Published: June 28, 2005
Author Serving 10-Year Term in Chinese Prison
By Radio Free Asia
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2005-Radio Free Asia (RFA) today published the first English translation of the Uyghur-language short story "Wild Pigeon," whose author is now serving a lengthy sentence in a Chinese prison for writing it.
"Wild Pigeon" was originally published in late 2004 by the official Kashgar Literature Journal, which has since ceased publication.
The story comprises a 6,000-word first-person narrative by a young pigeon-the son of a pigeon king-trapped and caged by humans when he ventures far from home. In the end, he commits suicide by swallowing a poisonous strawberry rather than sacrifice his freedom, just as his own father committed suicide under similar conditions years earlier.
"The poisons from the strawberry flow through me," the unnamed pigeon remarks to himself at the end. "Now, finally, I can die freely. I feel as if my soul is on fire-soaring and free."
Apparently reading the story as a tacit indictment of China's heavy-handed rule in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Chinese authorities arrested the author, Nurmuhemmet Yasin, on Nov. 29 last year.
Yasin belongs to the Muslim Uyghur ethnic group that accounts for most of the population in Xinjiang, a vast territory rich in mineral resources and of great strategic importance to Beijing on its northwestern borders.
After a closed trial in February 2005 at which he was not permitted to hire a lawyer, Yasin was sentenced by the Kashgar Intermediate Court to 10 years in jail for inciting Uyghur separatism, sources told RFA's Uyghur service. His sentence was later upheld on appeal.
Yasin was transferred on May 19, 2005 to Urumchi No. 1 Jail, and he has been permitted no visitors since his arrest, according to sources who asked not to be named.
At the time of his arrest, authorities confiscated Yasin's personal computer, which contained an estimated 1,600 poems, commentaries, stories, and one unfinished novel, according to sources who have asked to remain unnamed. How much of his work may one day be recovered is unknown.
Yasin, born in 1970, is married with two young sons. His story, titled "Yawa Kepter" in the Uyghur language, translates literally as "untamed or wild dove" or "untamed pigeon," as Uyghur uses the same word for both species.
"Wild Pigeon" was translated from the Uyghur into English and Chinese by Dolkun Kamberi, Ph. D., director of RFA's Uyghur service, and adapted for broadcast in Uyghur by RFA's Uyghur service.
Go to http://www.rfa.org/english/news/arts/2005/06/27/uyghur_literature/
to read the entire English text and hear the original Uyghur-language broadcast
Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information to listeners in Asian countries where full, accurate, and timely news reports are unavailable. Its mission is to broadcast Asian domestic news and information to listeners in those Asian countries that do not permit free news media.
RFA adheres to the highest standards of journalism and strives for accuracy, balance, and fairness in its editorial content. In addition to its news programming, RFA strives to be a "university of the air" and broadcasts works of literature and nonfiction that have been banned in RFA's target countries.
Copyright © 2005, Radio Free Asia
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