Rebiya Kadeer, Uyghur Dragon Fighter

Rebiya Kadeer, one of China’s most famous dissidents, was born in former East Turkestan (renamed the "Xinjang region" by the CCP). She is leader of the World Uyghur Congress, and is known as the Dalai Lama of the Uyghurs as she condemns all acts of violence. Four-time candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, she has just published her autobiography "Dragon Fighter."

Rebiya Kadeer was a laundress who rose to found and direct an important trading company and eventually become the seventh wealthiest woman in China. A philanthropist, she provided fellow Uyghurs with employment and training, and became a deputy in the Chinese Parliament.

Ms. Kadeer attempted to improve the situation of the Uyghurs, working within the system by continuously attempting to persuade Chinese officials to change their repressive policies against the Uyghur people of East Turkestan.

The Chinese government’s attitude towards her changed when she criticized their treatment of the Uyghurs during a National People's Political Consultative Conference session in March 1997. In her speech, she demanded that the Chinese government respect the autonomy and human rights which the Chinese constitution guarantees its ethnic minorities. She ignored her approved speech and asked the CCP authorities: "Is it our fault that the Chinese have occupied our land? That we live under such horrible conditions?" She had also strongly criticized China’s crackdown of the Uyghur student demonstration, which had taken place a month earlier in Ghulja City.

As punishment she was stripped of her membership in the Political Consultative Conference and forbidden to travel abroad. She was also pressured to divorce her husband, fellow dissident Sidik Rouzi, who had fled to the U.S. in 1996.

Soon afterward she was arrested on her way to a meeting with a member of the U. S. Congress. She was accused of "stealing state secrets," for having sent newspaper clippings to her husband, and was charged with possession of a list of 10 people "suspected of having a connection with national separatist activities." She spent six years in prison.

Thanks to international attention, her case became an international embarrassment for the Chinese government. In 2005, Rebiya Kadeer was released, nominally on medical grounds, to the United States where she was reunited with her family, as the result of U.S. government political pressure. In 2000, Human Rights Watch awarded Ms. Kadeer its highest human rights award. In 2004, Norway’s Rafto Foundation honored her with the Rafto Award.

During a European publicity tour for her autobiography "Dragon Fighter" (published in the U.S. by Kales Press) she once again warned the world against the brutality of the Chinese regime.

"The situation continues to deteriorate," Ms. Kadeer declared in an interview to an Italian newspaper. "The Beijing Olympics made things worse." The crimes that Rebiya Kadeer accuses the Chinese Government of are many. She affirms that the Uyghur are oppressed and their language has been banned from all schools; that a massive immigration of Chinese Han has taken place; that Uyghur women are subjected to forced abortions and some have been forced to move to Eastern China; that passports have been confiscated to prevent Uyghurs from traveling to foreign countries, where they would be able to publicize their situation.

Rebiya Kadeer reports that the Chinese government’s repression has become even more fierce since the 2008 Olympic Games. The supposed "terrorist" attack of 4 August 2008 (for which two Uyghurs have been executed) served as a pretext to increase the Chinese persecution against her people. "In Kargan and Hotan the Chinese Government has mobilized security forces. During the night policemen burst into our homes and search people, beating those who are not willing to collaborate. For Uyghurs to pray outside their homes is considered a "social crime." Video cameras have been placed everywhere to control every movement made by Uyghurs. Peaceful demonstrations are labeled as "violent" and Uyghurs are accused of being "terrorists" and "separatists," crimes which are punishable by death.

When asked why, in her opinion, the Chinese Government has refused to respect East Turkestan’s right to self-determination, she answered: "the Han majority have assimilated other minorities, but not the Uygurs. We have different somatic characteristics, a different language and different religious beliefs. We still have a strong cultural identity, that is why they must oppress us."

Further, the region has energy sources which China is always hungry for. Petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, asbestos, salts, bentonite, limestone, vermiculite, beryllium, muscovite, natron, saltpeter, pottery clay and serpentine are some of its 122 minerals. Many of East Turkestan’s mineral deposits are the largest reserves of those minerals in the entire country. For example, reserves of iron ore are currently estimated at 730 million tons, salt, 318 million tons, and mirabilite, 170 million tons. The region is known for its muscovite, gemstones, asbestos and Khotan jade. The coal reserves are circa 38% of the national total. Petroleum and natural gas reserves are estimated at 30 billion tons, which account for over 25% of the national total.

The Uyghurs also have water, which China is desperate for, with an annual runoff of approximately 88 billion cubic meters of surface water and 25 billion cubic meters of exploitable groundwater.

Ms. Kadeer explains: "China has a capitalistic economy and a socialist policy. Chinese capitalism is schizophrenic and it is getting worse: China uses money to buy the friendships of countries that it has economic relationships with while it continues unpunished to repress its citizens and ethnic minorities. But the enormous inequalities and social injustices that the Chinese government has created will sooner or later lead to its implosion (…) Every truly democratic country must place respect human rights as a precondition for the establishment of economic ties with China."

Sources:

China.org.cn
www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/priority-cases/special-focus-cases/page.do?id=1101237
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4357607.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/books/23fren.html?ref=arts
http://www.uhrp.org/articles/2106/1/Dragon-Fighter-One-Womans-Epic-Struggle-for-Peace-with-China-by-Rebiya-Kadeer-/index.html
http://www.uyghurcongress.org/En/AboutWUC.asp?mid=1095738888&mid2=-696970330&mid3=1166435137

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