World Uyghur Congress, 16 August 2019

Uyghur Congress Delegation Briefed U.S. State Department 

Ömer Kanat, WUC Executive Committee Chairman, Rushan Abbas, Campaign for Uyghurs Director, and medical scientist Dr. Rishat Abbas briefed the U.S. State Department on behalf of the World Uyghur Congress on issues of atrocity prevention, cultural genocide, restrictions on religious freedom and other human rights violations.

Dr. Rishat Abbas informed the state department officials about the background of the Uyghur crisis and explained the current CCP policies of repression and surveillance throughout China. Rushan Abbas outlined the concrete impact that constant surveillance, re-education camps, religious restrictions as well as the harassment of the Uyghur Diaspora have on the individual, so that the officials could get an understanding of how this repression is affecting Uyghurs on a daily basis. Ömer Kanat provided recommendations, which could be implemented by the State Department and the international community, to support the Uyghur people and to counteract Chinese repression.

Uyghur-American Appointed as China Director of U.S. National Security Council

Elnigar Iltebir, a Harvard Kennedy School-educated academic and daughter of a prominent Uyghur intellectual and journalist, was this week appointed to the White House National Security Council’s post of China Director.

The selection of a Uyghur-American academic for this position at the U.S. National Security Council is a positive step that ensures an intimate understanding of the issues Uyghurs have been facing for decades in China.

WUC Representative Spoke to BBC World News 

On 14 August, Peter Irwin spoke to Razia Iqbal live on BBC World News in response to recently released letters of a Uyghur whose family members were detained in one of the internment camps. Mr. Irwin discussed with the reporter issues related to the camps, reports of releases, and religious freedom in the Uyghur region.

Reports of Sterilization of Uyghur Women in Internment Camps

An increasing number of Uyghur women have come forward to describe the Chinese authorities’ clandestine measures to control the growth rate of the Uyghur population. Women tell of how they were regularly receiving injections of unknown origin while being held in internment camps, only realizing afterwards that they were not getting their periods anymore.