Image:
Body:
On Wednesday, November 14, 2018, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by you introduced legislation to Congress. This legislation is aimed at condemning the pervasive human rights violations of ethnic Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan, and calling for an end to the arbitrary detention, torture, and harassment of over 1 million Uyghurs in internment camps by the Chinese government. The United States, as the most powerful democracy in the world, accepting such a bill concerning the internment camps in East Turkistan is indeed an immense inspiration and hope for the diaspora of Uyghur people as well those who’re still suffering in East Turkistan.
The timing of the legislation could not be better, especially following the UN periodic Human Rights Review on China held on November 6, 2018 in Geneva, during which all the Muslim-majority countries including the ancestral Central Asian Republics, with whom Uyghurs share the same religion and culture, have kept silent. The submission of this bill and it’s passing, which will ultimately lead to the closing of the so-called “re-education camps” are a matter of time. This legislation has come to the Uyghur people when they are facing their history’s darkest and most dangerous hours; I cannot emphasize enough how critical its implementation is. On behalf of all the Uyghur people in East Turkistan and those who have been arbitrarily detained in the internment camps, the diasporas working tirelessly, and those who are desperate for help, I thank you.
Despite the extraordinary amount of evidence, testimonies, and eye-witness accounts exposing the internment camps in East Turkistan, the Chinese government has vehemently denied this 21st century tragedy, without shame, by portraying the camps as “vocational schools and/or training centers”. However, it is idiotic to think a place where people are taken to in black sacks, cuffed, and guarded by armed police can be considered a “vocational school”. The detainees are under armed supervision as they are transferred between dormitories and “schools”, prohibited from talking to each other at all times, under 24/7 surveillance, and are threatened and forced to accept a foreign ideology and identity. China is explaining such horrible places to the world as vocational schools. I consider this totally an insult to the intelligence and dignity of the international community. With this legislation, you have lethally responded the insult made by the fascist Chinese government
I believe that the Chinese policies and principles are forced upon its own helpless people; I believe that China is using its economic powers to deceive African and Latin-American countries who are in dire need of economic help; I believe for their own interests, the totalitarian Arab countries ignored basic principles of their religion and willingly sided with the Chinese government. However, on the grounds of humanity, freedom, liberty, and equality, the values western countries hold dear, this legislation is no doubt a heavy blow to Chinese policies.
Presently, Chinese media is boasting victory over the November 6th UN Human Rights Review to its people, declaring that the world will stay silent about having locked up over 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslims in internment camps. This propaganda itself is a spontaneous admission that the government has been committing crimes against humanity and is sending a message to the world that the government can and will do harm to its people in order to safe-guard its totalitarian regime. More than just Uyghurs, this legislation gives hope to the oppressed Tibetans, Mongolians, and Han Chinese peoples. This legislation , particularly conveying the camp issue to the international level is an important step that would be very helpful to the world for better and quicker understanding the actual nature of the power who’s intending to be the world power, as well as how hideous the order they want to expand to the world is.
Rebiya Kadeer
Leader of Uyghur National Movement