MINELRES: Fwd: IWPR: Kazakhstan: Newspaper slur angers Uighurs
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Sat Jan 31 19:34:23 2004
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IWPR: Reporting Central Asia
No. 259, January 23, 2004
NEWSPAPER SLUR ANGERS UIGHURS
Kazak authorities come to defence of ethnic group attacked in media
report.
By Galima Bukharbaeva in Almaty
Kazakstan's sizeable Uighur population has been deeply shocked by a
newspaper report branding them a "cunning people - separatists and
terrorists".
The article "Kazaks face a hidden threat" was published by Kazakhskaya
Pravda at the beginning of the month, and controversy over its content
shows no sign of abating.
Journalist Aliya Akhmetova - who is not a staff writer at the paper -
wrote the piece which Uighur elders claim defames them by alleging that
they are separatist, messy and lazy.
According to Akhmetova, illegal Uighur immigrants from eastern
Turkmenistan and XUAR, the Xinjiang-Uighur autonomous republic in China,
plan to abuse the "kindness and open-heartedness" of the Kazak people to
spread extremism.
The Uighurs - a Turkic Muslim people who have lived in the region for
millennia - have a long history of being oppressed by the Chinese state,
which is resisting all calls to allow XUAR full independence, and
routinely tries to close down Uighur political groups outside its
territory.
But one senior western diplomat, who did not want to be named, told IWPR
that Chinese fears of separatist groups operating in Kazakstan were way
off the mark. "There is not a single Uighur organisation, either in
China or abroad, that would pose a threat to Beijing," he said.
"The Islamist Movement of Uzbekistan, IMU, really existed and was
dangerous, but there are no such Uighur organisations."
The Kazak interior ministry also expressed its shock at the article. "We
do not consider Uighurs living in our country to be dangerous people.
They are our citizens just like any other ethnic group," said one
official.
"The media should not plant seeds of hatred between people."
Kakharman Hojamberdi, one of the leaders of Kazakstan's Uighurs, told
IWPR that he believed pro-China forces in Kazakstan and the Chinese
security services were behind the article.
"China is afraid that the Uighur diaspora might become more politically
active, so they constantly try to control and discredit my people," he
said.
The Society for Uighur Culture of Kazakstan called a meeting of elders
in Almaty's House of Friendship to discuss the piece, consider the
reasons for its publication and decide how to respond.
Society chief Farkhad Hasanov told IWPR that the publication of an
anti-Uighur article in a Kazak outlet came to him as a shock.
"This is the first time in the years of Kazak independence that such an
offending article about Uighurs is published," said Hasanov, looking
puzzled. "This is like a bolt from the blue.
"Why did this article appear? There is someone behind this, I think,
people who dislike peace in Kazakstan. We will demand a retraction from
the newspaper - or we'll take it to court."
Kazakhskaya Pravda originally backed the journalist and her article,
refusing to denounce the opinions expressed, but later released a
statement which appeared to back the very separatist groups it had
criticised.
"This paper has repeatedly expressed support for the national liberation
movement of Uighurs of Eastern Turkmenistan," the statement read. "We
continue to believe that an independent Uighur state serving as a buffer
zone for Kazakstan in the east would be very beneficial for our
country."
Kazakstan is home to around 220,000 Uighurs, making it the largest
Uighur diaspora community outside China, which is home to roughly
fifteen million members of the ethnic group.
While Astana defended the ethnic group in the face of Akhmetova claims,
Hojamberdi believes officials would rather maintain good relations with
Beijing - both are members of the Shanghai Organisation for Cooperation
- than stand up for Uighur rights.
"Kazakstan's partnership with China is becoming more important than
human rights," he said. "Kazakstan refuses to admit refugees from China,
but refugees from Afghanistan are allowed to enter. In the late Nineties
it handed several Uighurs [who tried to enter the republic] back to the
Chinese authorities - who then shot them."
China actively pursues a policy of eliminating Uighur organisations
abroad, and assimilating Uighurs within XUAR.
The latest execution of an Uighur on charges of separatism occurred as
recently as November 2003, when Sher Ali, who took part in a youth
demonstration in Ghulja in February 1997, was shot.
Galima Bukharbaeva is an IWPR staff member.
www.iwpr.net
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