Word: uighurs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Chinese authorities say two Kashgar men, taxi driver Kurbanjan Hemit, 28, and vegetable vendor Abdurahman Azat, 33, carried out an attack on security forces in the city. The local government says the pair, who are Uighur, were driven by religious extremism to attack a group of Chinese border police, killing 16 and injuring 16 more. "They said that religious beliefs are more important than life, more important than the prosperity of their familes, even their mothers," said Shi Dagang, the Communist Party secretary for Kashgar prefecture. "They were trying their best to perform jihad." The scene of the incident...
Despite the relative calm, signs of dissent were apparent. "There's a lot of things we keep in here," one Uighur shopkeeper said, tapping on my chest. He said that decades of Chinese rule had changed the mentality of his people. "We've been under a lot of pressure" he says. "For some minorities the conditions have been good...
That's true, but Chinese authorities claim the attack is part of a long-running effort by Uighur separatists to tarnish the Beijing Olympics. Without giving details, Shi said that a preliminary investigation found similarities between this week's attack and evidence uncovered from a raid on a Uighur separatist training camp in January 2007. "Starting from last year the East Turkestan forces at home and abroad tried sabotage and violent activities targeting the Beijing Games," Shi said, using the historic name of an independent Uighur state which some groups have hopes of restoring through violent struggle. "The East Turkestan...
...residents were given all the economic opportunities. "Do you think people are happy here? Do you see them smiling, dancing, singing? No, because they have no work," he said. He argued that the influx of Han settlers, and the authoritarian control of the Communist Party were the sources of Uighur anger. "Why are people unhappy? Because power is in control of the Communist Party...
...human rights activists like Becquelin, a much broader approach is needed to address the root causes of Uighur discontent. "The Chinese government must stop conflating violent and nonviolent opposition in Xinjiang and cease its oppressive policies," he says. "Then, and only then, will it be possible to start working towards a solution...