As all you know, Ramadan is the month for Muslims to pray for peace and equality, to show effort, self-test, and set example to others.
For the years in each of these months, I have been complaining about the prohibition of Ramadan fasting, crying about the police search of home by home and arrest whoever is fasting, authorities forcing the employees to eat daytime to break their fast, schools distributing water to break students’ fast, ordering to keep open the restaurants, and asking China to allow us to fast during the month of Ramadan. My concern this year is not this; because there are more than 3,000,000 of our population are in the concentration camps and they are all young and in prime age can fast. For two years they have been living in very poor dietary condition. According to Gulzire Orqanqiz who recently came out of a camp, they were fed only rice and corn, living in hunger every day. Another camp inmate said he was punished for giving a piece of his bread to a cellmate. Inmate Gulbahar Jalalova said that she lost about 50 pounds during her imprisonment period lasted one year. The Ata Jurt organization reported that none of 26 Kazakh inmates could recover back in 4 months after came out from the camps. From their testimonies, we can imagine the 3,500,000 inmates’ current life. As that inmate said, they have too fatigue to fast. They are not worrying about their integrity, believe, or respect but struggling for their life.
Therefore, this time I won’t ask international community to condemn the Chinese government regarding the Ramadan restriction they’re implementing for years. As outside of those camps we have almost no young and healthy people left. Inside the camps, they are barely surviving and no reason to ask about a permission for fasting. What I only ask is to release them from the camps; stop torture and interrogation, liberate them from inhuman capture and bed cells; let them hug their relatives separated for two years; let them recover from mental and physical wounds.
Hence, I ask international community, Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities, and all peace loving and justice religious and political organizations to directly or through your government and organization to demand Chinese government to release 3,500,000 Uyghur, 500,000 Kazakh, and 50,000 Kyrgyz Muslims and allow them to unite with their families, or at least pray for them.
Rebiya Kadeer
Leader of Uyghur National Movement