OTHER MINORITIES

China: F.J. Khergamvala on Situation in Xinjiang

In his annual speech to the National People’s Congress, on 28 Feb, 1997, China's Parliament, the Premier, Mr. Li Peng, said his government would "unswervingly safeguard the unity of the motherland and ethnic unity. And resolutely oppose any words or activities designed to split the country or damage ethnic unity." Though there might be an inference to Tibet too, more transparently these tough words refer to the unrest in Yining and the Xinjiang province capital Urumqi. Xinjiang has been a hotbed of ethnic unrest since decades, alternately in a state of turmoil and quiet.  Especially as China becomes wealthier the unrest has become worse over the past year-and-a-half.

On February 5 and 6 in Yining on the border with Kazakhstan at least 10 persons were killed and one report put the figure at 600 dead. On the day China held the funeral of Mr. Deng Xiaoping there was a bigger explosion, this time in Urumqi. At least five persons were killed and dozens injured after bomb exploded simultaneously on three buses.

China has not reported the latest attacks in its media. The Urumqi bombs highlight China's arc of troubles, from Tibest in the south, to Inner Mongolia in the north, with Xinjiang in the middle being the most problematic, not least due to its ethno-religious composition and links to China's Western neighbours.

China attributes the problem to "splitism" a peculiar communist jargaon for separatism. Xinjiang is an oil-bearing province and according to some estimates, it has 40 per cent of the country's oil deposits. In 1995, of all the foreign investment pumped into China 52 per cent went into just three coastal states, though 729 million live in the non-coastal areas. Bu in the hinterland Xinjiang has attracted foreign prospectus looking for oil and natural gas and Han Chinese have got most of the jobs. China follows a two-pronged policy toward the minority ethnic groups. Nominally, Xinjiang is an autonomous region. Actually, the policy is one of encouraging migration of Han Chinese to the ethnic minority dominated regions, especially into Tibet, Xinjiang and Indr Mongolai. In latter area, the Han Chinese are reported to outnumber Mongolians by six times.

The area has been contested between China dn the local people since over 400 years. Xinjiang had become independent in 1944 for a brief while to form the Eastern Turkistan Republic when the country was in state of civil war. Before that, though official Chinese historical records are silent about it, during the Mind dynasty, (1368-1644) Xinjiang was largely independent of China. The Han Chines colonisation of Xinjiang began in the 18th century under the Manchu Emperor Qianlong The Chinese consider the 1944 loss of the region that as one of those humiliations suffered when the center was weak. Xinjiang is bordered by Mandolin to the north east, Russia to the north, Kazakhistan, Tadzikhstan, Kyrgystan and Pakistan to the West with a smaller border with Pak occupied Kashmir, Kazakhstan is concerned about the effect of its own half a million strong Uighur community as they are known to favour independence foo Xinjiang. In fact, the town of Lining, the site of the February 5 unrest is populated more by Kazakh Uighurs than China's Uighurs.

Xinjiang is also the region of huge earthquakes and now, without reason it is also called the 'Wildst West' of China. With the focus on a post-Deng China, Xinjiang will be closely watched because it is linked to low weak or strong the Communist Party becomes.

(Source: The Hindu 3 March, 1997)

UK: L.K. Sharma on Indo-Pakistani MP's in House of Commons

The arrival of the first Muslim in the House of Commons is making news. The multi-cultural Britain appears to have arrived with five MPs of Asian origin sitting on the ruling benches, along with 4 blacks.

Pakistani-born Mohammed Sarwar, a millionaire businessman, now represents a seat in Scotland for the Labour Party. He hoped his election would give a greater voice to Britain's ethnic communities.

Two other new entrants are Mr. Ashok Kumar and Ms. Marsha Singh. Ms. Singh, first Asian woman, MP, represents the hotbed of Asian politics, the constituency of Bradford West. In his constituency, Asian candidates came first and second, his Conservative rival being a Muslim. Mr. Keith Vaz and Mr. Piara Khabra, both Labour MPs, returned comfortably.

It may be only of symbolic importance but this time more than 30 candidates of Asian origin joined the fray on behalf of different parties.

The fringe parties were more generous to them with the ticket. Ethnic minorities face subtle discrimination but Britain's record in not tolerating blatant racism is extremely good.

The mainstream political parties have learnt a lesson or two in the communal divides in the Asian community.

At times, a party is quite happy to select an ethnic minority candidate for a seat which it has no chance of winning. The fielding of an Asian candidate becomes a gesture which it wishes the community to take not of. Some Asian activists have protested against this tokenism.

 (Source: The Times of India)