“ The Chinese authorities demolished 133 mosques and closed 105 Islamic schools in the Karakas town of Hoten province alone.”

B) International control

With a series of oppressive laws and its activities to suppress the people, the methods used by the Chinese government have been disclosed, one by one, with the efforts of international research centers and global human rights associations. For example, Dr. Paul George, who is from Turkistan and an independent researcher on political progress and global safety subjects, gave the following quote in his paper, entitled: “The Problems of Islam in Xinjiang,” which was published in issue No 73 of the Canadian Security Intelligence Bureau in the spring 1998: “In the name of protecting national unity and stability Beijing is trying to systematically control all religious activities throughout China. However, it can be seen that Islam has penetrated deeply into the national identity and local culture in Xinjiang. For this reason, Beijing perceives Islam as a direct threat to its sovereignty, and perceives mosques and religious schools as gathering places where those who are dissatisfied with the government meet. Therefore, from time to time, religious functionaries are arrested and violently punished.”17

Whether the Chinese authorities deny or accept such eyewitness reports does not change the situation. The Chinese practices are mostly inflicted against Muslims and Islam. The legislative system in Eastern Turkistan operates in the same way. These laws have been transmitted abroad to international human rights organizations by researchers from Turkistan. For the first time, an international organization, “Human Rights Watch”, has cooperated with a Chinese human rights organization and prepared an official report regarding the secret and public legislation package that has been enforced on the Uyghur people of Eastern Turkistan. The title of the report is “Crushing Blows: Religious Pressures against Uyghur in Xinjiang”; the report was published in April 12, 2005. The following references were used as basis for this report, which consists of 114 pages:

1. Government and Communist Party documents deciphered at an earlier date,

2. Regional laws,

3. Official gazette,

4. Interviews,

5. There are also appendices containing quotations from official documents.

Thus, this report can be seen to be an international document containing firsthand information. More importantly, this was the first time when such a detailed documentation was prepared about the situation in Turkistan. This study was not merely interposed in a media broadcast, as had been done