Press Release – For immediate release
7 November 2019
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

The WUC expresses its condolences following the passing of Waris Ababekri, long-time Uyghur activist and former classmate of WUC President Dolkun Isa, this week in Urumqi. Ababekri was an important figure in the Uyghur cultural scene and worked for years to enrich Uyghur culture and arts in East Turkistan.

Ababekri was born in Urumqi in 1966 and enrolled in Xinjiang University in 1983 as a Physics student. WUC President Dolkun Isa and Ababekri were classmates in Xinjiang University and founded the Students Cultural Scientist Union in 1987, as the President and General Secretary, respectively.

In June 1988, the Union organized a student protest in reaction to Chinese discrimination against Uyghurs. The peaceful protest called for the end of nuclear tests in the Lopnur region, demanded democratic elections and the halt of mass migration of Han to the Uyghur region. Following the protest, both Dolkun Isa and Waris Ababekri were harassed and expelled from the university.  Ababekri was arrested several more times in the 1990s and then released. 

Since April 2017, an estimate of 1-3  million Uyghurs have been rounded up by Chinese police and detained in large internment camps (called ‘re-education’ camps by the Chinese government) where they have been subjected to arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, political indoctrination, torture and other serious human rights abuses.

Leaders, scholars, intellectuals and prominent figures in the Uyghur community have been targeted in particular, as the Chinese government aims to silence strong and independent Uyghur voices. Ababekri was reportedly sent to an internment camp beginning of January 2019 and released mid-November. He passed away a week after his release, on 24 November 2019. 

Ababekri was not only a Uyghur activist, he also worked on various important projects, producing films and short programs, but most importantly, he launched ‘’Tengritag Ekrani’’, a magazine that aimed to create a cultural platform for Uyghurs living in East Turkistan, and served as its president.

The WUC sincerely thanks him for his contributions to the Uyghur cause and to the Uyghur cultural scene. It is in our memory of figures like Ababekri that challenges the authoritarian Chinese government and seeks for a more just world.