Xinkijang: Interview with Enver Can, President of The East Turkestan National Congress

Question: The fall of Soviet Union in 1991 and the independence of the Central Asian countries, had rised up the hopes of the Uyghurs about a same fall of China followed by the independence of East Turkestan. But so was not. China is still one united nation and there is no sign of weakness in this unity. The independence of Tibet or East Turkestan now seems farest than ever. Have this modified your policy toward Beijing?
Mr. Can: The history is full of surprises. No Empire exists forever. The justice will prevail. The mankind lives with hope. The Uyghur people have the main three components of being a nation. We trust on Democracy and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For the fate of the Uyghur people a lot will depend on the future role of Democracy.

Q.: Are you still fighting for an independent nation or would you instead change your fighting to get a real autonomous regional setting?
Mr. Can: To be free and be able to decide its own destiny is a God given right, which the Uyghur nation is deprived of now. The Uyghur people yarn to regain its Independence. We, as an international umbrella body which represents the interests of the Uyghur people abroad, can not and will not decide for them. It will be the Uyghur people in East Turkestan to decide what they want and which form of governance they choose. Nevertheless, we hope to be helpful in creation of a favourable democratic atmosphere for our people to determine their own future. Thus we stress “self-determination”, and call upon the Chinese leadership for a constructive dialogue with the aim of finding a political settlement.

Q.: After 2001 nations like Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan have started to prosecuted the Uighurs who are living in their land. Are you feeling going to be isolated also by your own rootbased co-ethnic people?
Mr. Can: No. Not at all. We understand that the newly independent states of Central Asia are in the process of nation-building. They, while trying to distance themselves from Moscow, during the last decade, gradually became more and more vulnerable to Chinese influence, both politically and economically. On the other hand, after the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and its presence in Central Asia, there are signals that things will change. Also, the process of democratisation in Central Asia would contribute for the survival of our people there. We have strong historical and cultural ties with the peoples of Central Asia, and in due course they will understand that together we will be more stronger and it would also serve their interest to keep the buffer zone to the east.

Q.: The Tibetan struggle have a worldwide support, Uyghurs’ don’t. Can you explain why two different ethnic people fighting the same centralized government have a so different weight in the media coverage?
Mr. Can: You are right for the time being. Our Tibetan brothers left their homeland with their government, its assets, and of course with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. India, for obvious reasons offered them a save heaven in its territory. They have been able to develop a worldwide diplomatic and information network, Tibet Support Groups were set up in Western Democracies in addition to the prestige of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his followers from all walks of life. All this, putting together, has helped for the present picture. By giving these examples, I am not trying to justify anything; of course we must do our homework. During the Cold War era the world was divided into two major blocks in which most of the Muslim countries used to be either under former USSR or belonged to the so called “Third World” under Chinese leadership. Both communist giants used well the Islamic card in their relations with these countries. It is fact that the Uyghur problem was neglected in the most of the Islamic world, and on the other hand in the past we were not able to establish a relationship with Western democratic institutions. The history of the Uyghur intellectual contact with West is very new. Only since last few years, the handfull Uyghur intelligentsia living in Western Europe and North America, working on voluntary basis, have been trying to bring the outcry of our people to the attention of the world community. And has taken the first steps of organising itself in the international arena. Actually, we are at the beginning of a long and difficult work, but determined to carry it out. The real professional work has to begin yet.

Q.: Tibetans are seen as a united people and the Dalai Lama is their clearly and only leader. Viceversa, Uighurs are divided in several organisations, fighting each other, they do not have a central leader either. Some organisation wants a secular state, others an Islamic oriented one. Probably a lot of Uighurs people do not even feel to be a nation. How can you coordinate all these instances in a one-way policy?
Mr. Can: Fifty years of Chinese communist indoctrination and the policy of “Divide and Rule” surely has contributed to some mistrust and disunity among us. Now, and in the coming years, the fate of the Uyghur nation will be at stake. China wants to accomplish its policy of forced assimilation and silence the peaceful dissent with every means in the next few decades. The Uyghur people are aware of this danger and most families suffered under the crack down of recent years. Our activities in the West, though in very low level yet, are seen as source of hope by our people in East Turkestan. Could all this be an incentive for more unity?
I am sure, there had been many people who might have become leaders, if were not executed by the government in recent years and there are many others being kept in prisons who might lead the nation if they are free. We, in the West, try to help to create a favourable condition in which our people at home be able to elect or select their leaders and choose the best way of governance for themselves, which I think is secularism, rule of law, pluralism and Democracy.
I believe that some positive signs, in which we can show our people that the free world cares for the fate of Uyghur people, would significantly contribute to find a more coherent policy.

