What is the further development after the last reportage? I am curious. I went to the peace demonstration launched by the World Uyghur Congress in Brussels on 27/4 which I was hoping to have the first hand objective observation. I do not understand the Uighur language so I can only observe from distance through their non-verbal body language. I noticed occasionally there were some look like Chinese face passed by the scene, when they spotted those Chinese faces, then they yelled and asked those people to leave. It is not the safety of Uighur demonstrators that worried me, I more concerned those passed-by Chinese faces. That day also there were some Belgian young people held signs for “Peace through Dialogue” but there were kindly suggested by the Belgian policies to leave for the sake of their safety. When thinking backwards, I was glad not only to see the presence of Belgian policies who are more experienced in handling various political demonstrations, but mostly how does the enforced law-abiding social education works. It would be hard to imagine the scenario in case of the original intention of peace demonstration goes wrong because of too much negative emotion and psychological pressure from the demonstrators.
In the situation that I did not understand the language but could only feel from their tones and non-verbal body languages, I have to admit that I felt discomfort that day because of hidden aggression and angry eyes. At that time, I had some simple questions in mind:
- Isn’t the theme of the demonstration meant for “Peace”?
- How can they find a good balance and persuasive arguments for peace with underlined hateful energy and exclude-others’ mind?
- Can such slapping face negative energy really help for the peace and prosperity development that people in Xinjiang need?
This year will be the 9th year since the bloodshed incident happened in Xinjiang on 5/7/2009, it’s conceivable that The World Uyghur Congress might again highlight the “Chinese Jasmine Revolution” it started with peace demonstration eventually went so wrong with deadly social unrest incident which eventually ended with bloodshed tragedy. It is hard to compare and analysis the actual situation based on the number of victims that claimed by the WUC and China official announcement. The official announcement for dead toll from the China government is 198 and mainly Chinese Han people, however the allegation from WUC is another story, they claim there were more deaths but couldn’t present any actual evident to support their allegation. So far the truth remains in “He says, She says”, so what is the reality and what is virtual? We can imagine how that bloodshed incident keeps many international human right activists with specific political agenda in mind busy. However, one thing we are curtained is that that unfortunately incidents took place on 5th July 2009 has caused a gap between these two ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and China government should invest more and work harder to remand the bridge between gaps.
The challenge either for Chinese or Uighurs face in Xinjiang is not about the number of deaths in 2009, the most important challenge is building dreams for peace and prosperity for different ethnic groups in Xinjiang From the history from WWII, we clearly understood that only truth and diligent efforts to build a common dream for peace and prosperity can heal wound, therefore we can only hope the mist will be cleared one day by historians in the future.
History is like water that can’t flood backwards. The persistent hated is helpless to correct mistakes happened in the past and wouldn’t bring deaths back, but what have already happened should be prevailed and learnt honestly. All ethnic groups in Xinjiang province in China must work closely to create a better future with peace, safe and prosperity together for the current and the future generations.
The shadow of hate and opposition spread by the fundamental Muslim extremist who organized those unthinkable terrorist attacks in Europe and genocide happened in Iraq and Syria by Islamic State of Sharm (ISIS) since late 2000 still make the world dare not to relax, and most countries are still maintain high alert towards potential terrorism. 90% of Uighurs live in the Kashgar region in the southern of Xinjiang where it connects with Tajikistan to the West and borders by the Muslim sectarian Afghan and Pakistan on the Southwest. How to maintain stability in the region plays a certain role to support the world combat to the religious extremism. This is the reality that perhaps the overseas Uighur doctrines should learn to understand; because it meets with the world’s demand for peace if they could have a peaceful dialogue and cooperation with China government to manage this problem in the region.
The cause of rising of fundamental regions extremism is because of poverty and low education, the key to solve these problems must start from improving people’s lives. From the white paper published by the China government in recent years, we noticed a lot of construction funds are invested to improve the transportation conditions, the safety of drinking water and GDP in the remote mountainous areas in Xinjiang. There are many noticeable significant results at end of 2016, for example the poverty rate has dropped to 10%, the living conditions have improved quite a bit than before.
The peaceful demonstrations initiated by Rebiya Kader, an exile overseas Uighur leader, were unfortunately turned into a bloodshed due to improper crisis management. Her family, brother, son and daughter, who did not participate the fight wrote her a letter afterwards and it has been published to the public. The most profound emotional notion written in that letter perhaps is : Mom, we too want to have a peaceful and steady life.
Recently the world is excited by the Russia FIFA 2018 football game, so as children in China. The China Football Federation has organized the football training center in Kashgar region . What a beautiful future we can see from those young happy and smiling faces.
The world is tired by hatred and struggle of opposition. For the young generations we love, we really should take our responsibilities more seriously to transform the negative and stressful energy to more positive and happy energy in our society. Instead of writing stories about hatred and differences, perhaps we should focus more on our ability and collective efforts to listen to the innocent laughter of children and give them a safe, peaceful and prosperous growing environment. After all, children who have hope and positives energy are the best seeds to drive the change in the future.
Hopes start from today!
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