Translation:

“On the Pakistani and Chinese media full of nonsense”

Abdullah Mansur

29/4/2009

[Arabic]

In the Name of God the Most Merciful, the Most Kind

Praise be to God, and Prayers and Salutations to the Prophet of God. But now,

[Uyghur]

In order to achieve its own political goals, the Chinese government, a habitual braggart who is always making up ridiculous things, has in recent times changed its methods, and having taught this game to Pakistan and other of its lackeys, has begun to play it together.

To people of sound mind, this is not something secret.

In this unsightly political game, where the second list of terrorism suspects came to nothing, the Chinese government had conducted itself in a way not befitting the government of a state, and had been disgraced before the people of the world.

In Afghanistan, the American government, in need of help in today’s difficult circumstances where they cannot do without a crutch, made China happy by labeling the Turkistan Islamic Party as terrorists and obtained China’s economic, political, and some military assistance.

In this situation, the Chinese government happily stained its lips and once again set about playing with the government of Pakistan internationally. According to what is known of this game, nine Uyghur members of the Turkistan Islamic Party, which has organized attacks on the Pakistani Security Forces, were supposedly arrested and handed over to China.

The Chinese government, which has all the time been imprisoning the people of Eastern Turkistan without reason, making false accusations and deceiving people, had in recent months, through the hands of its concubine Pakistan, arrested several Eastern Turkistanis occupied with their own private studies and business in Lahore and other cities.

In this way, the Chinese government has sought to show that it is a powerful country can challenge the Turkistan Islamic Party and to
break the spirit of pious Muslims living inside and outside the motherland. The Pakistani government has made this empty disclosure aiming to show its collaboration with the Chinese government against the Turkistan Islamic Party through concrete actions, and that it is reducing the pressure on both sides by blocking the flow of Eastern Turkistani Muslims to the jihad region of Pakistan and Afghanistan with the goal of preparing for jihad.

In recent times, the Pakistan government has not captured or handed over to China a single member of the Turkistan Islamic Party.

A state with the slightest sense of honor would of course not take pride in such falsification. Thus it would be best for the Pakistan and Chinese governments to tidy up this foolish propaganda which is now exposed. Likewise, the world’s news agencies would save themselves embarrassment if they more carefully relayed the propaganda of these states who go around making atom bombs out of “hot air.”

We would like to openly warn you: If any country captures a member of the Turkistan Islamic Party and hands them over to China, they will definitely receive a concrete response. This response, of course, will not be something for them to hear, but to see.

It will be most beneficial for the people of the world, among them the people of Eastern Turkistan, to clearly comprehend that, in the view of the Chinese, each
Eastern Turkistani living abroad, no matter who they are, is an enemy and terrorist. Their strongest desire is to seize them one by one, or group by group if possible, not leaving a single one, and imprison them and their land Eastern Turkistan.

For this reason, we honestly recommend that all the oppressed people of Eastern Turkistan living in exile stand alert on full guard against this viciousness of the Chinese government.

Commentary:

I feel very strongly that the speaker has Yarkand accent. The “r”s are a giveaway, as they are sometimes American and sometimes palatal glides. Note also his raised vowels and some odd moments where he seems to palatalize what would be a stop consonant in standard Uyghur, i.e. äjiship instead of ägiship. This may be immaterial. The last time we saw a video like this was when TIP spokesman Sayfullah threatened the Olympic Games. It was difficult to make much out, but he certainly rolled his “r”s.

On another linguistic note, this video uses, for the first time in my experience, the term hijrät to refer to the Uyghur diaspora. Hijrät, from Arabic, means “flight,” as in the hijra, when Muhammed fled from Mecca to Medina. This is an interesting cue, doubtless employed self-consciously, to emphasize Islamic, rather than ethnic or national, kinship. A brief, unscientific survey of secular Uyghurs shows me that this usage is highly marked, creative, and clearly charged with Islamic symbolism.

