[mukto-mona] Amnesty Int’l says China regularly executes people for political offences in Xinjiang

China: Amnesty Int'l says Xinjiang is the only region where people [Muslims] are regularly executed for political offences

China's Xinjiang oil boom fuels Uighur resentment

Friends,

The above picture beautifully captures the state of affairs, not just in China's Muslim regions, but wherever occupation occurs.

I do not support the movement for the creation of a breakaway republic in China's Muslim north-west, but the fact remains that Xinjiang or East Turkestan, like Tibet, has been occupied by China for over 60 years. If China does not give the Uighurs the right to their own destiny and maximum autonomy, then sooner or later these people will venture into an armed uprising that will place China into direct conflict with Turkey and other Turkic peoples of Central Asia.

For all its claims of equality of nationalities based on Stalin's "National Question" doctrine, China has descended into an imperial state that sees the minority nationalities as inferior and occupied peoples who need to be governed as colonies, not citizens.

China is not alone. Sri Lanka has dealt the same way with its Tamil minority while Israel continues its occupation of Palestinian Territories. In the Muslim world, Pakistan's attitude towards the Baloch, Arabs dealing with Darfur and Iran in its treatment of the Azeris and Kurds, have all taken similar paths of oppression.

The solution is easy, but difficult to swallow. Only when citizenship is based on universal human rights, not inherited race, religion or gender, will we see a more civilized approach to conflict. The one example I share unashamedly is that of Canada, where the minority Francophones have vast autonomy and the First Nations are governed under their own treaty rights.

Here is a report by Jamil Anderlini of the Financial Post from the city of Korla in China's Xinjiang region, filed last year.

In it Anderlini quotes Amnesty International as saying, "Xinjiang is the only part of China where people are regularly executed for political offences." Guess who these "people" are: The Uighurs.

To read the FT report on China's Muslim troubles and the role of new oil finds in that region, click here.

Cheers,

Tarek Fatah