Thank you, Mme President,

I am pleased to speak on item 4 on behalf the Transnational Radical
Party of
which I am a member of its general council.

Living in the colonial province named Xinjiang (that means New
Territories)
Uighur Autonomous Region, my people, the Uighurs, are experiencing a
life
and daily struggle for survival. Their fundamental rights and
freedoms, be
they civil, political or social, cultural and economic are
systematically
violated in a country that has ratified the International Covenant on
Economic Social and Cultural Rights therefore recognizing their very
existence and announcing its political will to incorporate such
provisions
in its national system.

It is very common in today's Eastern Turkestan that Uighurs are
arrested,
imprisoned and even executed by the Chinese authorities just for
demanding
their rights guaranteed under the Chinese Constitution. The Uighurs
are
persecuted just because they advocate the adherence to international
norms
and plead to share equal rights with the Chinese in their political,
economic, cultural and social life. The Uighurs are often portrayed as
separatist, and as a people that resort to violence to reach its
objective.
The Uighurs, and the fact that I, as well as dozens of others that
belong to
the Estern Turkestani community living abroad, have become members of
an
organization, such as the TRP, which observes Gandhian non-violence
in its
activities should prove the contrary.

The question of the respect of economic, social and cultural rights,
should
be traced back to the creation of the Xinjiang' Uyghur Autonomous
Region. In
fact, Mr. Wang Lequan, Chinese party secretary of 'Xinjiang', has been
quoted as saying that it was a mistaken idea to develop the region
first,
and then deal with the separatist problem. Speaking at the 'Xinjiang'
Political Consultative Conference held in Urumchi, Wang said,
"At present,
some people mistakenly hold the idea that 'Xinjiang's first priority
is to
develop the economy. They think the problem of stability will
disappear as
soon as local economy developed and peoples' livelihood got better.
This is
an extremely wrong and dangerous idea." Wang stated that,
"Neither the
development of economy in 'Xinjiang' will destroy the ethnic
separatist
forces, nor will it let those separatist forces give up their
separatist
activities and dream of independence."

Since the founding of the autonomous region, Beijing has
systematically
fabricated all sorts of historical facts to justify its claim that
"Xinjiang" is part of
China since ancient times. Thus China has distorted the Uyghur
history and
rewrote it for the best interest of the Chinese State and destroyed
the
Uyghur, also in its cultural, social, and therefore, economic
identity,
through the effective elimination of Uyghur language, scriptures,
culture,
tradition and, last but not least religion.

Today, the Uyghurs have no religious freedom at all. Any religious
activity
that is not approved by the authorities is illegal. Religious
ceremonies
like "burials" are closely monitored by States'
authotiries, building of
mosques and observance of the Holy month of "Ramathan" are
severely
restricted and the teachings of Islam to children is prohibited. Party
members and government officials, professors, teachers and University
students are not allowed openly to practice religion.

The Uyghurs also have no right to keep their culture alive. Cultural
activities such as mashraps have been banned in 1997. Uyghur language
is no longer the
official language of the autonomous region. Neither the government
nor the
educational system uses the Uyghur language in East Turkestan. All the
documents are written specifically in Chinese without any Uyghur
translation. The signs in the streets are not in the Uyghur language.
All
the universities use the Chinese language for instruction and that
only.

Chinese authorities burned Uyghur historical books in 2002 in order to
destroy Uyghur culture and history. The Uyghur people have never seen
this
kind of unprecedented destruction and consider this a form of cultural
genocide.

According to sources from Kashgar, Chinese authorities have decided to
destroy all of the historical Uyghur buildings, which reflect the rich
architectural characteristics of Uyghur Culture, starting from 26th of
February. Local state-run TV has already begun to show the so-called
new
face of Kashgar City, and how it would look after the destruction of
those
centuries-old houses. Kashgar, as an ancient Uyghur city located on
the
historical Silk Road, is the center of Uyghur culture, religion, and
history.

As a part of the so-called "Strike Hard Campaign", the
Chinese authorities
are doing their best to destroy the Uyghur cultural heritage all over
Eastern Turkestan, violating the relevant constitution and charters of
UNESCO that China signed on December12,1985.

The first article of UNESCO Convention regarding the protection of
the World
Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted in November 1972, puts the
historical
and cultural architectures of the Uyghur people in Kashgar City as
historical sites for protection for their universal values. Article 1
considers ancient buildings and monuments as cultural heritage.
Article 4
urges each State Party to ensure the identification, protection,
conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of
the
cultural and natural heritage. Therefore, the intentional destruction
of
ancient Uyghur buildings and sites in Kashgar City by the Chinese
authorities runs counter to the spirit of the convention adopted by
UNESCO
and signed by China.

The very individual identity of the Uyghurs is being questioned. In
fact,
Chinese authorities in Eastern Turkestan recently demanded the
indigenous
Uyghurs to start the process of changing their names from the Uyghur
language into Chinese Pinyin on June 1,2003, an official Chinese
document
said.

A document entitled "The Implementation of Transliterated
Minority Names
into Chinese Pinyin" stated that all Uyghur people must
officially begin to
change their names into Chinese pinyin no later than September 2003.
It said
that the newly born Uyghurs must begin the process on June 1 and the
school
age Uyghurs should start no later than September 1.

This policy contradicts the Chinese Constitution and the Autonomous
Law
because both of them promote the development of indigenous languages
recognized by China without official intervention. Therefore, this is
a
systematic attempt by the Chinese authorities to further dilute the
Uyghur
identity and sinify them into greater Chinese culture and is a
violation of
the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights.

According to the Chinese Constitution, every nationality has the
right to
freely use and develop its own language, and the state respects the
use and
development of minority languages. According to Autonomous Law, the
Uyghur
language is the official language of "Xinjiang" Uyghur
Autonomous Region,
and its status is equal to Chinese language. The Chinese government
has
already replaced the Uyghur language in East Turkestan in matters of
administration, education, media, and communications.

Mme President,

The Transnational Radical Party urges the Sub-Commission to use its
expertise to reach out to UNESCO to put pressure on the Chinese
authorities
to immediately halt the destruction of ancient Uyghur architectures in
Kashgar City in order to ensure the survival of this unique
historical and
cultural heritage, which has been preserved by the Uyghur people for
centuries. The TRP also urges the sending of a formal delegation to
Kashgar
city before the destruction of valuable historical relics and symbols
of the
ancient Silk Road culture.

Moreover, the Sub-Commission should look into the state of the
educational
system in the region with a view of urging Chinese authorities to
repeal the
decision to abolish teaching in Uyghur language at the University
level.

Finally, the TRP, should like to take this opportunity to announce the
preparation of a document for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, urges the creation of a special rapportuer to assess
the
situation in East Turkestan in order to document the violations of
cultural,
social and educational rights of the Uyghur people.

                  East Turkestan (Uighuristan) National Congress
Addresse: Romanstr.36a. D-80639 München, GERMANY (VR-No.16932)
         Tel.: (4989)55869986;Fax: 55869987; Mobile (49) 1738912048
       E-mail: ETNC@onlinehome.de;
Internet: www.eastturkistan.com

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