Today, US House of Representatives passed Uyghur Human Rights Bill, which can be a great Eid gift for us. Although this bill cannot directly address the tragic situation in our homeland, East Turkestan (the so-called Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), this is the official start of the world’s most powerful country’s concern for a helpless nation facing cruel abuse and a clear signal that it can no longer stand idly by.
The Chinese Communist Party unscrupulously set up concentration camps in East Turkestan in 2017, detained more than 3 million Uyghurs, and deprived them of normal families and livelihoods, as they were not punished for the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. There was no country in the world that called for a halt to China when China denounced the concentration camps as “vocational training centers” and carried out ethnic genocide against the Uyghur nation. Consequently, when the coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan late last year, China fearlessly turned a blind eye to the spread of the virus, and today it has led to more than 4 million people worldwide being infected with the plague and more than 200,000 deaths. Therefore, approval of the bill is also the first and most crucial step in controlling that lethal force that is feeling unparalleled in the world and causing catastrophe to the world. From this point of view, the passage of the bill is not only for the endangered Uyghur people, but it is also for the people of the world who are eager for peace, health, and tranquility today.
Finally, I would like to thank Marco Rubio, Bob Menendez, Jim McGovern, Chris Smith, Nancy Pelosi, and all the international organizations, journalists, Uyghur activists who have contributed to the drafting and approval of this bill.
Rebiya Kadeer
Leader of the Uyghur National Movement