Newsletter No. 526
News-Analysis
February 21, 2007

 

UIGHUR INDEPENDENCE ACTIVIST IN JAPAN

The Asahi Shinbun is reporting today about the visit of a Uighur activist who has come to Japan to promote the idea of an independent Xinjiang. This activist is named Dolkun Isa (39), and he now lives in Germany. He is the secretary-general of the World Uighur Congress (WUC), a group that supports the establishment of a country called East Turkestan in Central Asia.

In his Asahi interview, Isa was quoted as follows: “The Chinese government is implementing policies to assimilate the Uighur people into China. Under the policies, the government is depriving our people of their identities in culture and religion. It is also controlling us politically and economically… Before the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, we had been called, 'separatists.' After the terror attacks, we began to be called, 'terrorists.'… Many Uighur people hope for independence. But we cannot achieve it even if we use arms to fight the powerful communist government. So I want to convey our message to people around the world.”

When asked why he had chosen to come to Japan on his campaign for East Turkestan, he replied: “I hear Japanese people have shown strong interest in a similar movement in Tibet (also in western China). So I also want them to know about us.”

The World Uighur Congress maintains an informative website at the following address:

http://www.uyghurcongress.org/En/AboutWUC.asp?mid=1095738888

Although I’m not particularly knowledgeable about the subject, I have read some accounts that the Japanese Imperial Army and intelligence agents were involved with the Uighur movements during the 1930s and early 1940s when they were trying to subdue Chinese resistance to Japanese rule in Manchuria and along the China coast. In modern times, Xinjiang has broken loose from Beijing in the period from 1864 to 1884, and again sporadically in the 1930s and 1940s. Since 1949 Beijing’s rule of the area has been firm, and the notion of an independent Xinjiang is almost universally rejected, not only by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, but by virtually all Chinese nationalists as well. The entire subject is a very big taboo in China.

It’s unlikely for the time being that activists like Dolkun Isa will receive any broad welcome in Tokyo. While it is true that Japan and China are competing in a variety of fields, and there is not much love lost between Japanese and Chinese nationalists, an embrace of the Uighur issue would probably just be too inflammatory for Japanese leaders. However, should Japan-China relations become very, very bad in the future, it is not impossible that Tokyo might dangle this issue somehow. Hopefully, things won’t ever get that bad.

It should be noted that other Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan also oppose the establishment of an East Turkestan because they may fear that Uighurs would make claims on their territories as well. One important aspect of Beijing’s involvement in Central Asia through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is precisely to keep a lid on the “three evils” of separatism, extremism, and terrorism.

COMMENTARY

From Selcuk Esenbel of Bogazici University on February 27, 2007:

Pre-war Japanese military involvement with the East Turkestan movement surfaces in various archival records. I have mentioned the topic briefly in my 2004 article which incorporated the tragic and shady death of Prince Abdul Kerim (exile Ottoman dynasty) who was invited by the Japanese rightwing circles of the Army to take the throne of Urumchi if ever that revolt succeeded. The whole thing collapsed of course, and the topic begs further investigation. However, a couple of years ago, I was visited by a young Uighur who belongs to a similar diaspora group for independence active here in Turkey, with three Japanese friends, who claimed they will act as the honorary consuls of Turkestan.

The conversation was pretty much reminiscent of pre-war discussions on the matter -- Hence quite intriguing.