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FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMrecent archeological evidence derived from DNAdating of the dessicated corpses of Xinjiang, seeVictor Mair, “Introduction” in Victor Mair (ed.),pp. 1-40.16 The best discussion of the politics and importanceof Xinjiang during this period is that of an eyewitnessand participant, Owen Lattimore, in hisPivot of Asia: Sinkiang and the Inner Asian Frontiersof China and Russia, (Boston: Little, Brown, 1950).17 Linda Benson, The Ili Rebellion: The Moslem Challengeto Chinese Authority in Xinjiang, 1944-1949(New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1990).18 Andrew Forbes, Warlords and Muslims in ChineseCentral Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1986).19 James Millward’s history is the best overview ofthis tumultuous period, see Eurasian Crossroads:A History of Xinjiang. New York: Columbia UniversityPress, 2007.20 Justin Jon Rudelson, Oasis Identities: Uighur Nationalismalong China’s Silk Road (New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1998), p. 8. For Uighur ethnogenesis,see also Jack Chen, The Sinkiang Story(New York: Macmillan, 1977), p. 57, and Dru C.Gladney, “The Ethnogenesis of the Uighur”, CentralAsian Survey, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1990), pp. 1-28.21 The best account of the Uighur diaspora in CentralAsia, their memories of migration, and longingfor a separate Uighur homeland is contained in thevideo documentary by Sean R. Roberts, Waiting forUighurstan (Los Angeles: University of SouthernCalifornia, Center for Visual Anthropology, 1996).22 CNN News Service, Rym Brahimi, “Russia,China, and Central Asian Leaders Pledge toFight Terrorism, Drug Smuggling”, 25 August1999 (electronic format ).23 Eastern Turkistan Information Center, “KasakistanGovernment Deport Political Refugees toChina”, Munich, 15 June 1999 (electronic format:).24 See the important article by a Uyghur female ethnohistorianon Uyghur tomb complexes and graveveneration with beautiful color photographs byRahile Dawut, “Shrine Pilgrimage among the Uighurs”The Silk Road Journal 2009 Winter/Spring(6) 2: 56-67. (http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/vol6num2/srjournal_v6n2.pdf ).25 For China’s minority integration program, seeColin Mackerras, China’s Minorities: Integrationand Modernization in the Twentieth Century (HongKong: Oxford University Press, 1994).26 Forbes, pp. 56-90.27 See the discussion of population numbers inEastern Turkistan Information Center, “Populationof Eastern Turkistan: The Population inLocal Records”, Munich, n.d. (electronic format:).A useful guide with tables and breakdowns is foundin International Taklamakan Human RightsAssociation (ITHRA), “How Has the PopulationDistribution Changed in Eastern Turkestan since1949”, N.d. (electronic format , where it is reportedthat the Xinjiang Uighur population declinedfrom 75 per cent in 1949 to 48 per cent in 1990.The problem with these statistics is that the firstreliable total population count in the region didnot take place until 1982, with all earlier estimatesbeing highly suspect, according to the authoritativestudy by Judith Banister (Banister, China’s ChangingPopulation).28 In an unpublished 1989 paper the late Uighurhistorian Professor Ibrahim Muti’i provides an excellenthistorical synopsis of the role of the CentralAsian Islamic Madrassah in traditional Uighureducation. Professor Muti’i argues that it was theMadrassah, rather than religious or cultural continuities,that most tied the Uighur into CentralAsian traditions. Ibrahim Muti’i, personal communication,May 1989.29 Amnesty International, Peoples Republic of China:Gross Violations of Human Rights.30 Philip Pan “In China’s West, Ethnic Strife Becomes‘Terrorism’” Washington Post July 14, 2002:498