World Uyghur Congress
Encyclopedia
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) (Uyghur
: ; ULY
: ; ) is an international organisation of exile
d Uyghur
groups said to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people
" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China
. The World Uyghur Congress declares itself as a nonviolent and peaceful opposition
movement
against Chinese occupation of East Turkestan and an unconditional rejection of totalitarianism, religious intolerance and terrorism as an instrument of policy.
The Congress was formed in mid-April 2004 at a meeting in Munich
, Germany
, as a collection of various exiled Uyghur groups including the Uyghur American Association
(UAA) and East Turkestan National Congress (ETNC). Rebiya Kadeer
is the current president, elected in 2006. A prominent businesswoman and political activist, Kadeer has been in exile in the United States
since 2005 after six years imprisonment in China for "leaking state secret
s".
The Chinese government
has designated the WUC and its affiliate groups as a terrorist organisation
, who it says have attempted to form a legitimate cover for their "illegal motives" to separate
China.
The World Uyghur Congress is an umbrella term for an organisation of once small, weak and fractious Uyghur nationalist
groups, including the Uyghur American Association, formed in May 1998 and the East Turkestan National Congress. On April 18, 2004, these groups united, with Erkin Alptekin
serving as the first president of the unified group; he served until 2006, when Rebiya Kadeer
was elected as at the second General Assembly meeting held on 24−27 November 2006. The Congress has convened three assemblies since its inception—in 2004, 2006, and 2009. As part of the East Turkestan independence movement
, it is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
. The organisation itself is based primarily in Munich
, where a large Uyghur diaspora
lives. There are no known links between the WUC and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement
.
leader Mao Zedong
of colonising Xinjiang, reneging on a promise to allow self-determination
for the region. According to the WUC, its main aim is to "promote the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, nonviolent
, and democratic means to determine the political future of East Turkestan
." It has declared its intention to work with world governments and form a "peaceful opposition" to the policies of the Chinese government in Xinjiang, whose treatment of Uyghurs, it alleges, risk turning the region into a "time bomb". The first president, Erkin Alptekin, described the Han Chinese
as "colonist
s who want to replace us with their own people and assimilate those of us who remain, wiping out our culture." The Congress has also said China is exaggerating the threat from terrorists in order to justify repression
in the region.
The Congress, like the Uyghur American Association based in Washington, D.C.
, use mass media
and their own websites in an aim to inform the international community of alleged human rights
abuses in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It has been described as "cyber-separatism" which is supported in part by wealthy Uyghurs in the Middle East
. Some newspapers in Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan
reprint articles from the websites in Uyghur
and Russian
.
The Congress also maintains representatives in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom. President Kadeer met former United States
President George Bush
in June 2007, and British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
officials in October the same year.
or NED, which gives the WUC $215,000 annually for "human rights research and advocacy projects". The National Endowment for Democracy is a U.S. non-profit organization founded in 1983 to promote democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress.
, accused of inciting unrest
in Tibet
in 2008, and claimed that WUC president Kadeer said that "something similar should happen in Xinjiang." The government newspaper, the People's Daily
, attacked the WUC, saying that it was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, whose main sponsor was the US Congress.
Uyghur language
Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
: ; ULY
Uyghur Latin Yéziqi
Uyghur Latin script is an auxiliary alphabet for the Uyghur language based on the Latin script. Uyghur is primarily written in a Arabic alphabet and sometimes in a Cyrillic alphabet.- Construction :...
: ; ) is an international organisation of exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
d Uyghur
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
groups said to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people
Uyghur people
The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...
" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. The World Uyghur Congress declares itself as a nonviolent and peaceful opposition
Opposition
Opposition may mean or refer to:* Opposition , a term describing the position of a celestial body* Opposition , a term describing the position of the kings relative to each other...
movement
Movement
-In society and the arts:* Social movement, a coordinated group action focused on a political or social issue* Political movement, a coordinated group action focused on a political issue* Art movement, a tendency or style in art followed by a group of artists...
against Chinese occupation of East Turkestan and an unconditional rejection of totalitarianism, religious intolerance and terrorism as an instrument of policy.
The Congress was formed in mid-April 2004 at a meeting in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, as a collection of various exiled Uyghur groups including the Uyghur American Association
Uyghur American Association
The Uyghur American Association is a Washington-based advocacy organization. It was established in 1998 by a group of Uyghur scholars to raise the public awareness of the Uyghur people in East Turkistan and the other parts of the world....
(UAA) and East Turkestan National Congress (ETNC). Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...
is the current president, elected in 2006. A prominent businesswoman and political activist, Kadeer has been in exile in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
since 2005 after six years imprisonment in China for "leaking state secret
Classified information
Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...
s".
The Chinese government
Government of the People's Republic of China
All power within the government of the People's Republic of China is divided among three bodies: the People's Republic of China, State Council, and the People's Liberation Army . This article is concerned with the formal structure of the state, its departments and their responsibilities...
has designated the WUC and its affiliate groups as a terrorist organisation
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, who it says have attempted to form a legitimate cover for their "illegal motives" to separate
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
China.
