Ethnic tension rising in Chinese province

Ethnic tension rising in Chinese province

KUQA, China (AFP): Officials in Xinjiang sing a sweet song with a repetitive refrain -- that life among four dozen ethnic groups that make up China's far northwestern province is one of untroubled harmony.

Behind their utterances, however, is deep anxiety about social friction, anger amongst some minorities at the easier life enjoyed by ethnic Chinese, and a wellspring of support for separatism that could wrench the province out of Beijing's control.

The biggest single ethnic group here is the Uighurs, Moslems originally from central Asia.

The official line is that the Uighurs, along with the Han -- who make up ninety percent of the Chinese nationwide -- and another 47 "national minorities" are all part of the rich tapestry of Xinjiang ethnicity.

The region's chairman, Abdulahat Abdurixit, is the first to hail "the unity of the peoples of Xinjiang."

"There are no problems between the nationalities," echoes Balati Aishan, first magistrate in Kuqa, a small town in the east of the region, where the population is 87 percent Uighur. Tursun Sadir, chief of Aksu district, which includes Kuqa, speaks readily of the area's "harmony".

Speak to Yusufu, a 20-year-old Uighur from Korla, a little further west, and a starkly different story is heard.

"The Chinese have one objective: to muzzle our people," he says, pausing to take a sip of tea in the living room of his little earthen house, the walls festooned with rugs which fail to hide the dilapidation.

His friend Aimet adds: "The Chinese say the region is getting richer and richer. That's true but they are the ones who are getting richer, while we just get poorer."

"We are just about fit to explode," warns a young man with brown hair and green eyes, selling lamb kebabs in the regional capital, Urumqi.

"The arrogance, the colonial attitude of the Chinese are becoming more and more unacceptable," he complains as a muezzin, or Moslem cantor, calls the faithful to prayer.

According to official figures, the Han and the Uighur make up 37 and 47 percent respectively of Xinjiang's population of 16 million. The region enjoyed growth of 11 percent last year, buoyed by a strong agricultural sector, but also expansion in coal and oil.

In recent years, seeking to ease ethnic friction and avoid a populist call for a "Chinese Turkestan," the central authorities have made some liberal gestures, notably on religion.

"More and more young people are going to the mosque," says Oblikim Damullah Hadji, Kuqa's grand Imam.

"Nearly every demand to make a pilgrimage to Mecca is accepted," adds Li Shimin, director of the external affairs bureau in Korla.

Some of Kuqa's Moslems are less impressed, saying some Moslem leaders who veer from the Communist Party line are ostracized and in some cases imprisoned. "There are frequent raids on the faithful," one told AFP.

For Memetiming Zhakel, the mayor of Urumqi, "the central government's policy on minorities is very favorable."

He offers as proof family planning rules that are relatively liberal for China, allowing for between two and four children per family, according to circumstances.

However the massive influx of Han Chinese into Xinjiang in recent years, lured by the region's economic development, has led the native Uighurs to fear that they will soon be in the minority. "We are already there, the statistics are rigged," argues Yusufu.

The region's president counters that the migration is "necessary and positive" and will not overturn the region's ethnic makeup.

"The Hans will never be a majority because the Uighurs' birthrate is higher," he explains.

Privately some non-Han officials do not rule out a deterioration in ethnic relations.

Encouraged by the disintegration of the Soviet Union and bolstered by aid from fellow Moslems in the neighboring central Asian republics, the separatists occasionally resort to violence.

"There are examples, but they are rare," says Tursun Sadir, citing a series of explosions in Aksu last July.

"The separatist phenomenon is not new and there are a mere handful of these people. Most inhabitants of Xinjiang oppose them and would never support them because they know that stability is a prerequisite of economic opening up," Adbulahat Abdurixit, the region's chairman, assured.