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Devastating Blows Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang

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Devastating Blows Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang Human Rights Watch April 2005 Vol. 17, No. 2(C) Devastating Blows Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang Map 1 .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Map 2 .............................................................................................................................................. 2 I. Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 3 A note on methodology...........................................................................................................9 II. Background.............................................................................................................................10 The political identity of Xinjiang..........................................................................................11 Uighur Islam ............................................................................................................................12 A history of restiveness..........................................................................................................13 The turning point––unrest in 1990, stricter controls from Beijing.................................14 Post 9/11: labeling Uighurs terrorists..................................................................................16 Literature becomes sabotage.................................................................................................19 The international response––acquiescence and quid pro quos .......................................21 III. National Law and Policy on Religion................................................................................25 IV. A Repressive Framework: Regulation of Religion in Xinjiang......................................28 Policies Hidden from the Public ..........................................................................................30 Regulation in 1994-2001: “Keeping a handle on” the imams and party cadres............31 The 2001 draft amendments to the 1994 Regulations: narrowing the scope of “normal” religious activities ..................................................................................................33 A Manual for Urumqi Municipality Ethnic Religious Work............................................42 V. Implementation: Restrictions on Freedom of Religion in Practice................................47 Registration of religious organizations: a no-win situation...............................................48 The “reeducation” of imams in 2001 and 2002 .................................................................49 Control and conformity: supervision of mosques in 2001...............................................54 The persecution of clerics and the demolition of mosques .............................................55 A Case of “Extremism”.........................................................................................................57 VI. Controlling Religion in the Education System.................................................................58 Minors barred from “participating in religious activities” in Xinjiang............................58 Purging the schools of religion .............................................................................................60 Enforcement through surveillance.......................................................................................63 Special campaigns ...................................................................................................................64 VII. Anti-Crime Campaigns and Religious Repression.........................................................65 Unrelenting crackdowns ........................................................................................................66 Sweeps by law enforcement agencies...................................................................................69 VIII. Religious “Offenders” in Detention ..............................................................................71 IX. Freedom of Religion and China’s Responsibility under International Law ................75 X. Recommendations .................................................................................................................79 To the government of the People’s Republic of China: ...................................................79 To the international community:..........................................................................................81 To international organizations and mechanisms:...............................................................82 To international donors and aid groups working in Xinjiang, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank .............................................................................83 Appendices...................................................................................................................................84 Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................113 Map 1 HRIC SPECIAL REPORT 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, VOL. 17, NO. 2 Map 2 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, VOL. 17, NO. 2(C) 2 HRIC SPECIAL REPORT I. Summary “Xinjiang will always keep up the intensity of its crackdown on ethnic separatist forces and deal them devastating blows without showing any mercy.”1 Xinjiang Party Secretary Wang Lequan, January 2003 China is known for tight constraints on freedom of religion. This is particularly evident in its northwest Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), an oil-rich area that borders eight other nations. Here the Muslim faith of Uighurs, the largest non-Chinese ethnic group in the region, is under wholesale assault by the state. Uighurs have enjoyed autonomy in the past. Many now desire greater autonomy than is currently allowed; others demand a separate state. Uighurs are thus seen in Beijing as an ethno-nationalist threat to the Chinese state. Islam is perceived as feeding Uighur ethnic identity, and so the subordination of Islam to the state is used as a means to ensure the subordination of Uighurs as well. Documents obtained and interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch reveal a multi- tiered system of surveillance, control, and suppression of religious activity aimed at Xinjiang’s Uighurs. At its most extreme, peaceful activists who practice their religion in a manner deemed unacceptable by state authorities or Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials are arrested, tortured, and at times executed. The harshest punishments are meted out to those accused of involvement in separatist activity, which is increasingly equated by officials with “terrorism.” Because of fears in Beijing of the power of separatist messages, independent religious activity or dissent is at times arbitrarily equated with a breach of state security, a serious crime in China and one that is frequently prosecuted. At a more mundane and routine level, many Uighurs experience harassment in their daily lives. Celebrating religious holidays, studying religious texts, or showing one’s religion through personal appearance are strictly forbidden at state schools. The Chinese government has instituted controls over who can be a cleric, what version of the Koran may be used, where religious gatherings may be held, and what may be said on religious occasions. 1 Wang Lequan: [Xinjiang] will deal devastating blows to ethnic separatist forces,” China News Agency, January 14, 2003 [王乐泉：将给与民族分裂势力以毁灭性打击， 中国新闻社，2003 年 1 月 14 日]. HRIC SPECIAL REPORT 3 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, VOL. 17, NO. 2(C) Violations of these strictures can result in expulsion, fines, entries into the personal file that the state keeps on every Chinese citizen, harassment of one’s family, and administrative punishments, including short-term detention and administrative detention in China’s notorious and discredited reeducation through labor (RTL) program. This report, based on previously undisclosed regulations and policy documents, as well as interviews in Xinjiang and elsewhere, makes it clear that systematic repression of religion continues in Xinjiang as a matter of considered state policy. It explains key changes in official terminology that signal important policy shifts and describes the principles that are expected to guide the actions of officials. This report details for the first time the complex architecture of law, regulation, and policy in Xinjiang that denies Uighurs religious freedom. These include: • the current regulations governing religious activities in Xinjiang; • a manual for government and Party cadres on implementing policy on minority religious affairs, circulated internally in 2000, that elaborates many of the repressive practices subsequently codified in the regulations; • regulations prohibiting the participation of minors in any religious activity; • documents acknowledging vast increases in the number of Uighurs imprisoned or held administratively for alleged religious and state security offenses, including through the discredited reeducation through labor system; and • regulations detailing how religious and ethnic minority matters come to be classified as “state secrets.” These documents are deemed extremely sensitive and are accordingly restricted to internal Party or Party and government circulation. They are made public for the first time in this report and a selection can be found in the appendices. In November 2004,
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