Formation
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
groups, including the Uyghur American Association, formed in May 1998 and the East Turkestan National Congress. On April 18, 2004, these groups united, with Erkin Alptekin
Erkin Alptekin
Erkin Alptekin is a Uyghur activist and separatist. From Germany, he has helped found many separatist and Uyghur nationalist organizations, the best known of which are the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization and the World Uyghur Congress...
serving as the first president of the unified group; he served until 2006, when Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...
was elected as at the second General Assembly meeting held on 24−27 November 2006. The Congress has convened three assemblies since its inception—in 2004, 2006, and 2009. As part of the East Turkestan independence movement
East Turkestan independence movement
The East Turkestan independence movement is a broad term that refers to advocates of an independent, self-governing East Turkestan in the region now known as Xinjiang, an autonomous region in the People's Republic of China.-Historical background:...
, it is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization , formed in 11 February 1991, in The Hague, is an international organization of political organisations and governments representing self-proclaimed "indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories". The organization...
. The organisation itself is based primarily in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, where a large Uyghur diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
lives. There are no known links between the WUC and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement
East Turkestan Islamic Movement
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) (also known as the Turkistan Islamic Movement (TIM), and other names; is a Waziri based mujahideen organization. Its stated goals are the independence of East Turkestan and the...
.
Objectives
The WUC has accused former Chinese Communist PartyCommunist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
leader Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
of colonising Xinjiang, reneging on a promise to allow self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
for the region. According to the WUC, its main aim is to "promote the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, nonviolent
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
, and democratic means to determine the political future of East Turkestan
East Turkestan
East Turkestan is a controversial political term with multiple meanings depending on context and usage...
." It has declared its intention to work with world governments and form a "peaceful opposition" to the policies of the Chinese government in Xinjiang, whose treatment of Uyghurs, it alleges, risk turning the region into a "time bomb". The first president, Erkin Alptekin, described the Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
as "colonist
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
s who want to replace us with their own people and assimilate those of us who remain, wiping out our culture." The Congress has also said China is exaggerating the threat from terrorists in order to justify repression
Political repression
Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....
in the region.
The Congress, like the Uyghur American Association based in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, use mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and their own websites in an aim to inform the international community of alleged human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
abuses in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It has been described as "cyber-separatism" which is supported in part by wealthy Uyghurs in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Some newspapers in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
and Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
reprint articles from the websites in Uyghur
Uyghur language
Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
Leadership
As the Congress is made up of a number of Uyghur groups internationally, its leaders are based in a number of countries.| Position | Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| President | Rebiya Kadeer | United States |
| Honorary Chairman | M. Riza Bekin | Turkey |
| Chief Advisor | Erkin Alptekin | Germany |
| Vice President | Seyit Tumturk Khahriman Hojamberdiyev Omer Kanat Asgar Can Semet Abla |
Turkey Kazakhstan USA Germany Norway |
| Secretary General | Dolkun Isa | Germany |
| Deputy Secretary General | Erkin Emet Abdureshit Turdiyev Tuyghun Abduweli |
Turkey Kazakhstan Canada |
| Spokesmen | Dilshat Reshit Alim Seytoff |
Sweden USA |
The Congress also maintains representatives in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom. President Kadeer met former United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
President George Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
in June 2007, and British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
officials in October the same year.
Funding
The organisation is funded in part by the National Endowment for DemocracyNational Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
or NED, which gives the WUC $215,000 annually for "human rights research and advocacy projects". The National Endowment for Democracy is a U.S. non-profit organization founded in 1983 to promote democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress.
Chinese government perspective
The Chinese government has accused the organisation of fomenting unrest in Xinjiang, and added the WUC to its list of terrorist organisations in December 2003. It has labelled the Congress president as a "terrorist" who "conspired with separatists and religious extremists to plan terror attacks." Kadeer rejected the accusations, saying that "anyone who is unhappy with China's harsh rule is a 'separatist'". During the July 2009 Ürümqi riots, the Chinese government said it had intercepted phone calls of overseas Turkestan groups and groups inside the country. The government has also alleged that Kadeer has close ties with the Dalai Lama14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
, accused of inciting unrest
2008 Tibetan unrest
The 2008 Tibetan unrest, also known from its Chinese name as the 3•14 Riots, was a series of riots, protests, and demonstrations that started in Tibetan regional capital of Lhasa and spread to other Tibetan areas and a number of monasteries including outside the Tibet Autonomous Region...
in Tibet
Tibet Autonomous Region
The Tibet Autonomous Region , Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China , created in 1965....
in 2008, and claimed that WUC president Kadeer said that "something similar should happen in Xinjiang." The government newspaper, the People's Daily
People's Daily
The People's Daily is a daily newspaper in the People's Republic of China. The paper is an organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China , published worldwide with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. In addition to its main Chinese-language edition, it has editions in English,...
, attacked the WUC, saying that it was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, whose main sponsor was the US Congress.