Similarly, the speaker only uses the word “Uyghur” once, preferring “East Turkestani.” As I noted in a recent post on an interview with Rabiyä Qadir, this is language that makes the problems in Xinjiang more than Uyghur issues. While Rabiyä Qadir reaches beyond Uyghurs to anyone living in the region, emphasizing cooperation with non-Muslims for the sake of national self-determination, the TIP plays up the Muslim angle. This is more likely to inspire violence within Xinjiang, but Islam could be a much better catalyst for action in Xinjiang, especially among rural Turkic Muslims who have not completely internalized the idea of an ethnonational identity.

Finally, catch the last line of the speech. “…stand alert on full guard…” If you’re a terrorist, scaring the people for whom you claim to struggle, putting them on “alert,” is a great way to get them to do your job for you.

And so without furhter ado, I present to you the iconic, instant-meme well scene from the movie 300, with the immortal line, “THIS! IS! SPARTA!”… in Uyghur.

Hilarity ensues. Sadly, for some unfathomable reason, the Uyghur dubbers chose not to literally translate “This is Sparta!” into Uyghur – though if you want to go around Xinjiang kicking people into wells, OpkeHessip informs me the best translation would be “BU! DÉGEN! SPARTA!” Or replace Sparta with the name of the city you’re in to be more geographically relevant.

We see that after Leonidas draws his sword, at about 10 seconds, the emissary, in shock, responds “Sen sarang boldimu? Sarang bopsen!” or roughly, “Are you insane? You’ve gone mad!” Then, an awkward fifty seconds later, Leonidas responds to this accusation with,“Toghra. Men sarang boldum, men sarang boldum!” , or “That’s right. I have gone mad, I have gone mad!” where in the English version he delivers his memorable “Sparta” line. Not as unintentionally funny as the original, but that is more than made up for by the fact that IT’S IN UYGHUR! Woo.

Big hat tip to commenter Uyghur for bringing to our attention yet another video issued by the Turkestan Islamic Party in the Uyghur language titled “Dunya Musulmanlirigha Omumiy Muraji’et”, or “A Universal Call to the Muslims of the World.” It seems that in the pre-Olympics excitment among the peoples and the news agencies of the world, this one has slipped under the radar and has not received as much attention as the last video. As such, we have no convenient intelligence agency with summary translations, and so, unless an organization steps forward in the next few days with a translation, we’re going to have to take a close, long look at it ourselves and post some notes on the content in a later post. For now, here is the video from Youtube:

Stay tuned for updates.

Recently, The New Dominion commented on a report regarding a video of an attack on three Chinese men, one apparently produced or packaged with the intent to rally Xinjiang Uyghur Muslims against Chinese rule. Venkatesan Vambu at India’s Daily News & Analysis (DNA) has published an article on the video. His article tracks the discovery of the video by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and intelligently discusses its possible significance.

We at The New Dominion have also been privileged to view the short video. This is a description of what it shows:

About ten seconds in, the video opens with the Uyghur passage pakistanning pishawur shähiridä xitay jallatlirigha berilgän zärbä, meaning “A blow to the Chinese(pejorative) butchers in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan.” This is the only Uyghur in the entire video; the rest, what little is spoken, appears to be in Urdu, with music in Arabic. There are also a few short words of Arabic displayed at the beginning and end of the video.

Next, we see some clips of three men, apparently Chinese, in their underwear, standing in a doorway in a bare apartment at night. A man holding a gun, his face off-screen, forces them to line up in the doorway. They seem confused and unaware of what is about to happen. One of them is shown yelling at his assailant, though not in Chinese, and possibly in Urdu.

