Kazakhstan: Treatment of the Uighur minority

Minority Rights Group International reports that the Uighurs are a people of Turkish origin most of whose estimated 10 million inhabitants live in Xinjiang province, in Northwest China (1997, 22). The deterioration of relations between China and the former USSR in the 1960s prompted several thousand Chinese Uighurs to settle in Kazakhstan. Some members of this community favour the establishment of a distinct cultural and territorial autonomy, which the Kazakh authorities oppose. The Uighurs of Kazakhstan have cultural services and their own system of education, but some of them feel they suffer job discrimination by the Kazakhs.

AFP reports that some 200,000 Uighurs live in Kazakhstan, where three organizations in exile apparently joined forces on 8 February 1997 to form a movement called Uighuristan (18 Feb. 1997).

According to Time, several confrontations between Uighur militants and the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang province, which shares a border with six countries, including Kazakhstan, resulted in a number of dead and injured, especially in early 1997 (21 Apr. 1997). According to Uighur militants, the Chinese authorities arrested some 60,000 Uighurs and executed 2,000 of them in 1996-1997 (ibid.). Fearing an uprising of the various minorities that populate Xinjiang province, the Chinese authorities asked for Kazakhstan's co-operation in combatting the vague separatist impulses of the Uighurs in the border region in return for substantial loans and investments (gas and oil pipeline) in Kazakhstan (ibid.). Uighur militants complained that the Kazakh authorities had shut down Uighur newspapers and restricted demonstrations in the capital city Almaty by way of co-operating with the Chinese government (ibid.). This information is corroborated by the Financial Times, which reported that the Kazakh authorities, bending to pressure from China, suppressed all political activity by the Uighurs, banning their demonstrations and political meetings (17 June 1998).

AFP, citing a member of the National United Revolutionary Front, an Uighur organization, reported the arrest of three Uighur militants from China in Almaty a few weeks prior to the summit on Central Asia held in Moscow in late April 1997 on the demilitarization of the borders separating China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tadzhikistan and Kyrgyzstan (10 Apr. 1997).

The attached articles report the situation of the Uighurs in 1998 and 1997. There is also information about the treatment of the Uighur minority in Kazakhstan and of the various minorities in that state in KKT22435.F of 7 December 1995 and KKT27584.F of 8 August 1997 and their attachments, available at Regional Documentation Centres.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please see the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Agence France Presse (AFP). 10 April 1997. "Three Uighurs Held in Kazakh Capital Ahead of Summit." (NEXIS)

_____. 18 February 1997. "China Arrests 21 in Koranic Schools in Xinjiang: Group." (NEXIS)

The Financial Times [London]. 17 June 1998. Carlotta Gall. "Uighurs: A Test of Tactfulness." (NEXIS)

Minority Rights Group International. 1997. Shirin Akiner. "Central Asia: Conflict or Stability and Development?" London: MRG.

. 21 April 1997. Nisid Hajari. "Simmering Discontent: A new Generation of Militant Separatists is Stirring the Flames in China's Remote Xinjiang Province." (NEXIS)