by Rebiya Kadeer, The Australian, Australia - THE sentencing on July 23 of Uighur journalist Gheyret Niyaz to 15 years jail for endangering state security came as a shock around the world. Niyaz's "crime" was to speak to foreign journalists. His unusually long sentence, along with other harsh sentences for three Uighur webmasters, highlights Beijing's practice of paying lip-service to ethnic harmony while enforcing policies undermining it.