What disasters has the Chinese communist regime brought upon the Uyghurs? (3)

Since the Chinese Communist government occupied East Turkistan in 1949, the Uyghur people have continued to suffer from China's colonial policies. After the death of Mao Zedong, the Chinese regime, unable to find a way out of the collapse of the Cultural Revolution, was forced to reform. Even in the 1980s and early 1990s, when so-called "soft policies" were applied not only to the Uyghurs but to all Chinese, the Uyghurs continued to protest against China's unfair policies. Whether it was the "December 12 Student Movement" in 1985 and the "June 15 Student Movement" in 1988, or the "April 5 Barin Revolution" in Barin Village of Akto in 1990 and the "February 5 Gulja Revolution" in Gulja in 1997. All of these events were considered by the Chinese government as "national separatism" and were bloodily suppressed. The December 12 Student Movement in Urumqi in 1985 can be said to have erupted at a time when Chinese policy had eased slightly, and the Uyghurs had the opportunity to reconsider their fate. It was a peaceful expression of the wishes of Uyghur students and all ethnic groups in East Turkistan to the Chinese government.
Some of the participants in that student movement went abroad after the 1990s, and are currently the mainstay of the Uyghur cause abroad.
Among them is Mr. Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Project in Canada. He said that the 1985 student movement affected the entire East Turkistan “occupied by China since 1949 and called the Uyghur Autonomous Region” including students from Urumqi, Kashgar, Aksu, Hotan, Korla, Ghulja, and Bortala, and more than 15,000 students.
He said that every point that the students asked the Chinese government to address at that time had a solid scientific and practical basis, and all of them were formed by the students themselves on the basis of many practical surveys among the people. Mr. Nur Muhammad Musabai, a Uyghur activist in the United States, was an active participant in the movement at that time. The students demanded that the Chinese government “carry out truly democratic elections in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; stop nuclear testing in the region; stop turning this region into the largest criminal camp in China and stop transferring settlers to this region; - implement the law of genuine national autonomy in the region; abolish the planned family planning policy for Muslims; and he stated that he put forward six demands, including “the real development of minority education.”
Among the student movements of those years, the student movement for national equality in Urumqi in June 1988 was one of the most influential movements initiated by Uyghur students, and later analyses indicated that this movement had some similarities to the 1989 student protests for democracy in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Uyghur intellectuals such as Rushan Abbas, a participant in the 1985 student movement, Dolkun Isa, a leader of the 1988 student movement, and Orkesh Devlet, a leader of the Tiananmen Student Movement in 1989, is currently an active figure. Abroad against the Chinese government.
Dolqun Isa, after going abroad, served as secretary, executive chairman and president of the World Uyghur Congress, a Uyghur organization that opposes the Chinese communist government. He told our radio that the "December 12 Student Protest" in Urumqi in 1985 and the "Against National Discrimination and Demanding Equality" student movement in June 1988 laid the foundation for the activities carried out by some young people abroad against the Chinese occupation.
The Chinese communist government at that time did not accept the just demands of the Uyghur students, but classified their protest as a "national separatist movement"; the protesting students were punished in various ways. This situation increased the Uyghur resentment towards the Chinese government.
In 1990, the “April 5th Barin Revolution” in Barin Village of Akto Prefecture, Ashgar Prefecture, against the Chinese government’s family planning and other oppressive policies was an explosion of Uyghur resentment and anger against the Chinese government. On April 5, 1990, when the residents of Barin Village of Akto Prefecture, led by Ziyauddin Yusuf, rebelled against China’s family planning policy and restrictions on religious freedom, the Chinese government mobilized its armed forces and army units stationed in the southern provinces and carried out a large-scale massacre in Barin Village. Chinese media reported at the time that a total of 232 people, including Ziyauddin Yusuf, were killed in the conflict. However, according to eyewitnesses, Barin Village was severely destroyed during the conflict. Chinese soldiers were terrified and even shot babies in their cradles. After the Barin Rebellion, the Chinese government mobilized 6 teams of army, police, gendarmerie and military to blockade Kashgar, Atush, Hotan and Aksu counties for a long time. More than 2,000 Uyghurs from Kashgar were arrested and sentenced to prison and death on charges of aiding and abetting the Barin Rebellion. In the late 1990s, the Chinese government also bloodily suppressed the "February 5 Protest" by Ghulja youth against the Chinese government, which was suppressed on February 5, 1997. Information about the cause of the incident revealed that in the 1990s, in order to combat drugs and AIDS among Ghulja youth, Ghulja youth organized themselves and formed "mushrif" groups and football teams, but they were soon banned by the Chinese government. Ms. Gulshan Abdulkadir, who wrote a book about the incident, said that at that time, more than 200 young people from the Mushrif group of Abdul Khalil Abdul Majid in Ghulja city took to the streets on February 5 and started a peaceful protest. Until the demonstration was bloodily suppressed that evening, with the ever-increasing number of Uyghur youth, the number of protesters had risen to more than 1,000. After the protest was suppressed, all the protesters in Ghulja were arrested.