Uyghur Separatist Conflict in Western China. 1.
Abstract The Muslim Uyghurs are an ethnic minority in Xinjiang, the most western province of China. Particularly since the Communist takeover of the region in 1949, the Uyghurs have experienced religious and cultural persecution by the Han Chinese. With the discovery of oil and other natural resources in the region, the Han Chinese are now flooding into the region in an effort to exploit the resources. China: Religious Repression of Uighur Muslims. (New York) - The Chinese government is directing a crushing campaign of religious repression against China’s Muslim Uighurs in the name of anti-separatism and counter-terrorism, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China said in a new report today.
The 114-page report, Devastating Blows: Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, is based on previously undisclosed Communist Party and government documents, as well as local regulations, official newspaper accounts, and interviews conducted in Xinjiang. It unveils for the first time the complex architecture of law, regulation, and policy in Xinjiang that denies Uighurs religious freedom, and by extension freedom of association, assembly, and expression. Uighur resentment at Beijing's rule. Death sentences for Xinjiang riot. A Chinese court has sentenced a further six people to death over ethnic unrest in the far-western region of Xinjiang in July, state-run media report.
Nearly 200 people were killed during riots between ethnic Uighurs and members of China's dominant Han group. The six were part of a group of 14 people who went on trial on Wednesday, charged with crimes including murder, robbery and arson. A total of 12 people have now been sentenced to death after the riots. The six were sentenced to death at a court in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, Xinhua news agency reports. Growing tensions Activists have condemned the trials as a sham, saying they have lacked transparency and fairness. A protest by Uighurs in Urumqi erupted into violence on 5 July, leaving at least 197 people killed and another 1,700 injured. Shops were smashed and vehicles set alight and passers-by set upon by rioters. Regions and territories: Xinjiang.
13 August 2013Last updated at 06:09 ET China's Xinjiang province is the country's most westerly region, bordering on the former Soviet states of Central Asia, as well as several other states including Afghanistan, Russia, and Mongolia.
The largest ethnic group, the Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uighurs, has lived in China's shadow for centuries. The region has had an intermittent history of autonomy and occasional independence, but was finally brought under Chinese control in the 18th century. Economic development of the region under Communist rule has been accompanied by large-scale immigration of Han Chinese, and Uighur allegations of discrimination and marginalisation have been behind more visible anti-Han and separatist sentiment since the 1990s. This has flared into violence on occasion. Continue reading the main story Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring.
China uighurs - Huffington Post Search Results. Seven 'terrorists' shot dead in China. Chinese officials in Pishan County in the far southern part of Xinjiang, claimed the kidnappers took two people hostage late on Wednesday close to the borders of India and Pakistan.
"The assailants resisted arrest and launched assaults, killing one police officer and injuring another", said the report. Police shot seven of the suspects dead and wounded four who were caught, and the two hostages were freed, it claimed. One policeman was killed and another injured. The killings are the latest reports of recent violence in the province which was rocked by deadly race riots between Han Chinese settlers and the indigenous Turkic-speaking Muslim community in 2009.
Nearly 200 were killed and over 1000 injured. Earlier this month, "extremists kidnapped and brutally murdered a Uighur man for drinking alcohol" in Pishan, state media said. "Store-owners and vendors in some rural areas of Pishan said they are afraid to sell alcoholic drinks or cigarettes over fears of retaliation," the report added. Asia Times Online - News from greater China; Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Xinjiang and China's strategy in Central AsiaBy Stephen Blank Xinjiang, like Taiwan and neighboring Tibet, is a neuralgic issue for China, which desperately needs internal stability in that predominantly Muslim, resource-rich and strategically important region.
Beijing's strategic and energy objectives are based on stability in Xinjiang and its Central Asian policies grow out of its preoccupation with stability there. The recent bombings in Uzbekistan, a Central Asia neighbor which does not border Xinjiang, though, has concerned Beijing, which was quick to label them as the work of "terrorists", though the exact motive for the violence is not known. Beijing also has been quick to blame dissent among the Muslim Uighurs on "terrorists", and in December it issued a list of what it called terrorist organizations and individuals.