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BISHKEK (TCA) — The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) on January 29 said it has received confirmation from the relatives of Muhammad Salih Hajim of his death in custody in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The prominent scholar and Uyghur religious leader was 82 years old. Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — Reports have surfaced from the Xinjiang Uighur province of China claiming that Han Chinese security forces have imprisoned an estimated 120,000 members of the Uighur minority in “reeducation camps,” nominally to stamp out radicalism in the Muslim ethnic group, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — China’s western Xinjiang region is home to a large ethnic Kazakh minority. Being Muslims, the Kazakhs in Xinjiang, like the local Uighur minority, reportedly face the authorities’ pressure under the guise of fighting religious extremism. All this makes ethnic Kazakhs seek protection from Astana. We are republishing this article by Farkhad Sharip on the issue, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor: Following bloody clashes between ethnic Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the city of Urumchi, in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, in the summer of 2009, Beijing resorted to both carrot and stick policies to secure stability in this volatile territory. On the one hand, the central government is funneling massive funds to develop the local social infrastructure as well as promote minority ethnic cultures in Xinjiang, which borders on former Soviet Central Asia. But on the other, Beijing is stepping up political pressure on Muslims living there, under the guise of fighting religious extremism. Meanwhile, the continuing influx of Han Chinese from the inner provinces of China to Xinjiang fuels the fear of cultural and linguistic assimilation as well as the loss of ethnic identity among the region’s minorities—including Kazakhs. And Astana is increasingly being called upon by the Kazakh diaspora in China to intervene. According to official sources, between 1991 and 2016, more than 952,000 ethnic Kazakhs living abroad returned to Kazakhstan. But Kazakhs from China comprise only 14.2 percent of that number, compared to 61.6 percent from Uzbekistan (Diapazon.kz, January 26, 2017). Many observers attribute the significantly low percentage of ethnic-Kazakh “returnees” (or “oralmans” in official parlance) to draconian foreign travel regulations imposed by Beijing on ethnic Kazakhs and other minorities (Ratel.kz, December 7, 2017). At a press-conference organized in late 2017 by the Social Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, Kazakhs from China who had been granted Kazakhstani citizenship expressed concerns about the fate of their relatives jailed in China. Kadirali Orazuly, a well-known public figure and human rights activist said that family members of ethnic Kazakhs who maintain contacts with relatives holding Kazakhstani passports were being subjected to judicial persecution in China and subsequently sent to so-called “Centers of Political Education” before being imprisoned after a short, closed trial. According to Orazuly, Chinese authorities use any pretext, from money transfers to telephone conversation or visits to relatives living in Kazakhstan, as evidence of wrongdoing with which to prosecute ethnic Kazakhs. Lyazzat Kamze, the head of the Center for Legal Assistance of the Social Democratic Party, said the persecution and imprisonment of ethnic Kazakhs in China in defiance of international law have assumed unprecedented proportions. Further, she called on rights activists to appeal to Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov and ask him to interfere (Ratel.kz, December 7, 2017). Some of the emotionally charged stories of arbitrary behavior of Chinese authorities toward ethnic Kazakhs may be untrue. But increasing anti-Chinese sentiment among the domestic Kazakhstani population is hard to ignore. Public protests provoked by rumors about the government scheme to sell agricultural lands to...
BISHKEK (TCA) — China has announced that it will be footing the bill for the construction and equipping of a new base in northern Afghanistan, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported. Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — Authorities in China have been sending thousands of Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic minority group living primarily in the country’s western province of Xinjiang, to detention camps for political crimes like having extremist thoughts, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reports citing an Associated Press investigation. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — The Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan says it has held talks with Chinese officials regarding "frequent complaints by ethnic Kazakhs about problems they face in the People's Republic of China," RFE/RL reports. Continue reading
