新疆维权人士土赫案因"分离主义"受审：维吾尔族的问题与汉人相同
乌鲁木齐（亚洲新闻）-今天上午，北京大学维吾尔族经济学教授、著名少数民族维权人士伊力哈木·土赫提"分离主义"罪一案正式开庭。今年一月被捕的土赫提，是因为他批评了北京处理二O一三年十月天安门广场金水桥恐怖案的做法。北京政府对恐怖行径的回应是，加强在新疆维吾尔自治区的压制。多年来，土赫提要求政府与维吾尔族人进行真正的对话，理解他们的困难。二OO五年，他开通了"维吾尔人在线Uighur Online"网，让维吾尔人和汉人交流。指控他的人说，恰恰是这个网站是土赫提从事分离主义行径的罪证。事实上，他只是要求彼此尽可能地多相互倾听对方；建议北京与维吾尔人对话、警惕腐败的地方政府，他们既欺压维吾尔人也欺压汉人。土赫提强调，压制不是正确的回答、恰恰是这种暴力招致了维吾尔人的绝望回应。
为了同独立势力做斗争，十几年来，中国向新疆维吾尔自治区移民数十万，将维吾尔人排斥在政治和社会责任之外。不仅如此，还对维吾尔人进行宗教压制，监控清真寺、伊斯兰经院、禁止守斋和祈祷，大肆采用监禁和死刑的手段。
下面发表的土赫提的文章是他的朋友，藏族作家唯色在其被捕后，于二月着手整理的。感谢《China Change》允许本刊发表：
Currently in Xinjiang, a developing tendency is that the authorities are over-extending anti-terrorism measures to conceal other problems in their name, including the incompetence of both the local governments and the security maintenance apparatus. In fact, the biggest problem in Xinjiang is not anti-terrorism, nor is it terrorism, but rather, the problem is that political power is unrestrained, unequal, controlled and monopolized by the very groups that profit from it.
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I've seen this in Xinjiang: the more the authorities suppress religion, the more the Uighur people embrace religion. What should the government do? The government repeatedly applies pressure when in fact it should first examine itself. If they cannot govern themselves, then they cannot govern the country. If they cannot govern themselves, if they do not change their way of dealing with and thinking about the Uighurs, if they do not respect the people's right to speak, including respecting the Uighurs' right to ethnic autonomy, then the conflicts between the Uighurs and the government will become more and more pronounced.
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In 2009 when I was under house arrest, I warned the Chinese government that future protests by the Uighurs could become a protest movement the scale of which would surpass anything seen in the past sixty years. The government would see the Uighurs become more and more united in this protest movement. I now boldly predict that, if the government does not change its policies toward the Uighurs, the Uighurs will more and more choose to confront the government in order to make their appeals.
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Some Han Chinese scholars say that the issues confronting the Uighur and the Han are fundamentally the same. I agree somewhat with this statement because, from the perspective of human rights, government, and democracy, the Uighur and the Han face the same issues. Nonetheless, the Uighurs also face a particular problem: social resources. We Uighurs also face such problems as ethnic and religious discrimination, and so on, due to the great differences we Uighurs have with the mainstream Han culture, including language, physical appearance, religious beliefs, and so on.
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At present, Xinjiang is under the "one village one police station, one household one police officer" campaign.1 This campaign came into effect after Zhang Chunxian (张春贤) took office in Xinjiang. The campaign stipulates that one village will have one police station and each police officer will be responsible for a single household. The personnel making visits to the villages and households include cadres, unemployed people whom the government hires, even some young ruffians, people on government subsidies, police officers, special weapons and tactics (SWAT) officers, and so on. I absolutely could not put up with people like this randomly breaking into my house.
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At present in Xinjiang, the exclusion of and discrimination against Uighurs is quite systematic, with the government leading the way . . . the Uighurs' dissatisfaction with the government is unanimous with no internal disagreements. After all these years in Xinjiang, the government has failed to cultivate a Uighur vested interest group. There are some Uighurs with vested interests, but they are few and far between. I believe that, in this respect, the government has failed miserably; they failed even to achieve this.
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I have always upheld the unity of the nation and opposed separatism. I have never had a thought of secession, thus I have not participated in any separatist activities, let alone organizing a so-called separatist organization. I advocate governing Xinjiang according to the law, including implementing and improving the regional ethnic autonomy system, respecting the rule of law, respecting human rights, allowing each ethnic group to share equitably the fruits of development, equality in employment, elimination of discrimination, including discrimination based on locality, ethnicity, gender, and personal status." [This paragraph is a tweet of Ilham's lawyer @xiao_xiaoyuan.]
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Right up to the present, although I've been in difficult circumstances, I have never sought financial assistance from any country. I will not be anyone's lackey. I am an independent person who thinks independently. I am a Uighur intellectual. My first responsibility is to my people, the Uighurs, to my hometown, and to my country. I will not be anyone's lackey.
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I admire the American system, I like America's academic freedom, I like American values such as the protection of human rights, respect for the opinions of political minorities, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, democracy, and so on. I am not, however, an American. Nor do I believe that the Uighur issue can be solved by depending on the U.S. The issues facing Uighurs ultimately can only be solved through a mutual dialogue between the Han and the Uighurs.
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I make no appeal whatsoever to the international community. What we need is for the Communist government to take a responsible attitude and to reflect on its Xinjiang policies. The government should not politicize individual criminal cases or make them ethnically specific. It must act based on evidence. (A Voice of America video interview on November 07, 2013)
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I am not going anywhere. The issues facing the Uighur are in China, and the resolution of these issues is also in China. If I have to be imprisoned, then I will remain in a Chinese prison. After my release from prison, I will still be in China seeking a future for the Uighurs. If I die, I have only one desire: to be buried in my hometown. It would be enough of a solace for me.
Translator's note: the "one village one police station, one household one police officer" was a campaign initiated by Zhang Chunxian, a Politburo Member and the Party Secretary for the Uighur Autonomous Region, as a means to more tightly control Uighur villages.
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