China Fears Ethnic Strife Could Agitate Uighur Oasis

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

KASHGAR, China (snip)

Kashgar, the ancient Silk Road oasis and backpacker lure, has been besieged by fear since ethnic rioting about two weeks ago claimed at least 197 lives in Urumqi, the capital of this northwestern expanse known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Although the two cities are separated by about 700 miles of punishing desert and snow-draped mountains, the authorities are especially anxious about potential unrest in Kashgar, a city of 3.4 million that is 90 percent Uighur, a Muslim minority that has long had a mercurial relationship with the Han Chinese who govern Xinjiang.

The authorities have good reason to be skittish. Last August, at least 16 military police officers were killed in an attack here, unnerving the government just as dignitaries and athletes were arriving in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. The police called it a terrorist strike by two Uighur men armed with explosives and machetes, though some witnesses later challenged that version of events.

In the early 1990s, Kashgar was also the scene of bombings and demonstrations; at least 21 people were killed and thousands were arrested during one particular army crackdown. The city has long been a crucible for Uighur self-determination, even if nationalist aspirations were never the same after a Chinese warlord vanquished the newborn East Turkestan Republic, a short-lived nation that called Kashgar its capital for a few months in 1933.

Although it is rapidly being bulldozed in the name of modernization, Old Kashgar and its ancient dusty warrens remain the heart of Uighur culture and a beguiling draw for tourists. To China’s leadership, however, the city is also an incubator for those seeking to create a Uighur homeland by the borders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and a handful of other predominantly Muslim countries whose names end with “stan.”



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/world/asia/23kashgar.html?em

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Good to see the Bush doctrine is alive & well, in spite of the end of Bush's admin.

Just eliminate them all BEFORE they can rebel!

[Downwinder]

1. IRI is active in Kashgar.

[AlecBGreen]

2. China in a nutshell

"...it is rapidly being bulldozed in the name of modernization"

Beijing, Lhasa, Kashgar. Tear down the beuatiful walled compounds where families have lived for centuries and "upgrade" to 2nd-rate concrete block tenements. Beautiful :facepalm: