dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMA business route with central Asian countriesChina’s dependence on East Turkistan for energy is not restricted to the oilbeds in the Tarim Basin. East Turkistan is also the natural route for any pipelinefrom the Central Asian Turkic states, which will in turn be of vital importance toChinese industry. The best way for China to insure that its transportation systemis effective and secure is to keep East Turkistan under control.Exploitation of East Turkistan’s rich resourcesThe rich resources of East Turkistan, including oil, gas, uranium, gold andsilver reserves, are transported to mainland China. The exploitation of thesenatural resources is strictly controlled by the Chinese central government. TheUyghurs have no control over these resources; they have no access to informationabout the profits generated by these resources and have no chance to benefit fromtheir own wealth.Although a so-called autonomous region, the people of East Turkistanhave no right and no share to their own resources; there is indeed no self-ruleor self government for the Uyghurs. More than 90% of all important political,administrative and economic positions in East Turkistan are occupied by Chineseemployees. For instance, the regional party standing committee, which is theruling body of the regional party committee, has 15 members. Only three ofthem are Uyghurs (who do not have executive powers) and ten are Chinese.The same over-representation of Chinese is evident in the regional Communistparty central committee and the people’s regional government. Several seeminglyimportant positions have been given to Uyghurs, yet these have no authoritativepower. The Chinese policy of “divide and rule” has split up the indigenous peoplesof East Turkistan, such as the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Tatars, intoseparate “provinces”, “counties”, and “townships”.The economic condition of Uyghurs in East Turkistan poverty in East TurkistanFarmersOver 80% of the population of East Turkistan consists of farmers, with about85% of the total population still living under the poverty threshold.422