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إعلان
تشكيل حكومة تركستان الشرقية في المهجر
حكومة في المهجر
سبتمبر 14 2004 م -كابيتول هيل - واشنطن .
September 14, 2004, Capitol Hill, Washington
Fifty years ago (August 27, 1949), a plane carrying
the leaders of the Republic of East Turkistan
crashed under mysterious circumstances. When the
news reached Beijing, Mao Zedong sent in the
Communist military, and the occupation of East
Turkistan began.
Throughout the intervening years, many have come to
the aid and comfort the oppressed, and tried to
spread their message of pain and anguish, salved by
the hope of freedom and independence for what was
once a flourishing civilization. However, the
Communists continually, and brutally, snuffed out
every candle, silenced every voice, and killed any
flower of hope they could find. For years, the
people of East Turkistan have wondered: does anyone
hear them? Is there a voice abroad for East
Turkistan? Is there any entity, a government, an
authority that speaks for them?
That wondering: that longing has ended. East
Turkistan has found its voice one again.
So that the international community, particularly
the United States, can help us in establishing and
amplifying that voice, we, the East Turkistani
community in exile have established a government of
the Republic of East Turkistan in exile.
We strongly believe that we can bring hope again to,
and be a voice for, the Uyghurs, Kazaks, Kyrghiz,
and all other oppressed people of East Turkistan
suffering under Communist occupation.
Communist China calls my country Xinjiang province.
That fact alone explains much of our purpose.
Certain assumptions come from calling this region
“Xinjiang.” The most basic is that it is part of
China. And from that flow the assumptions that its
natives speak Chinese, that they look like East
Asians, that they come out of a Confucian tradition,
and so on.
All of these assumptions are wrong. As the name
“Eastern Turkistan” implies, this vast region has
for centuries been the land of the Eastern Turks,
who are Muslim by faith, Caucasian by race, and
whose native language is not remotely related to
Chinese.
Eastern Turkistan, which had remained an independent
state for many centuries, was invaded and conquered
by the Qing Empire in 1759. During the years which
followed, the native people rebelled on numerous
occasions against their distant rulers. In 1864, the
Turkic people successfully chased the Manchus from
their motherland. Their independent state, which
they preserved for most of two decades, established
diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire,
Russia, and Great Britain.
The Manchu Empire again gained control of Eastern
Turkistan in the early 1880s, declaring on November
18, 1884, that Eastern Turkistan was China's
nineteenth province. It was at this time that the
imperial viceroy, Tso Tsung-t'ang, officially gave
the land its Chinese name: “Sinkiang,” pronounced
today as Xinjiang. This new name means “the new
territory” or “the new dominion” in Chinese.
The struggle of the Eastern Turkistani people for
control of their land has continued in the 20th
century. The 1933 Qumul Rebellion led to the
resurrection of an independent Eastern Turkistan. A
second major uprising in 1944 led to independence
again. This was maintained until 1949 when Soviet
and Chinese forces combined to crush it. Since this
most recent takeover, Beijing has strengthened its
occupation of my homeland.
Since then, Eastern Turkistan has become a dungeon
for its people. Communist China has been constantly
violating the human rights of the East Turkistanis –
arresting, torturing, and killing the innocent.
Hundreds of thousands of East Turkistanis who have
bravely challenged Communist authority have been
executed. Many have fled to neighboring countries.
Hundreds of thousands have been sent to labor camps.
The control of East Turkistan is enforced
ruthlessly: many, many thousands of families have
suffered from forced sterilizations, forced
abortions, and economic penalties.
Beijing's policy toward my country has moved beyond
control toward complete assimilation. In recent
years China has moved millions of ethnic Chinese
into Eastern Turkistan, seeking to dilute the true
native populations. Those who arrive from China are
given the best jobs and the best pay and the best
housing -- all at the expense of the millions of
East Turkistanis. Meanwhile, Beijing has attempted
to eliminate all aspects of East Turkistani culture,
including our religion.
