World Uyghur Congress, 25 January 2019

WUC Holds Advocacy Meetings in London To Raise Uyghur Plight

The President of the World Uyghur Congress, Dolkun Isa, and Uyghur human rights activist Rahime Mahmut were in London this week to meet with British Parliament Members and Muslim organisations in London such as Muslim Aid and the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella body – the Muslim Council of Britain. They discussed the dire situation of the Uyghur people in East Turkistan and ways the Muslim community can support the Uyghur people, bring awareness to the current Uyghur plight and pressure China to close the political indoctrination camps.

Mr.Isa and Ms.Mahmut also spoke at an event at Kings College London, which was organized by students of the university to draw further attention to the situation in East Turkistan. The University students and professors who attended the event were informed about the human rights crisis in East Turkistan and what it is like to work on the Uyghur human rights campaign.

WUC Reps Met with Malaysia and Indonesia Officials

From 14 – 19 January 2019, a delegation of Uyghur leaders including World Uyghur Congress Executive Committee Chairman Ömer Kanat, the Director of Religious Committee, Turghunjan Alawudun, and the Director of China Affairs Ilshat Hassan conducted an advocacy trip to Malaysia and Indonesia. They met with many high-level government officials, representatives from civil society and human rights organisations in the two countries to discuss a number of initiatives to take action in Malaysia and Indonesia to bring awareness to the Uyghur plight and garner further support for Uyghur human rights issues.

During their visit the WUC representatives met with International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) and Suara Nahdlatul Ulama, among mant otherds. They also spoke to the Jakarta Post urging the Indonesian government and the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation to publicly raise the political indoctrination camps where over one million Uyghurs arbitrarily detained

WUC Representatives Attend Conference on Religious Freedom in China in the European Parliament

On Wednesday the 23 January 2019, World Uyghur Congress representatives participated in a conference at the European Parliament entitled ‘Freedom of Religion in China’ organized by Members of the European Parliament Bas Belder, Cristian Dan Preda and Josef Weidenholzer.

The President of the World Uyghur Congress, Dolkun Isa addressed the panel calling for the European Union to take further action to close the political indoctrination camps and protect those who report the truth in China.

The panelist included China Aid President Bob Fu, Uyghur activist Kuzat Altayli, Director of Bitter Winter Magazine Marco Respinti, Editor of Asia News Father Bernardo Cervellera and Will Fautre from Human Rights Without Frontiers who all called for the EU and the international community to take immediate action to protect those of all religious faiths who are being persecuted by the Chinese government.

NGO Coalition Call on Brussel Newspaper to Stop Publishing China’s Propagandas

The World Uyghur Congress joined a coalition of NGOs including the International Campaign For Tibet, FIDH, a Ligue des droits Humains, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisations (UNPO) and the Tibetan Community of Belgium in sending an open letter to the Director General and Editing Director of Belgian newspaper “Le Soir”, Oliver De Raeymaeker, urging him to stop publishing propaganda inserts from official Chinese press bodies in the newspaper.

The letter follows the publication by Le Soir of a double page insert from Chinese state media outlet Xinhua entitled “Focus Belgique-Chine” in its 29 November 2018 edition. The articles lauded President Xi Jinping’s policies, praised the prosperity and the harmonious development of China and highlighted the viewpoints of Belgian personalities who have parroted Beijing’s official propaganda.

This is a particularly crucial issue for the World Uyghur Congress. The free press has played an important role in highlighting the current human rights crisis in East Turkistan and pushing for states and organisation to take concrete actions to close the camps are release all the innocent Uyghurs held in arbitrary detention. The free press in Europe must not allow themselves to be influenced by the Chinese government to spread propaganda and misinformation.

American Muslim Imams, Scholars and Community Leaders Makes A Joint Statement on the Ongoing Oppression of Uyghur Muslims

More than 40 American Muslim Imams, Scholars and Community Leaders together made a statement on the ongoing oppression of Uyghur Muslims calling China to free Uyghurs from concentration camps, return children to their families, and restore their freedom of religion. They asked the non-Muslim groups to support for their statement.

They also called on American citizens to stop buying products made in the political indoctrination camps by detainees who have been forced into doing manual labor work for the communist party to profit off them.

CNN Interviews Uyghurs Affected by the Internment Camps

This week CNN published an article titled “Uyghur refugee tells of death and fear inside China’s Xinjiang camps” which tells the trauma of a 29-year-old Uyghur mother Mihrigul Tursun who was detained and separated from her children when she returned to East Turkistan from Egypt.

The article also mentions story of 21-year-old Uyghur student Arfat Aeriken who parents are detained in political indoctrination camps and he has lost contact with them since 2017.

The Chinese state-run media Global Times claims that Mihrigul Tursun’s testimony in the CNN article is “deliberate lie” and “foreign media and the US government should cease tarnishing China’s ethnic policy”.

As the western media pays greater attention to the Uyghur human rights situation in East Turkistan and the Chinese Communist Party is trying to find new ways to defend its crimes against humanity.