The letter states, "Because of you, so many innocent people lost their lives in Urumqi on July 5," though it is interesting this is the only direct link made between Kadeer and the riots in the text. The rest is general stuff about how good XinJiang is, now that it is no longer an Uighur majority region, and how ungrateful Kadeer is for criticising the regime that imprisoned and then exiled her.
For what it is worth, I think the letter sounds like it was dictated by particularly uninspired bureaucrats trying to manufacture a propoganda coup. Perhaps it loses something in translation, but soemthing like sounds completely artificial and unnatural:
There are no difference between ethnic groups so long as you're willing to work hard. There are many Uygur millionaires and countless new buildings in Urumqi, and Uygur people enjoy various preferential policies from the government. Isn't this the result of good policy of the Government? (3)The source for that seems more likely to be the Communist Party's Report on Progress And Development in Xinjiang Province.
Kadeer has said the letter was written under duress (3).
Chinese Television also showed dennunciations by Kadeer's family, including her son Alim, currently imprisoned in China, who said:
"The road my mother has chosen leads to a bottomless hole ... She will not succeed in her separatist endeavours." (4)Which, again, sounds like a a line from a very bad film. Though, of course, these reelases aren't intended to convince international critics - China knows it doesn't have to worry about us - but at the internal audience, who have heard this sort of stilted, scripted ppropoganda so often they probably think it is genuine.
1 - "Full text of letter to Rebiya Kadeer by her family members," by persons unknown (sic), published 3rd of AUgust, 2003, by xinha. (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/03/content_11818841.htm)
2 - ibid.
3 - "Beijing forced family's 'denunciation': Uighur leader," by Amy Coupes, published by AFP, 4th of August, 2009, hosted by google. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gCIw84BauXwOZEmd7CelGWIFUS4Q)
4 - ibid.
2 comments:
Initially, I thought the letter was fake. But I changed my mind after watching the following live interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkCx9d6IYBc
Her youngest son by her first husband was very saddened when she suggested him to burn himself. what kind of mother can say such a thing to her son. She was so cruel.
You're easily persuaded. I'd treat the interview with as much scepticism as I'd treat the letter.
I do not think the lettert was forged - I think it was written under duress. I can easily imagine Kadeer's children being 'persuaded' to write the letter and make the interview.
After all, if they don't condemn her on demmand, according to totalitarian logic, they must support her. Which means imprisonment for 'seperatist activities.'
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