Three Uyghur farmers campaigning for compensation for land confiscated in their village in China\u2019s northwestern Xinjiang region were detained and taken away to another city this week after posting a statement outlining their grievances online, farmers said.<\/p>\n
2014-03-28<\/p>\n
Three Uyghur farmers campaigning for compensation for land confiscated in their village in China\u2019s northwestern Xinjiang region were detained and taken away to another city this week after posting a statement outlining their grievances online, farmers said.<\/p>\n
The three men are farmers\u2019 representatives from Qaziriq village in Kashgar city\u2019s Nezerbagh township, where residents say their livelihood has been dampened by the seizure of thousands of acres of farmland for an airport and a special development zone since the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Township police detained the three\u2014Turghun Mamut, Memettursun Abduwayit, and Abduqeyyum Memet \u2014on Monday, and were believed to have escorted them to Hotan city some 300 miles (500 kilometers) southeast of Kashgar, villagers said. <\/p>\n
In a phone call on Wednesday, Mamut told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service the three were being \u201ctaken to Hotan for \u2018sight-seeing,\u2019\u201d adding that he was under surveillance and not free to say more about their situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot speak with you any longer because we are being watched and controlled by others right now,\u201d he said before hanging up.<\/p>\n
The detention came shortly after the three had posted a statement signed with their names and documenting villagers\u2019 complaints on the popular Uyghur-language Baghdax website.<\/p>\n
Official visit<\/strong><\/p>\n Some residents believed the men had been taken away to prevent them from meeting with high-level officials who were expected to visit the village this week to probe land complaints. <\/p>\n A fellow farmer in the village who gave only her first name Amangul said Tuesday that villagers believed the men had been taken \u201cbecause some high-level inspectors would be arriving in the village\u201d the next day.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the local authorities were intentionally removing them from the sight of the inspectors,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n She said three men\u2019s families had argued with village officials to demand the detainees be allowed to return.<\/p>\n \u201cWe heard that the three farmers\u2019 representatives were forced to travel to Hotan, escorted by Nezerbagh township police. They were forced to stay under house arrest at a hotel in Hotan,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Shortage of farmland<\/strong><\/p>\n In their online statement, the three farmers said that after thousands of acres of farmland were confiscated in their village, Qaziriq now has 2,400 mu (400 acres) for a population of 4,400.<\/p>\n Amangul said the land was not enough for residents to be able to sustain themselves through agriculture and that villagers were facing a grave land shortage problem.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are farmers; we have no property except for our land,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the land shortage, we don\u2019t have enough agricultural products to feed our families.\u201d<\/p>\n Farmers from Qaziriq began appealing to local authorities about their land complaints since December 2012, traveling to the national capital Beijing and Xinjiang capital Urumqi to lodge their grievances after Kashgar authorities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have appealed to Kashgar authorities about the \u2026 land in Qaziriq village since the end of 2012, but still the case has not been resolved,\u201d Mamut said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Autonomous Region government in Urumqi replied to our case and sent a letter to the Kashgar authorities, but the local government has ignored it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Complaints ignored<\/strong><\/p>\n After some of the land was taken over for Kashgar Airport in the 1980s, in 2002, the Kashgar municipal government confiscated 5,000 mu (820 acres) of land close to the facility, ignoring residents\u2019 complaints, according to the farmers. <\/p>\n Two years later, the township government sold 864 mu (142 acres) to the Kashgar-Shenzhen Development Zone, which was soon used for residential buildings, they said.<\/p>\n After farmers objected, township officials gave 1,500 yuan (about U.S. $240) to each village residents in order to stop them from complaining, they said.<\/p>\n Land grabbing is a major problem in Xinjiang\u2014the homeland of the mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghur group\u2014as well as in the rest of China.<\/p>\n Land acquisition for development, often resulting in lucrative property deals for local officials, sparks thousands of protests by local communities across China every month, many of which escalate into clashes with police.<\/p>\n All land in the country is ultimately owned by the state, but is allocated to rural communities under collective contract and through the household responsibility system that replaced the state-run farms and communes of the Mao era.<\/p>\n Reported and translated by Eset Sulaiman for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. 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