Who's profiting from Xinjiang violence?
Friday, July 10, 2009
WE EXPRESS great concern over the escalating violence in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xuar) in China, which has reportedly spread from Urumqi to the cities of Kashgar, Yarkand, Aksu, Khotan and Karamay. A thorough, independent investigation must be launched into the unrest that may have begun as an ethnic group's discontent toward the government of China, but has now turned even uglier and become a communal conflict pitting the Uighurs against the larger Han group.
No police bullets need to be wasted to suppress the uprising of a minority group when bigger groups — fellow residents — can be brought into the conflict so communities may start clubbing, hitting and even killing each other.
Clues of manipulation abound — including the Han protestors' use of banners that describe the Uighurs as "terrorists". Several years ago it was the government of China who started branding the Uighurs terrorists to curb the group's quest for separation, a move that was praised by then US President Bush as proof that China was standing "side by side" with the American people in fighting "this evil force".
The condition in Xinjiang had been fertile for unrest for years. According to the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in London, China's Uighurs are amongst the most repressed peoples of the world, and human rights abuses take the forms of, among other things, forced labour and severe racial and religious persecution. The tension reached its boiling point with China's in-transfer policy that led to the substantial influx of Han Chinese to the region.
Racial tension — in a location where different ethnic groups or races are competing for resources — is the perfect ingredient for diverting a "vertical" conflict into "horizontal" communal clashes. Place all these factors inside the high-pressure stove of fear of terrorism and the cooks can keep their hands spotlessly clean. Any spilt blood will then have to be traced back to the wooden sticks and clubs that both the Hans and the Uighurs held in their respective hands as they started hitting each other.
Many keen readers of regional security know that conflicts are perpetrated and kept aflame by profiteers, from arms dealers to armed forces to politicians to business owners inside and outside of a region. There are many causes that can be easily manipulated to sow disturbances, and the most inflammable are religions and races. Such situations have taken place in southern Thailand, in Maluku and Aceh in Indonesia, and other Asian countries. Any investigation must reveal who profits from the Umruqi unrest, directly and indirectly, economically and politically.
A large portion of condemnation should also go to the West that has been largely silent over the repression of the Uighur Muslims. Could this silence be caused by a fear of offending China, a country that is getting bigger politically, militarily and economically by day? Which country can live independently from China today? The West needs China more than it cares to say.
A big round of scolding should also be slapped onto the Muslim world that has remained mute over the violence against the Uighur.
For the Muslims who died in Urumqi, Allah rests their souls in accordance to their niyah (intention) when death overtook them. Those who died in the unrest because they were protecting their faith, property and honour, they died as martyrs — Allah Knows best.
The Uighur case is a test for the Muslim world's solidarity. The official line is that the unrest has killed 156 people, but Uighur sources within Xinjiang say 400 Uighurs have been killed by police, 1,000 injured and close to 1,450 arrested. The death toll at the ethnic clash at a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong (which sparked the unrest) is officially reported to be two Uighurs, but IHRC said more than 100 Uighurs were killed during the incident.
What are the Muslims doing when their brothers and sisters are being hit and mobbed and killed in Xinjiang? Are they sitting pretty while wailing about rampant Islamophobia elsewhere, or are they taking active stance and thinking of ways to help?
No police bullets need to be wasted to suppress the uprising of a minority group when bigger groups — fellow residents — can be brought into the conflict so communities may start clubbing, hitting and even killing each other.
Clues of manipulation abound — including the Han protestors' use of banners that describe the Uighurs as "terrorists". Several years ago it was the government of China who started branding the Uighurs terrorists to curb the group's quest for separation, a move that was praised by then US President Bush as proof that China was standing "side by side" with the American people in fighting "this evil force".
The condition in Xinjiang had been fertile for unrest for years. According to the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in London, China's Uighurs are amongst the most repressed peoples of the world, and human rights abuses take the forms of, among other things, forced labour and severe racial and religious persecution. The tension reached its boiling point with China's in-transfer policy that led to the substantial influx of Han Chinese to the region.
Racial tension — in a location where different ethnic groups or races are competing for resources — is the perfect ingredient for diverting a "vertical" conflict into "horizontal" communal clashes. Place all these factors inside the high-pressure stove of fear of terrorism and the cooks can keep their hands spotlessly clean. Any spilt blood will then have to be traced back to the wooden sticks and clubs that both the Hans and the Uighurs held in their respective hands as they started hitting each other.
Many keen readers of regional security know that conflicts are perpetrated and kept aflame by profiteers, from arms dealers to armed forces to politicians to business owners inside and outside of a region. There are many causes that can be easily manipulated to sow disturbances, and the most inflammable are religions and races. Such situations have taken place in southern Thailand, in Maluku and Aceh in Indonesia, and other Asian countries. Any investigation must reveal who profits from the Umruqi unrest, directly and indirectly, economically and politically.
A large portion of condemnation should also go to the West that has been largely silent over the repression of the Uighur Muslims. Could this silence be caused by a fear of offending China, a country that is getting bigger politically, militarily and economically by day? Which country can live independently from China today? The West needs China more than it cares to say.
A big round of scolding should also be slapped onto the Muslim world that has remained mute over the violence against the Uighur.
For the Muslims who died in Urumqi, Allah rests their souls in accordance to their niyah (intention) when death overtook them. Those who died in the unrest because they were protecting their faith, property and honour, they died as martyrs — Allah Knows best.
The Uighur case is a test for the Muslim world's solidarity. The official line is that the unrest has killed 156 people, but Uighur sources within Xinjiang say 400 Uighurs have been killed by police, 1,000 injured and close to 1,450 arrested. The death toll at the ethnic clash at a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong (which sparked the unrest) is officially reported to be two Uighurs, but IHRC said more than 100 Uighurs were killed during the incident.
What are the Muslims doing when their brothers and sisters are being hit and mobbed and killed in Xinjiang? Are they sitting pretty while wailing about rampant Islamophobia elsewhere, or are they taking active stance and thinking of ways to help?
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