In another development to the rapidly deteriorating relations between the ethnic Uighur population and Chinese authorities, government departments in Xinjiang have banned Muslim staff from fasting during the month of Ramadan. Authorities did not provide a rationale for the ban, citing only that the ban was enacted “in accordance with instructions from higher authorities.”

Officials have consistently blamed separatist Uighur groups for notable acts of terrorism, including several incidents of the recent past such as the Kunming station attack, a suicide bombing in Urumqi, and an attack on a police station that have left hundreds of casualties. Chinese officials shot 13 of the perpetrators of the Urumqi police station assault, and hundreds are awaiting formal charges for connections to the Urumqi bombing. But the BBC reports that with Beijing already blaming extremist Uighurs for the growing violence, the new ban on the Ramadan fast is likely to anger even moderates, who feel that it constitutes an attack on their religion and way of life.

Chinese state media has released articles on the dangers of fasting, and have encouraged specific groups like party members, civil servants, students, and teachers to not observe the fast. State run media groups have issued statements that Ramadan is a “violation of Communist Party discipline and that Saturday’s anniversary was sensitive time for social stability work.” Activist groups say the ban is tantamount to large scale discrimination and sanctioned violence against an ethnic minority, and have called on the international community to intervene.

Follow us on Twitter: @SteppeDispatch

News Briefs: 

• Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey announced that Ukrainian military forces have regained control of four eastern Ukrainian cities that had previously been bastions of rebel resistance to the recently elected Ukrainian government. Artemovsk, Druzhkovka, Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka are all cities located in Ukraine’s east are all located in Donetsk Oblast, the source of most of the bellicose activity taking place between pro-Russia activities and the Ukrainian military. The four recently regained cities bring the total of liberated cities to five.

• Azerbaijan’s Baku Court for Serious Crimes has sentenced Omar Mamedov, popular blogger and opposition activist, to five years in prison on charges dismissed as preposterous by his attorney, who claims the government is merely suppressing dissent on trumped up charges against Mamedov. Mamedov is a member of the opposition Civic Solidarity party and leads the country’s pro-democracy youth movement, Akhyn. Mamedov is only 19 had recently made waves by openly criticizing Azerbaijani strongman and President Alham Aliyev.

• In Moscow, the Russian parliament passed a law that will obligate all internet sites that currently store the data of Russian citizens to do so within Russia. The new measure would seem to indicate that Russia will seek to force internet giants like Facebook, YouTube and others to move Russian to data to centers within Russia, or face censorship. The move has been decried by bloggers as an attempt to shut off large internet conglomerates and restrict the internet, which Putin had previously described as “a CIA project.”

• Officials from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have announced that they will convene this week to move forward with the planned TAPI, transnational gas pipeline that is expected to serve as a link between the four countries. American oil and gas giants Chevron and ExxonMobil have received support from the American government to win the contract to finance and lay the pipeline, though it’s still uncertain which country will ultimately prevail. The TAPI pipeline has long been in production, and represents but another attempt to connect Turkmenistan with Afghanistan. UNOCAL, a now defunct oil and gas enterprise based out of the United States, had spearheaded efforts to connect Afghanistan and Pakistan with Turkmenistan, but withdrew its offer at the State Department’s behest, stating that the project’s finances could in some way benefit the Taliban.