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HASHIM IQBAL

Different separatist groups operating in East Turkestan are held responsible by the Chinese Government for all crimes and bad actions that have been happening in that region, in order to let the world believe that they are “Terrorist Powers , “Criminal Groups so that they could be banned by International Community. When the “strike hard policy was started against criminal groups and anti-social powers in China, Chinese Government claimed, “National separatists are the biggest criminal groups and anti-social powers, so that we should focus our strike power on them and try to suppress those independent powers. After the September 11 event, the focus of the world shifted towards fighting terror. China took this chance and started blaming Uyghur Independent powers as “terrorist powers . They fabricate so called “terror evidence and counted all criminal activities, which have been happening since ten years in the region and in the vicinity of Eastern Turkestan under the name of those independent powers. May be Chinese authorities could not find any further “criminal evidence such as murdering, explosion that could be connected with them thus they made out very strange evidences from other categories. For example, according to the Xinhua News of Jan. 29th, the vice secretary of Communist Party of the “Autonomous region , Zhou, delivered: “the Eastern Turkestan terrorists have threatened our state safety and made the drug trade controlling status complicated by engaging in it.

They collect fund for their violent movement by drug trading. The quick spread of drug abuse has been a reality in Eastern Turkestan during recent years. According to the statistics, the number of drug abusers and the amount of Heroin consumption are in second place in China, just next to Yunnan Province. Most of the victims of drug abuse are Uyghur, which comprises 80% of total drug abusers in Eastern Turkestan. The spread of drug abuse among the people who live in a remote, backward region under the oppression of Chinese government is a deliberate attempt to destroy their cultural base. Because of drug abuse, tens of thousands of Uyghur youth lost their lives, thousands of families have been destroyed. People had believed government’s propaganda and hoped that they will control drug abuse, punish transporters and traders severely, but government did not do that. Actually, spreading of drug abuse among Uyghur and making it an uncontrolled situation was an objective of a national conspiracy of Chinese government for letting Uyghur youth to be involved in those acts so that they will lose their concentration on actual problem. That’s simply because Chinese government wants to control Eastern Turkestan permanently by destroying the Uyghur as a nationality.

Chinese government believes that Eastern Turkestan independent powers are the biggest barrier which they must come over to achieve their goals. Therefore to their understanding the best way to demolish it is to spread an atmosphere of alcoholism, prostitution, and drug abuse especially among Uyghur youth, for that the drug abuse is the most critical one. The China had tasted such a kind of national conspiracy in history. England corrupted and polluted Chinese people mentally and physically as they transported and sold large amount of opium to them in 19th century. Nowadays, the Chinese government implements the exact method to the Uyghurs who live under their rule. A lot of evidence proves the reality of that point. For example, the police and government knew about that drug trafficking but they never stopped that drug business in Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) and even the government know all big drug traders who are coming to Eastern Turkestan, but they never took any initiative to stop them. So finally that kind of a situation results in lot of drug trade in Eastern Turkestan. The actual goal of them is to debilitate Uyghur folks. Besides, in some densely populated Uyghur areas emerged a strange situation that if the alcohol consumption and the number of alcohol users decreased in an area, authorities would send accredited person and see the reason. Even they inquired into private small shop and asked why did the sales go down. Then they use force as a method. They order them to sell alcohol or else ‘close your business’. Under these circumstances actually, the main objective of Eastern Turkestan independent powers is to save the Uyghur people from the oppression of Chinese government.

For this reason, they have carried out propaganda and education to promote religious belief, good morality, sustaining healthy convention, and stopping bad behavior among the folks. They put it as one of the main work of liberation movement. However, Chinese government did not allow it either. For example, “The Eastern Turkestan Freedom Party , in Tohsu County, in 1992, started their activity with educating people. The several months of propaganda and education resulted in sharp decrease in the drug abuse and even the wedding ceremonies took place according to national costume. This resulted in a great improvement of morality among the people. However, Chinese authority sooner banned the organization and detained the members and sentenced them by claming it as an opposition faction. These incidents are very common and continuously taking place in that area.
It is therefore the duty of international Human Rights organization to intervene in the matter so that they can save this culturally unique ethnic group from the extension before it will become a small minority in their own motherland.

{The author is research scholar in CCAS, Kashmir University and can be reached at hashimkashmiry@hotmail.com }