Gobi N-tests blamed for high cancer toll

Press, 21 February 1986, Page 18

Gobi N-tests blamed for high cancer toll

From *

JASPER BECKER

In China’s vast and remote western province of Xinjiang, local people report numerous and unexplained cases of early death from cancer, deformed newborn children and lambs which they now blame on the nuclear bombs which China has tested since 1964 in the Gobi desert , - •

Members of the Turkic-speak-ing Uighur minority, who make up nearly half the province’s 13 million inhabitants, alleged in interviews in the provincial capital of Urumqi that since about 1976 men and women were dying prematurely at the age of 40 or 50, children were being bom deformed, lambs and calves bom without limbs, and grass and other crops were poisoned. Government officials in Urumqi admitted that certain countries, including Honk Kong, had refused to import fruits and vegetables from Xinjiang. The region’s honey melons, pears and grapes are much sought after and were air freighted into the colony. The officials said that tests carried out in China and Hong Kong had proved that the crops were not radioactive and exports have been resumed. The areas aflicted lie in south-— em Xinjiang where 80 per cent of the Uighurs live. Although

China’s Lop Nor testing site is in the north-eastern corner of the Gobi Desert, it is the string of oases and settlements that skirt the desert to the south and which were once part of the ancient silk route that have allegedly suffered.

... Although it almost never rains here, the Gobi Desert is known for its violent sandstorms and high winds. One Uighur said the Government was paying some victims pensions of around 10 yuan a month ($10.25) and that Chinese officials had admitted underestimating how far the radioactive dust would carry and failing to move enough people. China began detonating atmospheric tests in 1976 and has since held six, with the last in October, 1983. An end to further nuclear tests in Xinjiang was one of the demands made during Uighur student protests last month in Urumqi, Peking and Shanghai, which were the first anti-nuclear demonstrations known to be held in China.

The Uighurs have a long history of armed opposition to Chinese rule, although the last Muslim leader, Osman, was captured and executed in 1961.

of the ‘Guardian’ in Peking

Some Uighurs believe there still exists a secret resistance organisation. The latest wave of unrest appears to have been sparked off by the appointment. of a new governor to the province.. The old governor, Ismayil Amat, a Uighur, won widespread popularity by easing intercommunal tensions after the disasters of the Cultural Revolution when Mao’s Red Guards destroyed mosques and persecuted believers. His replacement, Tomur Dawamat, the son of an impoverished Uighur peasant family with no university education, is credited with insufficient authority to stand up for Uighur rights either in Urumqi or in Peking. Although half the leading posts are held by Uighurs, only Amat was considered to wield any power. The students had demanded that Amat remain, and complained that there had been no consultation over the new appointments. The students also protested against new family planning rules, which for the first time restricted the number , of children Uighur families can have to four in the countryside and three in urban areas.

Deng Xiaoping’s regime claims it is making determined efforts to improve the lot of China’s minority people. But Xinjiang is in name alone a self-governing Uighur province and Uighurs appear to share the conviction that its rich natural resources are being exploited; to the benefit of Chinese interests. The province covers a sixth of China’s land surface, has not only large gold and other mineral deposits, but between 15 billion and 200 billion tons of oil and up to ISO billion tons of coal. Some of the wealth is beginning to be tapped in the Jungar basin in the north, but Xinjiang is not only backward economically but politicaliy. The 1979 agricultural reforms were launched there only recently and the responsibility system for animal husbandry is only now being introduced.

Despite its fertile oases and the production of some of the best cotton in the world Xinjiang only last year finally achieved self-sufficiency in food and clothing. Because Xinjiang is 2000 miles from the coast, to which it is linked by a single railway line, its coal and oil are sold inside China for prices a fifth or more below world prices.