Afghanistan, thus establishing the 'nexus between NED in USA and the Coalition Spy Network in Afghanistan'. With the expanding Blackwater network in Pakistan, the tentacles of the 'Nexus' now appear to be spreading over the entire region, while its military adventures are failing, as the saner voices are getting louder and clearer:

On July 5, 2009 the Muslim Uighurs took to the streets, leading to China's worst ethnic unrest in decades, which was quelled by the Chinese security forces, causing over 180 dead. The Uighurs say that security forces over-reacted to peaceful protests and used deadly force. The Uighur World Congress condemned what it called "the brutal crackdown by China in Xinjiang." The Chinese president, attending the G-8 Summit, rushed back to China to handle the situation, which has turned so serious. The Chinese government however blamed the Muslim émigré Rabiah Kadeer, working for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which receives a yearly appropriation from the US government, for its international work. "The NED money is challenged through some core foundations, such as The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, linked to Obama's Democratic Party; the International Republican Institute and the US State Department," W Engdal

The Urumchi protests spread to other parts of the region, such as Kuytun, Vining, and Kashghar and caught the attention of the world media, calling it as the "world's first ethnic pandemic." The Xinjiang region is known as Eastern Turkistan, which was brought under Chinese control in 1949, having 90 percent Muslim majority and a Han Chinese minority of 5 percent only. In 1954, the Uighurs rebelled for autonomy, but the movement was suppressed ruthlessly, forcing migration of the Uighurs to USA, Europe and Turkey. Since then the un-checked migration of the Chinese Han into Xinjiang region had continued, in the form of security forces: members of the administration and skilled and unskilled labour, who enjoy preferences for jobs, public appointments, business and development projects, thus marginalising the Uighurs.

The present unrest has a double tone - first 'the social inequality', because the Uighurs majority has been reduced to 55 percent and the Chinese Han has risen to 35 percent from the original 5 percent, and the second, is the 'Islamic Resurgence', receiving impetus from the Afghan War of Liberation since 1980. The Eastern Turkmenistan Liberation Front (TLF) was formed during this period and under its banner, the Uighur dissidents, in large numbers have been trained and armed at Faizabad, Badakhshan, by the Indian intelligence network, supported by the coalition forces in Afghanistan, thus establishing the 'nexus between NED in USA and the Coalition Spy Network in Afghanistan'. With the expanding Blackwater network in Pakistan, the tentacles of the 'Nexus' now appear to be spreading over the entire region, while its military adventures are failing, as the saner voices are getting louder and clearer:

 

"Situation in Afghanistan has got progressively worse, and the Taliban has got much better, much more violent and much more organised....The Afghan people are much more uncertain now, about their future." Admiral M Mullen.

"Is Afghanistan destined to follow Vietnam, as another graveyard for US Empire," Martin & R Hertzberg.

"Obama's Petraeus - McChrystal policies, in Afghanistan, are a fundamental strategic error," Noam Chomisky.

"We are loosing in Afghanistan. US-NATO led coalition faces defeat, and our young men are dying out there," Paddy Ashdown.
The one thing we cannot do is, to go on as we are, led by events. History is littered with the graves of the soldiers who died obeying the call," Adrian Hamilton.
"Obama cannot manage an inherently doomed premise. Colonialism is dead. Occupiers will never enjoy peace in Afghanistan," Ted Rall.

President Obama has taken note of these voices and therefore suggests: "All of us want an effective exit strategy from Afghanistan" - the crucible of terror, the graveyard of invaders. No doubt, the days of colonialism are over and the ambitions of global primacy and pre-eminence must be curtailed. The application of force - the instrument of military power - has failed to deliver and cannot be compensated by accelerating the "cloak and dagger policy around the world," coordinated and conducted by the CIA, which needs to be curtailed, to re-establish the "US soft-power as its greatest asset," because:

"The CIA does not serve the interests of the American people, but instead milks them for the subsidy that funds the careerism of its covert bureaucrats, who engage in international crimes and intrigues that degrade peace, justice and honour generally, and stoke well-justified resentments abroad, which degrade the psychological basis of effective long-term security; goodwill.

It would take an incredible revolution of popular democracy in the US to regain control of the CIA and abolish it completely (as Constantine the Great did to the Praetorian Guard in the year 312, even to the point of razing its fortress in Rome and grinding up the tombstones of its dead). Such an event seems as logically and politically impossible as it would be gloriously uplifting. Manuel Garcia, Jr.

In 1984, leading an army delegation, I travelled to China, across the Khunjrab Pass, to Tashkurgan, Kashghar and to Urumchi, where I stayed for about five days. During our meetings with the Chinese military and civil friends, I found much concern in their minds about the rising dissent in the province and the impact of the on-going Afghan war of Liberation. Apart from many other aspects discussed with the Chinese friends, we suggested that "the problem could be fully addressed, if vast development projects were undertaken to improve the quality of life of the people, by turning the region into 'a show-case of progress and development'." The Xinjiang region lies at the junction point of East and West Asia, Central and South Asia, and at that time was under-developed, like NWFP areas of Tall, Kohat and Bannu, having close cultural affinities, such as food, dress and traditions.

Twenty years later, I visited Urumchi again and was amazed to see that the Chinese really have had turned the region into a "show-case of progress and prosperity." The city of Urumchi had mushroomed into a modern city with sky scrappers, massive infrastructure, industries and one of the world largest Windmill Park. Unbelievable! The people are prosperous, well dressed and enjoy the modern amenities of life, yet from within, the Uighurs are unhappy, because of the "social inequality, and particularly ethnic demographic changes," something we are experiencing in Pakistan, also, in Sindh and Balochistan.

And "despite the extraordinary transformation of the region due to economic investment and infrastructural development, with the goals of harvesting its vast mineral and oil deposits and further integrating the region into China, the Uighur people believe they have not benefited as much as have the masses of Han migrants living in 'their homeland'." The vital dissemination of this conflict suggests that global communications not only foster greater awareness of this region, but may even exacerbate its underlying problems." - Uru Gladney.

 

General Retd Mirza Aslam Beg

The writer is a former COAS, Pakistan