UYGHURSTAN IS UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYES AND EARS of Beijing with 200,000 military, 24-hour patrols and police depots keeping watch on “telephone recharging states, WiFi, umbrellas, wheelchairs and hot tea” to control the Uyghur population. The People’s Republic of China is now implementing George Orwell’s “1984” in the capital of Urumqi, towns, villages and communities of Uyghuristan (Xinjang) in China’s claimed territories on the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Uyghurs have a history of more than 4,000 documented in their language.
Uyghuristan (sometimes referred to as East Turkistan) is the home of more than 9 million Uyghurs claimed by China as an Autonomous Region. Uygur territory technically spills over into the now neighboring states of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan — early on referred to as East Turkestan. Uyghuristan has long been a contentious territory between the Russian Empire and China. Relatively recently Russia decided to bow to China’s claim over the territory. Uyghurs have never accepted their incorporation into China and tenaciously reject the importation of Han (20 million) by China to reduce Uyghurs to a minority in their own lands.
Nearly a thousand years ago Uyghurs converted from ancient spiritual practices and Buddhism to adopt Islam and now find the occupying Han populations and Chinese government’s night and day surveillance imposed on them to strike down at a moment’s notice any attempts by Uyghurs to demonstrate their opposition to the occupation of their territory.
The Center for World Indigenous Studies is proud to have two Senior Fellows (Dr. Pawan Saut and Dr. Osmanjan Skaput) from Xinjiang University in Urumqi, Uyghuristan contributing their knowledge and studies in Uyghur indigenous knowledge.
The library is dedicated to the memory of Secwepemc Chief George Manuel (1921-1989), to the nations of the Fourth World and to the elders and generations to come.
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