Halis
30-06-05, 05:47
Jailed Uighur writer's work put on Web in English
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
1 hour, 35 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An ethnic minority Uighur writer from China jailed for an allegorical short story that criticizes Chinese rule in his region reached a wider audience this week when his banned work was translated into English and made available on a Web site.
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Nurmuhemmet Yasin's "Wild Pigeons," which is banned in China, tells the story of a young pigeon which ignores its mother's warnings about humans who have encroached on the pigeons' land.
"Mankind is pressing in on us, little by little, taking up what once was entirely our space. They want to chase us from the land we have occupied for thousands of years and to steal our land from us," the mother tells the pigeon.
The story ends with the young pigeon, captured by humans, eating a poisonous strawberry to commit suicide.
"The poisons from the strawberry flow through me like the sound of freedom itself, along with gratitude that now, now finally, I can die freely," the pigeon says.
Yasin was arrested last November, shortly after his 6,000-word story was published in a local literary journal.
In February, he received a 10-year jail sentence for inciting separatism among Uighurs, nine million of whom live in northwestern China's oil- and mineral-rich Xinjiang region.
"When I read the Uighur original story, immediately I had the emotion I must translate this and let more people read it," said Dolkun Kamberi. He posted his translation at http://www.rfa.org/english/uyghur/2005/06/27/wild_pigeon/ and said he would soon publish a Chinese translation.
"I think Chinese readers will love it and I hope English readers will love it and everybody will be surprised that writing this short story got him sentenced for 10 years," said Kamberi, an expert on Central Asian archeology.
RESENTMENT OF CHINESE
Kamberi directs Uighur language programming at Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-backed nonprofit network which broadcasts in local languages to Asian countries which lack independent media, including China, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam.
RFA has repeatedly broadcast to Xinjiang a radio play version of the story in Uighur, a Turkic language similar to that spoken in Uzbekistan and written in a script derived from Persian.
Kamberi, who left China after the crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square in 1989, said Yasin's story indirectly reflects the resentment of Muslim Uighurs, who say the development of Xinjiang does not benefit local people and fear they are rapidly being outnumbered by Chinese settlers.
According to RFA and human rights groups, Yasin, who was born in 1970, was sentenced in a closed trial without a lawyer and has not been allowed to receive visitors since his arrest. Police confiscated his personal computer containing some 1,600 poems, as well as short stories and an unfinished novel.
Many of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, which has an overall population of about 19 million, seek greater autonomy for the vast mountain and desert region.
Uighur exile groups and some inside Xinjiang want to restore the independence the region had as East Turkestan in 1938-49 -- a cause Beijing fiercely opposes.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050630/wr_nm/china_writer_dc_1
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/arts/2005/06/27/uyghur_literature
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
1 hour, 35 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An ethnic minority Uighur writer from China jailed for an allegorical short story that criticizes Chinese rule in his region reached a wider audience this week when his banned work was translated into English and made available on a Web site.
ADVERTISEMENT
Nurmuhemmet Yasin's "Wild Pigeons," which is banned in China, tells the story of a young pigeon which ignores its mother's warnings about humans who have encroached on the pigeons' land.
"Mankind is pressing in on us, little by little, taking up what once was entirely our space. They want to chase us from the land we have occupied for thousands of years and to steal our land from us," the mother tells the pigeon.
The story ends with the young pigeon, captured by humans, eating a poisonous strawberry to commit suicide.
"The poisons from the strawberry flow through me like the sound of freedom itself, along with gratitude that now, now finally, I can die freely," the pigeon says.
Yasin was arrested last November, shortly after his 6,000-word story was published in a local literary journal.
In February, he received a 10-year jail sentence for inciting separatism among Uighurs, nine million of whom live in northwestern China's oil- and mineral-rich Xinjiang region.
"When I read the Uighur original story, immediately I had the emotion I must translate this and let more people read it," said Dolkun Kamberi. He posted his translation at http://www.rfa.org/english/uyghur/2005/06/27/wild_pigeon/ and said he would soon publish a Chinese translation.
"I think Chinese readers will love it and I hope English readers will love it and everybody will be surprised that writing this short story got him sentenced for 10 years," said Kamberi, an expert on Central Asian archeology.
RESENTMENT OF CHINESE
Kamberi directs Uighur language programming at Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-backed nonprofit network which broadcasts in local languages to Asian countries which lack independent media, including China, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam.
RFA has repeatedly broadcast to Xinjiang a radio play version of the story in Uighur, a Turkic language similar to that spoken in Uzbekistan and written in a script derived from Persian.
Kamberi, who left China after the crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square in 1989, said Yasin's story indirectly reflects the resentment of Muslim Uighurs, who say the development of Xinjiang does not benefit local people and fear they are rapidly being outnumbered by Chinese settlers.
According to RFA and human rights groups, Yasin, who was born in 1970, was sentenced in a closed trial without a lawyer and has not been allowed to receive visitors since his arrest. Police confiscated his personal computer containing some 1,600 poems, as well as short stories and an unfinished novel.
Many of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, which has an overall population of about 19 million, seek greater autonomy for the vast mountain and desert region.
Uighur exile groups and some inside Xinjiang want to restore the independence the region had as East Turkestan in 1938-49 -- a cause Beijing fiercely opposes.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050630/wr_nm/china_writer_dc_1
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/arts/2005/06/27/uyghur_literature