Istanbul (AsiaNews) – Police detained at least six Uighur Muslims on Thursday at an anti-China protest during the Olympic torch ceremony. The demonstrators were detained after they broke away from a larger group of protesters and shouted slogans just feet away from Tugba Karademir, a Turkish figure skater and Olympic athlete who had just started to run with the torch through the city. The arrest took place close to the Blue Mosque one of the most important tourist sites in the city.
”Turkey, stand by your brothers," read a banner at the protest in Istanbul. Hayrullah Efendigil, one of the Uighurs involved in the demonstration, says : “We don't want a country like China, with a bad human rights record, to hold the Olympics, which symbolize humanity, peace and brotherhood”.
The Uigher ethnic group, which boasts its own language and traditions, counts for at least half og the 19 million inhabitants of the petrol rich northern region of Xinjiang, which was known as eastern Turkistan until 1949. In October 2005 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, decreed by China in 1955, 18,227 Uighurs were arrested “for having threatened national security”. Every year hundreds of death sentences are carried out, while there is blanket control over the mosques and Islamic schools.
The Chinese government claims that separatist terrorist groups are hiding in the region and quotes over 250 episodes of separatist violence in the area over the last 20 years, causing 160 deaths and over 440 injured. Less then a month ago Beijing ordered a raid against suspected Islamic Uighur terrorists: unconfirmed tolls report at least 30 victims.
Moreover, authorities in Kashgar (ancient oasis on the Silk Route) have arrested at least 70 Uighurs suspected of preparing anti Chinese protests during the passage of the Olympic torch through their land, due to take place in June. The government of Xinjiang denies the arrests, confirmed however by inhabitants in the area and by the family’s o the suspected activists. In any case, the number of soldiers guarding critical points of across the territory, restrictions on freedom of movement and freedom to gather, have all increased.