Then, the man holding the gun, wearing what appears to be Pakistani dress (shalwar kameez), is seen more fully. He shoots one of the Chinese men, who falls. One crouches down and turns to his companion. The other jumps off to the left. The one kneeling is shot next. The one who ran is shot less than a moment afterward. Where he falls, a dog runs out of the way. The man with the gun keeps shooting the fallen men. All through this section, the handheld camera zips around, and the individual holding it runs up behind the gunman to record the executions in more detail. What we see next is a montage of newspapers, apparently in Urdu, concerning the shooting of three men in Peshawar. These newspapers show photographs of the dead men and one other injured man who is not seen in the video.

The video appears to be connected with – though how is unclear – the shooting of three Chinese citizens in Peshawar, Pakistan in July 2007, following the massacre at the Lal Mosque in Islamabad. The exact connection is uncertain. If this is the video of the shooting of these men, why has it not been released until now? The newspaper clippings in the video also show an injured fourth man, reported by some media accounts of the Peshawar incident. Where was this man – possibly the father and uncle of the murdered men – and how was he injured and not killed, as were his companions?

Were three men shot to death just for the sake of stirring up dissent? I cannot think of another reason why someone would videotape a murder. Vambu’s article states that the video has since spread to several Uyghur-language websites. How is this being received, with disgust or with triumph? I feel that this is a gross manipulation, a somewhat unskilled and thuggish attempt at manipulating dissatisfied Uyghurs. I wonder how much on-the-ground impact it can really have and which audience, exactly, it is reaching. If angry young Uyghur men are seeing this, are they stirred to violence in the name of Islam, or might they at most enjoy it out of a guilty and immature racism? Could this even be part of an attempt to worsen Sino-Pakistani relations, which have been slightly uneasy since the election of the new government? All in all, it seems that Vambu’s conclusions are correct: this is not a Uyghur-made video. It is, at least, not a video of a Uyghur killing Chinese people. It is a video packaged to affect the politics of Xinjiang, China, and Pakistan. I sincerely hope that anyone who happens to view it will recognize the attempt at manipulation for what it is.

According to a report on the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute’s (MEMRI) “Islamist Websites Monitor Project”, a video of the execution of three Chinese hostages, allegedly produced by the “Islamic Party of Turkestan” (IPT), was posted on the website Al-Hesbah on 9 April 2008. We have thus far been unable to locate the video itself, despite having a fluent speaker of Arabic search through the Al-Hesbah site. However, we are left with the still image of three men, apparently stripped and photographed from the shoulders up, with the Uyghur word zärbä زەربە “a knock, blow” superimposed. This image has reappeared on a Uyghur-language site claiming to be that of the Islamic Party of Turkestan. (A much more complete site, possibly official, can be found here.) It seems to have appeared on that site in the last month.

The language on the IPT seal graphic, the word on the video still, and the IPT site – including Romanization, font, and other linguistic clues – suggest that these were all produced by Xinjiang Uyghurs. The IPT site features several photos of Hasan Mahsum, the alleged founder of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) Shärqiy Türkistan Islam Härikiti, the “Dongyiyun” blamed by the PRC government for many expressions of discontent. He was killed in Pakistan in October 2003.

The name “Islamic Party of Turkestan” is problematic. Some sources suggest that the IPT is the new face of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), an organization established in the summer of 1998 in opposition to Uzbekistan’s secular government, but which was active in Uzbek areas of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well. One of its co-founders, Juma Namangani, is meant to have founded this new group, called Hezb-e Islami Turkestan in Persian, in Afghanistan in 2001. Since this new group’s focus includes all of Central Asia and Xinjiang, it may be an umbrella organization for the Islamic Movement groups that sprang from the IMU, such as the Islamic Movement of Tajikistan. Namangani died in 2001, and the IMU is believed to have fractured and mostly disintegrated.

The site and the seal associated with the video are clearly labeled IPT Türkistan Islamiy Partiyisi, rather than “Islamic Party of East Turkestan” Shärqiy Türkistan Islamiy Partiyisi or as a product of ETIM, either of which would suggest a specific concern for Uyghurs and Xinjiang. However, they maintain some of the same imagery as ETIM, focusing, at least visually, on Hasan Mahsum. If this really was produced (and recently) by the IPT, could this indicate an attempt to reach out more directly to discontented Uyghurs?

