#MeTooUyghur campaign launched for missing
ETHNIC Uighurs have launched a global campaign to press China for video proof that their missing relatives are alive, turning the tables on Beijing’s use of video to counter claims that a renowned Uighur had died in custody.
The social media campaign was launched on Tuesday under the hashtag #MeTooUyghur after China released a video of a man who identified himself as Uighur poet and musician Abdurehim Heyit saying he was alive and well.
The video was made public after Turkey claimed that Heyit had died in a Chinese prison in a statement in which Ankara condemned China for herding vast numbers of Muslim minority Uighurs into “re-education” camps in the country’s remote northwestern Xinjiang region.
“Chinese authorities showed video as proof Mr Heyit is still alive. Now, we want to know, where are millions of Uighurs?” said Halmurat Harri, an activist in Finland, who created the hashtag.
He said that his own parents had been previously detained, but were released last year.
The hashtag prompted posts from around the world, with Uighurs holding pictures of missing mothers, fathers, sons, daughters or friends.
A UN panel of experts says nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minorities are being held in extrajudicial detention in camps in Xinjiang, where most of China’s more than 10 million Uighurs live.
Beijing at first denied the allegation, but later said it has put people into “vocational education centres”.
Many overseas Uighurs have not been able to contact relatives and friends in China for years as phone calls and messaging platforms are under close Chinese surveillance, said Rushan Abbas, a US-based rights activist.
She is demanding authorities release a video of her sister, a physician, who she says was “sent for vocational training”.
X injia ng has long suf fered f rom v iolent unrest, which China claims is orchest rated by a n orga n i sed “ter ror ist ” movement t hat seek s t he reg ion’s i ndependence. It has implemented a massive, high-tech
securit y years.
But many Uighurs a nd X injia ng ex per t s say t he v iolent episodes stem largely from spontaneous outbursts of anger at allegations of Chinese cultura l repression of Uighurs, and t hat Beijing plays up terrorism t o j u s t i f y t i g ht c ont r ol of t he resource-rich region.
Critics say Uighurs in the camps are being brainwashed in a massive crackdown in recent ca mpaig n to en force con for mit y with Chinese society and encourage them to abandon Islam.
A r sla n Hidayat, son-i n-law of prominent Uighur comedian Adil Mijit, posted a Facebook v ideo sayi ng his fat her-i n-law was missi ng and calling for a “proof of life v ideo” of Mijit and others “who have been locked up in Chinese concentration camps”.
Abdul Mukaddes said his cousin Erpat Ablekrem, a professional football player, has been missing since l a s t Ma r c h a nd t hat i f C h i na responds by releasing f urt her v ideos it would prove t hey were “illegally holding people for months or years” without charge.
Undercutting terrorism assertions
X injia ng’s reg iona l government, which according to state media had released t he origina l v ideo of Heyit, did not respond to a request for comment on the social media campaign.
Pat r ick Poon, a re s e a rcher at A mnest y I nter nat iona l, sa id t he movement gives worried Uighurs a rare outlet while undercutting China’s terrorism assertions.
“These people are ordinar y people. The Chinese government simply ca n’t cla i m t hat t hey a re a l l e x t r em i s t s or t er r or i s t s ,” Poon said.
It a lso adds pressure on the world community to speak out, he said.
The Muslim world in pa r t icula r has remained conspicuously quiet on t he i s s ue, possibl y to avoid Chi nese diplomat ic or economic reta liat ion.
Turkey’s statement on Sat urday was perhaps the strongest yet by any countr y, ca lling China’s treatment of Uighurs “a great cause of shame for humanity”.
Turkey sa id it had lea r ned t hat Hey it died ser v i ng a n eig ht-yea r pr ison sentence “over one of his songs”, but China rejected t hat on Monday, poi nt i ng to t he v ideo released by Xinjiang and calling the Turkish statement “v ile”.