THE CITY OF KASHGAR – AN OASIS OF THE SILK ROAD ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION

9.00 – 12.30h
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Room PHS 5B001, Paul-Henri Spaak Building, European Parliament
60 Rue Wiertz, Brussels, Belgium

Brussels, 17 January 2011 – Two years into Beijing’s ‘Kashgar Dangerous House Reform’, and the Old City of Kashgar in East Turkestan, or China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), faces near total destruction. There is a pressing need to assess the damage incurred, implications for the region’s Uyghur population, and to identify ways in which damage can be mitigated.

To address this urgent need, Ms Frieda Brepoels MEP will convene a conference, ‘Kashgar: An Oasis of the Silk Road on the Brink of Extinction’ at the European Parliament in Brussels from 9.00–12.30 on 27 January 2011 in collaboration with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and the Belgian Uyghur Association.

After opening remarks by Rebiya Kadeer, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and President of the World Uyghur Congress, international experts including Henryk Szadziewski, Manager of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Washington, and Ulrich Delius, German Society for Threatened Peoples, will provide a rare glimpse into one of the defining cultures of Central Asia and an internationally significant Silk Road city that has witnessed Tamerlane, Genghis Khan and Marco Polo but is excluded from applications for UNESCO World Heritage status due to political reasons.

Drawing on the historical lessons taught by the international case studies of Lhasa and Bruges, Vincent Metten, EU Policy Director of the International Campaign for Tibet, and Suzanne van Haeverbeek, former  Flemish world heritage expert, will discuss how international intervention may prevent Kashgar’s further destruction and avoid the total and irreversible loss of a unique site of cultural and architectural heritage.

For more information on the event please refer to http://www.unpo.org/article/12104

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For media queries please contact:
Andrew Swan  |  +32 (0)472 577 518  |  [email protected]

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Registration is required and must be submitted before 19 January 2011
Please send your full name, date of birth, place of residence, nationality, organisation to [email protected]
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Organised by the Office of Frieda Brepoels MEP in collaboration with:
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), Belgian Uyghur Association

Related Information:

Press Release (24 January 2011) available here

SAVE THE DATE Press Release (17 January 2011) available here

Conference poster available here

[First published: 15 December 2010]