Recently, we reported on a Chinese press release asserting the involvement of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HUT), an Islamic movement with a largely Central Asian and Pakistani base, in the March protests in Khotan. Since the IPT, as originally formed, may now be a very weak and diffuse group, could it now be linked with HUT? HUT is known to have a slight “technological” bent, using the internet and various media to spread its beliefs. (The IPT website appears to be registered in Karachi, Pakistan.) However, HUT disavows violence.

Could we just be looking at a video from years before, recycled by another terrorist group, or even an individual (or government) with hidden aims? The “other” IPT website seems like an official face for their organization — so why doesn’t it have this video, or would they want it to? Also, MEMRI is an itinerant collector of Islamic media, but they have an apparent anti-Islamic bias and may make mountains out of electronic molehills. We encourage any readers, especially with a knowledge of Arabic, to look into the provenance of the video in question.

In the meantime, all we have is a seal, a video still, and a mostly-empty website. More importantly, perhaps, we have the suggestion of a video of Chinese people being killed in the name of Uyghur Muslims. This is a powerful image in the hands of anyone concerned.

Some sources consulted:

Fredholm, Michael. 2007. Islam and Modernity in Contemporary Central Asia: Religious Faith versus Way of Life: A Study of Four Radical Disruptions (Asian Cultures and Modernity: Research Report No. 14, January 2007). Stockholm: Stockholm University.

——. 2006. Islamic Extremism as a Political Force: A Comparative Study of Central Asian Extremist Movements (Asian Cultures and Modernity: Research Report No. 12, October 2006). Stockholm: Stockholm University.

