World Uyghur Congress, 19 October 2018

WUC President Calls On The EU To Take Action To Close The Camps

The World Uyghur Congress president Dolkun Isa called on the EU to take action to close the internment camps in East Turkistan where over one million Uyghurs and other Turkic groups are arbitrarily detained during an interview with European Interest.

Isa mentioned that, “If anything warrants the EU’s attention and the imposition of sanctions, we would think the arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance of over one million people would be it.” He continued, explaining that “East Turkistan is now essentially an open-air prison.”

Isa stated that he will continue with the advocacy efforts and urge the international community to hold China accountable for its serious human rights violations and to push for the release of all those held in the camps.

He also mentioned the importance of upcoming China’s Universal Periodic Review starting November 6 as this is a major opportunity to raise the issue of the camps and to highlight the situation in East Turkistan before the whole world.

Norway’s King To Speak Up On Uyghur Issue While In China

Norway’s King Harald V said he would raise the mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in internment camps on his visit to China.

During a press briefing over the weekend in Dunhuang, King Harald said: “We who come from the West are very concerned about human rights.”

When asked by Norwegian journalists how he felt about Chinese officials’ treatment of Uyghurs in the country, he said: “We will have a dialogue with China about this, and I will certainly take the opportunity to bring this up.”

The World Uyghur Congress is encouraged by his words and thank King Harald V for raising the Uyghur Human Rights issue, as NUK – Den Norske Uighur Komiteen, Amnesty International Norway and the World Uyghur Congress urged Norway to raise this human rights crisis.

Human Rights Watch Asks China to Release Uyghur Children in Orphanages

This week, Human Rights Watch published an article asking the Chinese government to release orphanages children whose family are arbitrarily detained.

According to China Director of Human Rights Watch Sophie Richardson “China’s authorities are cruelly putting the children of some of Xinjiang’s political detainees in state institutions.” She also said the move by the Chinese authorities are, “part of a perverse government program to take Turkic Muslim children from their extended families in the name of children’s material well-being.”

The regional policy broadly defines orphans as “children who have lost their parents or whose parents cannot be found.” In some regions this includes those whose one or both parents are detained or imprisoned.

Former US Ambassador to the UN Accuses China Of Persecuting Religious And Ethnic Minorities On A Massive Scale

In her first public remarks since announcing she would leave office, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused China of persecuting religious and ethnic minorities on a massive scale.

During her keynote remarks at the Chiefs of Defense Conference Dinner in Washington, Ms. Haley said the China’s political indoctrination camps are, “the largest internment of civilians in the world today,” She also mentioned that the camps are: “may be the largest since World War II.”

Though the strong remarks from Ms. Haley provides even greater recognition to the unfolding human rights emergency in East Turkistan, it is merely a first step in terms of the U.S. approach with China. There is a desperate need for follow-up action from the Trump administration including using Global Magnitsky Act to section the Chinese authorities, substantive dialogue with Chinese authorities on the camps and the consideration of economic penalties for gross rights violations.