Families of missing Uighurs speak out

They demand ‘proof of life’ videos from China as campaign gathers steam

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.

That video was made public to rebut Turkey’s claim that he had died in a Chinese prison, which Ankara made in a broader statement condemning China for herding vast numbers of Muslim minority Uighurs into “re-education” camps in the country’s remote northwestern Xinjiang region.

Under the hashtag, posts from around the world show Uighurs holding pictures of mothers, fathers, sons, daughters or friends missing in Xinjiang.

“Chinese authorities showed video as proof Mr Heyit is still alive. Now, we want to know, where are millions of Uighurs?” said Halmurat Harri, a Finlandbased Uighur activist, who created the hashtag.

He said his own parents were detained previously but released last year.

The hashtag was not seen on China’s own heavily censored social media platforms.

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 admitted putting people into “vocational education centres“.

Arslan Hidayat, son-in-law of prominent Uighur comedian Adil Mijit, posted a Facebook video saying his father-in-law was missing and calling for a “proof of life video” for him and others “who have been locked up in Chinese concentration camps”.

Xinjiang has long suffered from violent unrest, which China claims is orchestrated by an organised “terrorist” movement seeking the region’s independence. It has implemented a massive, high-tech security crackdown in recent years.

But many Uighurs and Xinjiang experts say the violent episodes stem largely from spontaneous outbursts of anger at Chinese cultural and religious repression, and that Beijing plays up terrorism to justify tight control of the resourcerich region.

Xinjiang’s regional government, which Chinese state media said released the original Heyit video, did not respond to a request for comment about the social media campaign.