Shichor, Yitzhak. 2006. “Fact and Fiction: A Chinese Documentary on East Turkestan Terrorism” in China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, Volume 4, No. 2, pp. 89-109.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 4 November 2007 : In the past three quarters, the per capita income of farmers and herdsmen have increased by 343 yuan.
• 4 November 2007 : The China Edition of Forbes magazine has published its annual top 400 billionaire list which includes 6 individuals from Xinjiang. Brothers Zhang Jiefu and Zhang Yanfu are new on the list and jointly occupy position 400 through their oil processing and refining industries. Kong Guangxi (real estate, construction materials) has risen 30 places this year to position 61, Mi Enhua (construction materials, trade, wholesale) has dropped to position 248, Chen Zhifeng (exports, real estate, tourism) has inched up to position 332, and Zheng Daqing (real estate, cell phones, minerals) now occupies position 360.
• 5 November 2007: Xinjiang’s Animal Husbandry Office has announced that 10 million yuan of government funds has been allocated to help make China’s most Muslim province become the Northwest’s Pig Industry Base within 10 years. Places slated to receive initial funds for the new pig breeding infrastructure include the eastern part of Changji Prefecture, the northern part of the Hami Region, the Tianshan Northern Foothills region, the Yili valley, the Ta’e basin, the Yanqi basin, Korla, Aksu, and Kashgar, etc. (the etc. was in the original article, I kid not)
• 5 November 2007: To better ensure food quality and to better monitor medicine production, 9 new Food and Drug Administration Bureaus have been established in 9 counties: Yumin, Qinghe, Wenquan, Mulei, Urumqi’s Toutun River district, Bohu, Wuqia, Khotan, and Qaramay.
• 5 November 2007: In accordance with the 11th 5-year plan, Xinjiang’s Office of Personnel Training has begun to implement a program to upgrade the knowledge and skills of 12,000 technological experts in the fields of petrochemistry, coal refining, hydroelectric power, cotton processing, food processing, environmental protection, orchard forestry, and tourism.
• 5 November 2007: Compared with the same period of time last year, the number of AIDS infections in Xinjiang is down by almost four tenths.
• 5 November 2007: A construction project undertaken by Xinjiang’s Transportation Office to lower the number of collisions with Przewalski’s horses on Xinjiang’s roads has been completed. In the past two months there have been 5 fatal accidents involving Przewalski’s horses, and in response the Transportation Office set up several signs, warnings, prohibited areas, decreased speed zones, and solar-powered warning lights.
• 6 November 2007: The State Council’s AIDS Prevention Working Committee has sent a joint working group to conduct survey research in Xinjiang and to evaluate current AIDS epidemic preventive efforts underway in the region.
• 6 November 2007: Controversy emerges over the expelling of a naughty 8 year old student from an Urumqi school. Although an alliance of school officials, teachers, and concerned parents have made the case that the child is intractable beyond resolution, a number of interested parties have also criticzed the moves as overly harsh for a child of his age. Currently, a compromise solution has been put forward of giving the child’s parents “a little more time” to help the child better adjust to school life.
• 6 November 2007: The Chairman of Xinjiang, Ismail Tiliwaldi, met with the visiting executive chairman of the European Federation of Overseas Chinese, Jiang Ping. Tiliwaldi gave the basic rundown of Xinjiang’s situation and then the two discussed greater investment cooperation on projects such as environmental protection, ecological agriculture, and mineral resources development.
• 6 November 2007: 16,579 babies were born over the last year, compared to 12,705 the year before, which signifies a .31% increase in the birth rate. According to the latest statistics, the sex ratio for the preceding year is 111 boys per 100 girls, which is much higher than the average of 103-107.
• 7 November 2007: Tarim Oil Company has established China’s largest natural gas field, with proven reserves of 840 billion cubic meters. By the end of the year, Tarim Oil Company’s natural gas fields are expected to have produced 15.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas, much higher than its output last year of 11 billion cubic meters, when it was only the 2nd largest known field in China. Natural gas extracted from Xinjiang is sent to the energy hungry eastern part of China through the Xiangxiqidongshu Pipeline.
• 7 November 2007: Delegates from the Siberia Branch of Russia’s National Academy of Sciences and scientific research institutes in Xinjiang signed 27 cooperation agreements on October 26. The Russians currently have plans to conduct 40 research experiments and to setup 14 research stations in Xinjiang. These international agreements have a distinctively economic tint to them, as the greater portion of these cooperative efforts involve the petrochemical and coal industries, along with agriculture, animal husbandry, construction, software, and biotechnology.
• 7 November 2007: The “Deliver Warmth and Compassion with One Day’s Wages” program has officially begun in Xinjiang. Donations will be used to help low-income people prepare for the difficulties of the coming winter. The program calls on individuals, companies, and governmental agencies alike to donate a day’s wages or a day’s profits to contribute to the welfare of the poor.
• 7 November 2007: China Council for International Investment Promotion has set up a branch office in Urumqi. The state purpose of this move is to help promote the social and economic development of Xinjiang. Noting interest by both overseas Chinese in Europe and by the Russians in this week’s roundup, I say the timing couldn’t be better.
