Violent Unrest In China

Most people are well-aware that China has had problems in pacifying Tibet since they occupied it and claimed it as a part of China. The Tibetans still have dreams of being an independent country, as they once were. But people generally think that the rest of China is peaceful and fairly happy with the national government of China. That is just not true.

For instance, consider the case of Xinjiang province in the northwestern province of China. The Han Chinese share that province with 8 million people of a different ethnicity -- the Uighurs. The Uighurs are Muslims, For decades, they have wanted to be independent of China.

In fact, Xinjiang province has experienced violence as recently as last week. China's state media is reporting that three people have been killed and at least twenty injured in this latest outbreak of violence. One eyewitness told Reuters, "It started as a few hundred, and then there were easily over 1,000 involved."

An American studying in the region said he saw protesters smashing bus windows and overturning police barriers. He said the police responded with batons, fire hoses and tear gas. Then after nightfall, more police and soldiers flooded into the city of Urumqi. Uighurs in Japan and Germany said they had received reports of many arrests.

This isn't anything new. The Uighurs have maintained a fairly low-level campaign against the Chinese government, and it sporadically breaks out into violence. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department released a report saying "severe cultural and religious repression" had increased in Xinjiang province.

In an effort to get more oil for their rapid industrial growth, the Chinese have been trying to convince Muslims in the Middle East that they are an ally. The continuing unrest in Xinjiang shows that is just a lie. The Chinese repression of the Muslim religion is far worse than in any Western country.

UPDATE-- It seems the riots in Xinjiang were much worse than originally reported. State media is now reporting that 156 have been killed and 800 wounded. The World Uyghur Congress disputes those figures, and says as many as 600 people were killed.

Government Wrong About Uighurs

Once again, the Bush administration is flaunting the rule of law and trying to keep a group of innocent men incarcerated. The ethnic muslim Uighurs are from the western part of China. Seventeen of these men left China to avoid Chinese repression. They wound up in Afghanistan, and were there when the United States attacked in 2001.

When the U.S. offered cash rewards for Afghanis to turn in muslim fighters, some Afghanis saw the opportunity to make some money off the "foreigners" and turned them in to United States troops. They were sent to Guantanamo Bay, where they were kept as prisoners for years.

In 2004, the United States military decided the seventeen men were NOT enemy combatants. But they continued to hold them in prison. They claimed they had trained at a camp in Afghanistan, and therefore could not enter the United States. But they also could not find any other country that would take them. So for the last four years, the Bush administration has imprisoned men they know are innocent.

It looked like the problem might finally be solved earlier this week. A District Court Judge had ruled the prisoners were to be brought to his court this Friday, where it would be determined where they would be released. But the Bush administration appealed, and the appeals court has now issued a temporary stay until they can hear the government's argument.

The Bush administration is claiming only the executive branch of the government can admit foreigners into the United States, not a court. They are using this technical argument to keep innocent men in prison. This is just wrong. This is a matter of injustice -- not immigration.

It is the fault of the United States government that these men are now on U.S. soil (and Guantanamo is currently U.S. soil as long as the U.S. government is the sole authority there). We cannot use an immigration technicality to keep men in prison after they have been declared to be innocent -- especially when they are on U.S. soil solely because of U.S. policy and not through their own actions.

It is time to release these men. If no other country will take them, then they must be allowed to stay in the United States. Anything short of giving them their freedom is both immoral and illegal. The Bush administration must be forced to respect and follow the rule of law.