“Hard to be a farmer in Yengisar” are words from Just a plain farmer, by Hakim Siyit.
It’s a fascinating story, that of Hakim Siyit, Uyghur farmer from Yengisar, a place near Kashgar. I visited it in 2007. Wronged by the local government, he recorded his plight, and the plight of other farmers, on video. Tape in hand, Hakim appealed to the local, regional, provincial government. In the end he travels to Beijing and offers up his petition to state-level officials.
It is all to no avail, and Hakim eventually finds his way back to Yengisar. But the tape ends up in the hands of Radio Free Asia, which releases it on line.
The video was taken from the Radio Free Asia website.
You can find plenty of background to the story on other blogs, I won’t dissect it any further. But I agree with the article on The New Dominion. It is mightily important that this example of grass roots journalism, so little of which comes out of China’s west, gets all the attention it deserves.
- Uygur farmer produces media content to air grievances, The New Dominion
- Uyghur farmers appeal, to no avail, Radio Free Asia
- Hakim Siyit’s petition video in full, The New Dominion