The Uyghurs, China and central Asia

July 26, 2011 | openDemocracy | By Henryk Szadziewski

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is one of those international bodies whose proclaimed ideals conceal an often sordid reality. A vivid way to illustrate the point is by looking at the experience of peoples within some of its member-states that are deprived of rights of free association and expression. These include the Uyghur people, whose homeland (which they call East Turkestan) is now the northwest province of Xinjiang in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The SCO’s six member-states (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and four observer-states (India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan) convened on 15 June 2011 in Kazakhstan’s fresh-from-the-steppe capital of Astana to celebrate ten years of increasing political and economic ties. Over this decade, which coincides almost exactly with that of the global “war on terror”, the work of the organisation has included overseeing member-states cooperation on security issues; several of the joint military exercises conducted under its aegis have focused on the ostensible threat of terrorism in the central Asia region.

Read the full op-ed here: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/uyghurs-china-and-central-asia/