Massive clean-up operation.
In the consequences of the crackdown, a short article titled “Lets discover the terrorist mask of East Turkistan terrorists” released by Chinas main Xinhua news firm called the demonstrators, “insurgents.”.
Following the event, the Chinese government used the demonstration as a pretext to perform a year-long massive “clean-up operation” throughout Xinjiang under the guise of finding suspects, Uyghur sources stated.
When the Chinese government started apprehending Uyghurs in its networks of internment camps in 2017, previous detainees connected to the Ghulja demonstration were selected up and sentenced yet again.
When a video of the demonstration and crackdown was smuggled out of China and aired in the United Kingdom in 1997, the world started to discover of what occurred at Ghulja. There were few repercussions for China.
In April 1999, a report from London-based Amnesty International stated thousands of Uyghurs may have been eliminated in the incident without factor. Amnestys account was based in part on witness testaments, said T. Kumar, former advocacy director for Asia and the Pacific at Amnesty International in Washington D.C.
” At that time, I would say that the absence of details is one of the factors our report was useful to bring the issue to the leading edge,” he stated.
Kumar added, there was little external outcry.
” That was the sad part due to the fact that however even the U.N. and the international neighborhood did not make any noise at that time,” he stated. “If that would have taken place– if the international neighborhood, the U.S., and others would have made a serious attempt to raise the massacre at that time and attempt to require justice– the Chinese would have been incredibly worried about continuing the practice of persecution, and now to the degree of detaining or putting behind bars around 2 million individuals.”.
Chinese security forces prepare to deal with off with Uyghur protesters in Ghulja in northwestern Chinas Xinjiang area, February 1997, in a screenshot from a video of a Chinese tv report smuggled out of China. Credit: UKs Channel 4 News report/YouTube.
A desired poster requiring two Uyghur leaders of the 1997 protest in Ghulja to surrender to authorities, holds on the wall of a hotel in Ghulja in northwestern Chinas Xinjiang area, Nov. 7, 1998. Credit: AFP.
On a cold winter season day 25 years back, young Uyghurs in the western Chinese city of Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) staged a protest to call for an end to religious repression and ethnic discrimination.
The occasions of that day would instead become referred to as the Ghulja Massacre of 1997, an incident that Uyghurs now look upon as a precursor of an even greater level of persecution and violence against the mainly Muslim community in China that has unfolded in phases considering that then.
As numerous as 200 hundred individuals might have been eliminated in the massacre– one report said thousands might have died– but it got little international attention at the time.
As much of the worlds attention is drawn to China for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Uyghurs are using the anniversary of Ghulja to press for an international investigation into what taken place that day and to look for responsibility for those behind the bloodshed.
” Twenty-five years back, the Ghulja Massacre was excellent of the treatment of the Uyghur people by the Chinese authorities and its crackdown on flexibility of expression and assembly,” stated Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), in a declaration issued Feb. 4. “Now, the Chinese governments genocidal policies are ensuring to avoid the Uyghur people from ever speaking up again.”
Today, nearly 2 million Uyghurs are thought to have been sent out to mass internment camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region by a federal government desperately trying to preserve control of an ethnically and religiously diverse population.
On Feb. 5, 1997, the crowd had actually collected to oppose a restriction of Uyghur celebrations referred to as meshrep, an event of the communitys culture and traditions.
But the protesters were met by Chinese security and militaries who utilized water cannons to distribute the crowd. When that didnt work, they then used their guns, according to witnesses.
The Chinese government at the time claimed that only 10 people passed away throughout the protest. Its main organ called the protestors “insurgents.”.
However Uyghur companies and global rights groups later on stated at least 200 demonstrators were killed. Countless others were detained.
An unforgettable tragedy.
Behtiyar Shemshidin, who was a policeman during the Ghulja Massacre however later on resigned and left Xinjiang, told the WUC and other rights groups that Chinese authorities opened fire on unarmed protesters.
A Uyghur rights activist now in Canada, Behtiyar stated the protesters were jailed and tortured. Numerous detainees, consisting of the demonstrations leader, Abduhelil Abdulmejid, were tortured to death in jail, Behtiyar stated. The violence continued for weeks, he said.
