Word: khotan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...there is cause for concern. In recent weeks Beijing announced it had foiled a separatist plot by Uighurs to kidnap athletes at the Olympics, and made scores of other arrests. But increased pressure may have already backfired. Residents and activist groups outside China say that since Mutallip's death, Khotan and surrounding areas have been roiled by protests involving a few dozen to nearly a thousand demonstrators. "The demonstrations are indicative of the widespread dissent in Xinjiang's Uighur community and how quickly that dissent can become explosive with only a little agitation," Elizabeth Van Wie Davis, co-editor...
...visit to the region this month, TIME talked to Khotan farmers, impoverished jade hunters, shopkeepers, students and professionals. Many of the Uighurs' stories are similar. They say that the government discriminates against them in areas ranging from job opportunities to issues such as the teaching of the Uighur language, which has been heavily curtailed, and the issuance of international passports, which Uighurs now say has been halted until after the Olympic Games in August. (An official surnamed Wu at the Foreign Affairs Department in Khotan said he wasn't aware of such a policy.) Some Uighurs, who are a central...
...responsible appeared to have been wiped out, making it hard to know what to make of Beijing's current claims, which single out two groups in particular: the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, which are also blamed by authorities for the trouble in Khotan. "It's very hard to know what to believe," says Dru Gladney, a Xinjiang specialist at Pomona College in California. "It's been very noticeable that Uighur leaders have been very careful not to call for attacks and to express their support for the Olympics. I'm sure they...
...Fear on the Silk Road Whatever the truth about the alleged planned attacks, resentment is growing in Uighur-dominated areas like Khotan. After March 14 protests in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, turned bloody, the police arrested large numbers of Uighur men, apparently hoping to prevent an escalation of unrest, according to Khotan residents and activists outside China. But the detentions had the opposite effect and on March 23, an estimated 500-700 women in black dresses, headscarves and veils demonstrated during the weekly bazaar, a market that authorities say draws some 100,000 attendees. "They pulled placards calling for independence...
...casual visitor, the streets of Khotan now seem back to normal. The bazaar is open every morning, selling everything from roast lamb and athletic shoes to handwoven local carpets and the famous local white jade. But the almost exclusively Chinese traders whose small shops line the streets between the large People's Liberation Army base and Unity Square are evasive when asked about relations between the races and the events of March 23, after which many of these shops stayed closed for days. One young woman from Sichuan province says it is getting dark outside and she must close...