The Uyghur people’s modern relationship with China is often sketched by analysts in terms of historic milestones. For example, the onset of the reform period in China in the late 1970s ushered in a period of d\u00e9tente; a signal that this was eroding came with unrest in 1990 in Baren. The definitive turning-point was, however, reached when Chinese forces killed Uyghur protesters in Ghulja in 1997. If this led Uyghurs in general to lose whatever belief they had had in the Chinese state, the deadly inter-ethnic violence in Urumchi in 2009 is cited as the moment when relations between Han and Uyghur communities became irretrievable. <\/p>\n
In the first few days of the new year, I had a conversation with a refugee from the era of Polish communism. A former teacher, my friend described how the Soviets had set about undermining Polish culture: \u201cThe communists tried to stop us from speaking Polish and told the staff at my school that we couldn\u2019t be Catholics. It\u2019s very difficult to describe how terrifying it is to lose control over something as fragile as your identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
To anyone who follows the issue of the Uyghur people living in the north-west of the People’s Republic of China (or what the Uyghurs themselves regard<\/a> as East Turkestan), concerns over cultural loss through government restrictions placed<\/a>on language use and religious practice are familiar. In specific reference to the Uyghurs, the scholar Arienne Dwyer identified<\/a><\/span><\/span> these two aspects of identity as cornerstones of Uyghur distinctiveness.<\/p>\n My companion\u2019s reflection, that the experience of cultural suppression under communism in Europe directly affected individuals’ sense of the destruction of their society, is echoed frequently by Uyghurs today. Yet there is a notable attention-gap in the media and the international community about the Uyghurs’ plight (though the incident in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 28 October was abrief<\/a> exception).<\/p>\n This overall neglect is even more glaring in light of the Uyghurs’ experience in 2013, which was peppered with deadly incidents that may have cost the lives of over 200 people, Several of these incidents were sparked by issues of marginalisation, and many appear to reveal evidence of state and government malfeasance. In this context, the shortage of questions being posed to the Chinese authorities by international organisations is notable. In an information-scarce environment such as the Uyghur region, such inattention also carries the risk that the situation deteriorates<\/a> without proper challenge or scrutiny. <\/p>\n A turning-point year<\/strong><\/p>\n The Uyghur people’s modern relationship<\/a> with China is often sketched by analysts in terms of historic milestones. For example, the onset of the reform period in China in the late 1970s ushered in a period of d\u00e9tente; a signal that this was eroding came with unrest in 1990 in Baren. The definitive turning-point was, however, reached when Chinese forces killed Uyghur protesters in Ghulja in 1997. If this led Uyghurs in general to lose<\/a> whatever belief they had had in the Chinese state, the deadly inter-ethnic violence in Urumchi in 2009 is cited as the moment<\/a> when relations between Han and Uyghur communities became irretrievable. <\/p>\n Against this background, 2013 can be viewed as the year when Han political, economic and cultural dominance<\/a> over the region reached a level where the Chinese state felt able to act with lethal confidence in response to Uyghur discontent.True, the end of the year was marked by the release<\/a><\/span><\/span> to Slovakia of the final three Uyghurs detained<\/a> in Guantanamo, thus putting to rest an arduous process of resettling twenty-two Uyghur men swept into the net in the early years of the “war on terror”. The year as a whole, however, will be defined for many Uyghurs by the pattern of violent events in the Uyghur region. <\/p>\n The following table (assembled with the help of Michael Phillips of the World Uyghur Congress<\/a>) is an overview of incidents reported during 2013. <\/sup>The \u201cCause\u201d column has been compiled by the author from available sources and are broadly categorised. Many of the details of these incidents are not confirmed, underscoring the lack of information at hand:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n