Turkistanis are forced to speak, read and write
Chinese, and to dress, eat, sing, dance, and behave
as if they are Chinese. Beijing claims to respect
“its minorities,” but we who have lived under their
rule known that their real policy is one of
genocide. Their goal is clear: one day there must be
only Chinese in “Xinjiang.”
Communist China's lack of respect for the people of
my country has been equaled by its disregard for the
very land of Eastern Turkistan. We have become a
dumping ground for China's environmental waste. Lop
Nor, a region known well by your government, is far
more than a research center; it has become a
profoundly toxic site of nuclear waste. We will
never know how many lives have been prematurely
ended by nuclear radiation, how many cancers have
been spawned, how many children have been born with
deformities. The count of my own people is that
there have been half million deaths from radiation
alone.
As the diplomats and journalists of the free world
tell you, Beijing does not want the world to know of
its treatment of the East Turkistani people. They
prefer to carry on their repression out of site of
the world. Even when natural disaster strikes,
Communist China seeks to withhold the information,
fearing that aid workers will convey to Americans
and others the ongoing horrors of the Communist
occupation.
Today, as America fights terrorists in Afghanistan
and Iraq, the Communists are using the brave
struggle that began on 9/11 to justify their
repression. They claim to be fighting terrorists and
supporters of Osama bin Laden, but it is they – the
Communists, not the East Turkestani people, who have
laundered bin Laden’s drug money, bought from him
unexploded cruise missiles, signed economic
agreements with the Taliban, sold missile technology
to Syria and Libya, enabled Iran’s nuclear weapons
program, integrated Saddam Hussein’s air defenses,
and protected North Korea even as it violated
promises not to become a nuclear-armed regime.
Communist China would like America to believe East
Turkestan is her enemy. To the contrary, it is
Communist China who supports terror, and East
Turkestanis who oppose it. It is Communist China who
tried to stop American troops from defeating the
evil forces and behind 9/11, and East Turkestanis
who supported the U.S.
Eastern Turkistanis seek to determine their own
future. Distinct in every way as a people, they seek
the right to select their leaders and control their
fate as do other nations around the world. And, we
turn to the United States as the most important of
those nations.
The people of Eastern Turkistan turn to the United
States as so many others seeking freedom and self
determination have done over the years. We ask that
the United States raise its voice on behalf of the
millions of East Turkistanis whose voices are
silenced. We ask that you make clear to Beijing that
human rights – including the human rights of Eastern
Turkistanis – matter to the U.S.
We ask that the United States press the United
Nations to investigate the just cause of the East
Turkistani people, working directly with their true
representatives, the East Turkistani Government In
Exile, not the puppets appointed by Beijing.
We ask the United States to continue its pressure
that China truly end its nuclear tests, and end its
use of our region as a dumping ground for nuclear
waste.
We ask that the United States seek the right to
visit the prisons and labor camps scattered
throughout my homeland. The United States already
has laws preventing the import of goods made by
prison labor; much of that labor is to be found in
my homeland.
The East Turkistani people ask to control their own
fate. We seek to join the international community of
nations in openness and peace. We seek to share our
plentiful natural resources with the peoples of the
world: they must not be seen as the private preserve
of Beijing.
We turn to the United States of America, as the
leader of liberty, justice, and wisdom, hoping that
the United States of America will recognize the just
cause of freedom and independence of millions of
East Turkistanis. We turn to the United States of
America and free world for compassion and leadership
to put an end to the misery of so many innocent
people.
Many Americans do not know East Turkestan, but
millions of East Turkestanis know and love America.
We hope you will accept our hand of friendship, and
help us achieve the freedom to enjoy life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, the very things
Communist China continues to deny to the people of
occupied East Turkestan.
Anwar Yusuf Turani
Prime Minister, the East Turkistani Government In
Exile, Washington
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