Q.: USA has agreed with China to label the ETIM (East Turkestan Islamic Movement) as terroristic organization due its links with al-Qaeda. This is undoubtely a big win for China. How do you think this new co-operation between USA and China will affect the policy of the Uighurs people and the Uighurs organizations?
Mr. Can: Superpowers often exchange gifts with eachother. I hope it will be a onetime gifts to China after the airplane incident and to welcome the Chinese leader to Washington. Also, the Bush administration needed at least a silent China at the Security Council, a coalition partner in its drive against international terrorism, and China’s influence on North Korea is also vital. We should, and we will work more effectively and more professionally to inform the world community about the plight of our people. As Amnesty International put it:
“… the rights violations are perhaps the pick of the iceberg, and the international community can not stand idle and do nothing…”
Of course we will be trying to tell the truth to the world community: yet we must convince the world community that the Uyghurs are not extremists, not terrorists as China claims, on the contrary we are the victims of the Chinese policy of forcible assimilation, state terror, population transfer and religious restrictions. China has been hiding something from the world community. That is its heavy handed policy against our nation. I doubt that China would ever accept receiving an international observers team whose duty will be to find out who is terrorising whom in East Turkestan. A positive sign is that recently the world community began to bring up the Uyghur issue. So, inlight of these development China decided to back the U.S. campaign against international terrorism and in return hoped that the international community would tolerate its drive against dissent, including the Uyghurs. We will do our best that China not succeed in legitimising its policy of crack down. Hopefully in the future, the Western democracies will bring up the Uyghur issue more frequently than before. We will be working to prove and convince the free world, including the U.S., that in long run the Uyghur people posses the potential of being a reliable partner in Central Asia and would contribute for stability and spread of democracy there.
Central Asian region, including East Turkestan, posses valuable natural resources which are vital. And the Uyghur people, if free, very well will play a significant role in utilisation of these resources.

Q.: Do you think ETIM has really some links with Osama bin Laden’s group?
Mr. Can: I do not know this organisation and its people, and have no information about its existence. Even if it exists, those Uyghurs are people who fled the Chinese suppression to save their lives, and not to join Taleban or fight against anyone.
About its possible links with the Ben Laden group the only information I heard is that its, meanwhile killed, leader told a western radio journalist in a telephone interview that it has no links with Al-Qaeda.

Q.: During a trip to Northern Afghanistan before 2001, I was taken in a jail runned by the Massud forces. There I have met several Uyghurs people who were fighting for Taleban and, perhaps (as theyself have said) for al-Qaeda. To contact Taleban was no easy at all and to be hired by the Taleban or al-Qaeda army you should have backed by a well organized group, expecially for people who do not have money and school education.
So I do not think the China statements about some Uyghurs separatists organizations are only government’s propaganda.
Mr. Can: I do not know any Uyghur belonging to that organisation and have not met any, but it is possible that for many reasons (like to save their lives, to receive military training, of desperation or believe) some disillusioned individuals might have joined them. The Chinese counter-intelligence services are also active. There are also reports about Chinese support for the Taleban and eyewitnesses say, that China has sent its own agents to join the Taleban or al-Qaeda. So it is easier for China to prove its own thesis!

Q.: Do you think that China will try to label also others Turkestani organizations as terrorist?
Mr. Can: Yes, if we are not able to convince the world community about our innocence and, if the Western Democracies continue to sacrifice its moral values and democratic principles in return for short-term economic and national interests, I am afraid it would encourage Beijing to issue more and more lists to justify its crack down, to distract the world attention from the real problem and to pacify our democratic voice abroad which really began to disturb its image. A western analyst recently said that, during the cold War era dictators, to find acceptance by the West, had to be only anti-communist, now, especially after nine-eleven, authoritarian regimes to find acceptance by them, have to be simply anti-terrorist. I think, it is highly time for the Western democracies to differentiate and set the limits of tolerance and work more on effective confidence building measures to protect the crediblity of democratic ideals.

Q.: Do you still consider USA as allied or, lets say, a Country on which count in case of need?
Mr Can: A lot would depend on the conduct of Western Democracies, including the U.S. If they stop zig-zaging in the Human rights policy and find a common language, stop applying democracy selectively and stick to their moral values and democratic principles, these would deter dictatorships from suppressing democratic forces and ethnic minorities. (The best example is, if the West had found a common language in condemning China for its human rights record in Geneva few years ago, today China would not have dared to ask them to close organisations which operate under their democratic laws and to depart people who have received political asylum because they were persecuted by the Chinese regime for their believes and political activities). Otherwise, authoritarian regimes will grow bold and try to misuse these tolerance as weakness of democracies, and do everything to silence domestic democratic voices and to vorstall spread of democracy worldwide. If these trend continues, it will have a wideranging repercussion on the globalisation of democracy. So, I count on Western democracies, including the U.S. to work more actively and in a more serious manner for freedom, justice, rule of law and respect for human rights around the world to make the planet more safer which in turn would contribute very much for the world peace, stability and the prosperity of their peoples.
Me, and my collegues who have been living for many years in the West, we believe in the Democracy, rule of law, justice and the Universal Decleration of Human Rights, and do our best to convene these message to our people at home.
We, working peacefully under democratic principles and internationally accepted rules call upon the international community to recognise and assist us to be successful both in pressurising the Chinese leaders to sit for negotiation, and leading our people to a direction which we think is the best.

Q.: Some reports from the Human Rights Organizations have stated that China is going to move thousands of Uyghurs to the neighborough countries (the last report printed on China Daily have said that three thousands Uyghurs have been forced to move to Kazakhstan from East Turkestan). Can you confirm this?
Mr Can: I think China would not force Uyghurs to move to neighbouring countries. It has been pressing them to return some Uyghurs. Could it be possible that the report is about 3 thousand Kazakhs? As you know there are a considerable Kazakh population in East Turkestan. After independence, Kazakhstan have been trying to relocate some Kazakh people who have been living in some neighbouring countries back to Kazakhstan to change the actual demographic situation in favour of Kazakhs!

© Piergiorgio Pescali