• 7 November 2007: Anyone interested in using the bathing facilities or lodging at Urumqi’s bath houses must now go through a formal registration process where they must provide their real name. Lobbies of these facilities are to be equipped with CCTV cameras whose tapes will be retained for 30 days. This move apparently is in response to a recognition of the bath houses as centers for prostitution, gambling, and drugs.
• 7 November 2007: Four buildings are to be designated as national level protected cultural sites: the former offices of the Eight Route Army, the former Soviet Consulate, Xinjiang People’s Theater, and the Shaanxi Great Mosque and Palace, a Hui place of worship. All are located in Urumqi.
• 7 November 2007: Xinjiang’s economic value as a frontier region bordering 8 different countries becomes apparent in new statistics revealing Xinjiang’s total import-export volume for this year to be valued at over 10 billion US dollars, a rise of 39% since the preceding year and 15% higher than the national average.
• 8 November 2007: A discussion forum on e-government services was opened in Urumqi on November 7. Representatives from China Telecom and 170 city and county level delegates attended.
• 9 November 2007: After 5 days of touring and inspection, the State Council’s AIDS prevention working committee expressed its approval of AIDS prevention efforts in Xinjiang. Recommendations made by the working committee include increasing AIDS prevention education and awareness for grass-roots level cadres, enhancing communication between the departments involved in the efforts, increase local financial input along with tighter budgetary oversight, and intensify propaganda and public awareness efforts.
• 9 November 2007: For the first time in several years, there was a surplus of jobs at the Xinjiang Autumn Talent Exchange Job Fair, where over 8000 positions were available to 6000 job-seekers. Analysts ascribe this both to novel paths to getting jobs, such as the growing availability of jobs in China proper and online applications, and to the steadily growing small and mid-sized company sector of the Xinjiang economy.
• 9 November 2007: An international team of 6 scientists, including individuals from America, Germany, and the Netherlands, visited the Qaramay National Nature Reserve in the Jungaria Basin to make observations of newly released wild specimens of Przewalski’s horse. An American expert from the Smithsonian Institute said the purpose of their visit included investigating the measures taken to assist the horses’ survival through the winter, and to help find a volunteer Kazakh herdsmen to track and monitor the horses on behalf of the Horse Breeding Research Center, a program which, if successful, will be expanded in the future.
• 9 November 2007: According to an official statement from the Xinjiang Public Health Department, the number of AIDS cases in Xinjiang has exceeded 20,000, though according to a national estimate, the actual number of AIDS cases in the region is probably over 60,000.This report also noted that most of these infections are concentrated in the Yili Kazakh Prefecture, Urumqi, Kashgar, and Aksu.
• 9 November 2007 : The former Chairman of the Board and General Manager for the Xinjiang Construction Group Construction Engineering Company and Chairman of the Board and General Manager for the Xinjiang International Trade Company, Jiang Peng, was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption. His company was allocated over 3 million yuan of public money for the construction of public works. Jiang was arrested in 2006 for suspicion of embezzlement of these funds, as far back as 2002.
• 9 November 2007: Six defendants in what has been dubbed the Kashgar “12-25″ Threat to National Security Case have been sentenced for attempting to split the country. Under the charges of splittist activities, organizing and leading a terrorist organization, and the illegal production of explosives, 4 death sentences and 2 life imprisonment sentences were passed down. The Xinhua article announcing this sentence also includes a detailed list of the alleged suspects’ activities, including running a terrorist training camp for two months with the Hollywood name of “Black Canyon,” conducting an explosives collecting operation dubbed “Operation Harvest Corn,” resisting PLA counterinsurgency efforts by sabatoging communications facilities, blowing up public buses, and occupying the Kusilafu village’s government building and declaring independence. Kusilafu is a village in Akto County (Location in Google Earth), a hotbed of resistance to Chinese rule.
• 10 November 2007: The Macao based charity Mingde will donate over 20,000 yuan to aid orphans with serious illnesses.

Other News

• 5 November 2007: Joei Villarama at the Filipino website Global Nation talks about her visit to Xinjiang.
• 7 November 2007 : Danwei runs front page of Xinjiang Metropolitan Daily, featuring SWAT members showing off their new equipment at Er Dao Qiao.
• 7 November 2007: Mongolia Web reports an outbreak of Horse Flu in Xinjiang near the border with Mongolia (as if things weren’t bad enough for the poor wild horses). Over 5,500 cases have been reported for what has been the first outbreak of equine flue for 13 years. Chinese officials have quarantined the horses and have issued assurances that the horse flu rarely fatal to the animals and does not transmit to humans.
• 8 November 2007: The English Edition of Xinhuanet runs an English language version of the article linked above discussing the international team investigating Przewalski’s horses near Qaramay.

Blogs

• 10 November 2007: Michael Manning at The Opposite End of China shares a Xinjiang-related piece of the PBS series China from the Inside.