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ANCHOR: Uighur people living in Japan and their
supporters take to the streets to
protest against the Beijing Olympic. Let's join
our correspondent in Japan for more on the
story...
STORY: More than 100 human rights activists
rallied in Tokyo on Wednesday to protest the
passing of the Olympic torch through East
Turkestan, a Chinese communist party-controlled
region, populated by ethnic-minority Muslim
Uighurs.
Their protest came after a report on Monday
indicated that Chinese authorities in the restive
far western region of Xinjiang, demolished a
mosque for refusing to put up signs supporting
this August's Beijing Olympics.
[Ilham Mahmut, Japan Representative of the World
Uighur Congress]:
"The world is going in the direction of democracy
and maybe some 90 percent of the countries are by
now, democratic. Nonetheless, the Chinese
government is going in the opposite direction and
they are trying to eliminate us."
Mahmut has been living in Japan for seven years,
working as an engineer.
Beijing says al Qaeda is working with militants in
Xinjiang in an effort to use terror as a means of
establishing an independent state called East
Turkistan. Oil-rich Xinjiang is home to 8 million
Turkic speaking Uighurs, many of whom resent the
growing economic and cultural influence of the Han
Chinese.
One protester joined the rally after finding out
that human rights conditions in Uighur, are very
similar to those in Tibet.
[Fumiyo Mukai, IT Agent]:
"Originally, I'm a Tibet supporter, but the more I
learned about human rights issues in China, I've
come to realize that Tibet and Uighur are having
the same problem."
Nensyu Shirakawa,a former Silk Road traveler, has
been accepting exchange students from East
Turkestan for the past two decades.
[Nensyu Shirakawa, Former Silk Road Traveler]:
"The Chinese government takes 80,000 Uighur women
to the mainland every year and that's just one of
the unjust policies imposed upon Uighur people."
There are an estimated 700 Uighur people living in
Japan.
Tags : ntd uighur protest beijing olympic japan supporters acitivist |
