Would UNESCO World Heritage Status Stop Uighur Kashgar Destruction?
Thousands have been injured and hundreds killed in violent clashes between ethnic Uighurs (Uyghurs) and Chinese Hans as the conflict in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar escalates still further today. Ever since the Uighurs settled in the region, around 300BC, tension between the Turkic-speaking settlers and the governing Han Chinese have existed, and an incident at a factory has been blamed as the trigger for recent events. But could recent Chinese plans to evict the Uighurs and raze the ancient Silk Road city also be behind the unrest?
Tension between the Uighurs and native Chinese Hans has intensified over the past few decades. The Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language and practice Sufi Islam, settled in the region around 300BC. Kashgar, which is located at the point where the North and South routes of the ancient Silk Road meet, is considered their capital. The Uighars have long campaigned for independence from Chinese rule, and their separatist demands have led to bloodshed over recent years, but never on this scale.
Less than two months ago, Chinese officials announced plans to demolish 85% of the ancient Uighur city Kashgar, supposedly as a preventative measure against earthquakes. The old parts of the city are susceptible to quake damage, although many Uighur, and indeed critics around the world, feel that this is not the only reason behind the plans.
13,000 Uighur families are set to lose their millennia-old, traditional mud-brick homes as part of the project, and will be moved to areas miles outside the city. Although some buildings will be recreated supposedly in the old Uighur style, whole areas of the city will be razed to the ground and replaced with modern apartments and plazas. This is Xingjiang publishes the city plans, which are peculiarly grid-life compared to the romantic, winding layout of the ancient city. Archaeologists will not be involved in the process, supposedly because, according to Chinese officials, the government already knows all there is to know about Kashgar.
Although the Chinese government claim to be acting to preserve the city, it has been accused of adopting a policy of purposefully diluting the Uighur population of the city by moving increasing numbers of Han into the area. The plan to demolish traditional structures is seen as a further attack on Uighur culture.
According to an article in the Guardian, ‘Kashgar was deliberately omitted from Beijing's list of candidates for world heritage status’. An online petition in favour of its inclusion, which should safeguard it against demolition, currently has 6460 signatures.
Video in Support of the Petition to Grant Kashgar UNESCO World Heritage Site Status:
Image of Kashgar Old Town by fred chiang. All rights reserved.
Read 5 comments, or leave your own
videos
Comments
To go with that that petition, there are also:
Thanks Ann. The 'Save Kashgar' facebook group is aiming for 500 members. It's currently at 463 so if you join now, people, you could have the honour of tipping the numbers past the target.
To give some credence to the Chinese argument (because, while I certainly wouldn't want to be seen as pro-Chinese government, there are two sides here) earthquakes have ravaged the area in the past - a massive 8.0 blast hit in 1902, killing 667 people, and that's just one in a number of similar events. So, as much as there are some hefty archaeological issues at stake, I think the problem of ethnic dispersion and cultural cleansing is the bigger problem. And though many parts of Kashgar may be lost, lives 100% will be saved if, in the altogether likely event of another earthquake, thousands of Uighurs are relocated to safer areas. It's a condundrum, to be sure. That said, the events of the past few days have shamed a nation with enough blood on its hands already.
Yes, the earthquake threat is a real one. Does anyone know how well the old buildings coped with the last earthquake in the area? I couldn't find any details on that really, although the fact that they are still standing after 2000 years and several quakes suggests that they're pretty solid. I have read that the ancient building techniques of the Uighurs were spot on, and that the walls of some of these buildings are actually very sturdy, and have even hardened with age.
However, the Uighurs expand their homes upwards to accommodate new generations. I don't know, but it seems possible that more recent additions to old buildings might not have been built to the same standards. In most of the recent earthquake disasters around the world, shoddy modern workmanship has been to blame. Perhaps if regulations were put in place to ensure that recent and future construction is earthquake-proof, that would be a more fair, and less expensive, solution?
And in an area like that, prone to quakes, a proper evacuation plan should be in place as well. I don't think I'd want to stick around in a hastily-erected city of new apartment blocks if an earthquake hit.
UNESCO is an intensely political creature. With regard to the petition, I wonder if it's realistic to expect the WHC to make an exception to its policy that nominations to the list can come only from the responsible States Parties, and add Kashgar against the wishes of the Chinese government. If it were added, I imagine it would immediately be up for the "Heritage in Danger" list, which could be perceived by China as a serious blow to the country's prestige. I can't imagine that the political will exists for other States Parties to pressure China over Kashgar. Even talking about the Old City plan seems to be taboo -
"One foreign official who refused to be identified for fear of damaging relations with Beijing said the Old City project had unusually strong backing high in the government." - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28kashgar.html?_r=1
I hope that the petition has some effect, but I'm not overly optimistic. Maybe it could be supplemented by an old fashioned letter writing campaign to the head of the WHC, to at least encourage the organization to put its position out there?
Post new comment