Zubayra Shamseden, the Chinese outreach coordinator at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, a documentation and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., stated her two younger bros and a cousin were among those who were arbitrarily jailed in the crackdown.
One bro, Abdurazaq Shemsidin, was arrested in Ghulja in 1998 and sentenced to life in jail for “political criminal activities.” He stays incarcerated in Urumqis No. 1 Prison.
The other bro, Sedirdin Shemsidin, was assassinated in Kazakhstan in June 1998. Zubayra Shamsedens cousin, Hammet Muhammad, was eliminated by Chinese militaries in a clash in Ghulja a little over a year after the massacre.
” The Feb. 5 Ghulja Massacre is an extraordinary catastrophe that befell not only my family however the whole Uyghur individuals,” Zubayra said.
Getting the edge.
China has continued to hound Uyghurs connected to the incident. Lots of arrested for getting involved in the demonstration and in other presentations ended up in Chinas “re-education” camps– what Uyghurs state are concentration camps.
China started its mass internment campaign in the area in 2017. An approximated 1.8 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are believed to have been apprehended in a comprehensive network of hundreds of camps ever since.
See testaments and investigative reports have actually considering that alleged that the Chinese government has tortured detainees, disinfected Uyghur ladies, and conscripted Uyghurs for work in factories.
A year prior to the Ghulja Massacre, the Chinese Communist Partys Politburo released the “No. 7 Document” outlining measures to avoid the increase of spiritual and ethnic extremism. It called on police to suppress any self-reliance movements. Many Uyghurs desire Xinjiang to break away from China and to form a new nation called East Turkestan.
” The document required speeding up assimilationist policies such as moving more Chinese into East Turkistan by providing Uyghurs land and supplying them with much better jobs while repressing the Uyghurs on all fronts, be it work, household planning, and so on,” said Mehmet Tohti, a Uyghur political activist in Canada.
” The standard objective of Chinese program was to gain advantage in East Turkistan politically, financially, and in variety of populations,” he stated.
A year before the Ghulja Massacre, the Chinese Communist Partys Politburo provided the “No. 7 Document” outlining procedures to avoid the increase of religious and ethnic extremism. Lots of Uyghurs want Xinjiang to break away from China and to form a new country called East Turkestan.
A Uyghur rights activist now in Canada, Behtiyar stated the protesters were detained and tortured. Many detainees, including the presentations leader, Abduhelil Abdulmejid, were tortured to death in prison, Behtiyar stated. The violence continued for weeks, he stated.
Awareness of rights offenses.
Uyghur activist companies remain steadfast in calling on the international neighborhood to hold China accountable for the massacre.
” This year the ceremony accompanies Beijing Winter Olympic Games, so we have raised an awareness of the Ghulja Massacre in addition to our other activities on the international stage,” said Gheyur Qurban, a WUC spokesperson in Germany.
” The occurrence is not only important in the current history in East Turkistan, but also important globally to raise awareness of Uyghur rights offenses committed by the Chinese routine.”.
In the generation because the massacre, Chinas financial and political strength has actually substantially grown. Its leaders think they can get away with comprehensive abuses versus the Uyghurs, Kumar said.
” Twenty-five years back, they were not as powerful as today, so the obstacles are higher for everybody who appreciates human rights and the plight of Uyghurs,” he said.
The U.S., U.N., and the legislatures of some democratic federal governments have actually stated that Chinas rights offenses in Xinjiang quantity to genocide and criminal activities against humanity– a charge that Beijing vehemently rejects.
Translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
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A Chinese cops officer armed with an automated weapon gestures towards press reporters at a roadblock near what is formally called an occupation education center for Uyghurs in Ghulja in northwestern Chinas Xinjiang area, Nov. 29, 2018. Credit: Reuters.
A Uyghur female strolls pass a Chinese propaganda signboard in Ghulja in northwestern Chinas Xinjiang area, Nov. 11, 1998. Credit: AFP.
