Page 114 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

THE WINTER OF ISLAM AND THE SPRING TO COME
112

ture. As one international human rights organization detailed in an of-
ficial report, suspects are tried in mass hearings and either sentenced to
hard labor or executed by firing squads in public squares. Courts oper-
ate under orders from the Communist Party. Perhaps more terrible yet,
pregnant women are taken from their homes and forcibly sterilized
under unhygienic conditions, and children born outside the govern-
ment's quotas are killed, their families' wishes in the matter swept aside
and unlistened to.
The events of February 1997 summed up this Chinese persecution.
On the Night of Power (Lailat-ul Qadr) during Ramadan, which oc-
curred on Feb. 4, more than 30 women who had gone to a mosque to
celebrate this important night for Muslims, were burst in on while they
were reading the Qur'an, beaten by members of the Chinese militia and
then dragged to security headquarters. Local residents went to the
headquarters and asked for the women's release. In response, the bod-
ies of three women who had been tortured to death were hurled in front
of them, and fighting broke out between the outraged locals and the
Chinese. Some 200 East Turkestan natives lost their lives between Feb. 4
and 7, and more than 3,500 ended up imprisoned in camps. On the
morning of Feb. 8, people who had gathered in mosques were blocked
by security forces from carrying out their prayers. Fighting broke out
again, and as a result the number of people detained, which had been
58,000 in April-May 1996, suddenly shot up above 70,000. Up to 100
young people were publicly executed, and 5,000 Uighur Turks were
stripped naked and put on public display in groups of 50.
Despite all this, it is noteworthy that the people of East Turkestan
still do not receive the support from the West that they expect.
The United Nations' official definition of genocide fits exactly the
situation in Chinese-occupied East Turkestan. Despite this, the people
of East Turkestan are unable to benefit from U.N. protection. All their
applications to the U.N. are rejected. Twenty-five million East
Turkestan Muslims are still suffering under Chinese oppression, and
the world closes its eyes or turns away from this cruelty. There are
thousands of political prisoners, and many have "disappeared" in