For Nefise Oghuz, testifying about the illegal imprisonment of her uncle and what she says is the genocide of the Uyghurs in western China was her “duty”.
The 20-year-old Uyghur student provided statements in four languages (Uyghur, English, Mandarin and Turkish) on social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook about how police in Urumqi, capital of the western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from China, arrested his uncle. , Alim Abdukerim, 33, at her home on August 28, 2017.
“I dared to share this video testimony because I could not bear the suffering of my people in the face of genocide,” he told Radio Free Asia. “I could not accept the fate of my uncle and millions of Uyghurs in the concentration camps, and I felt terrible for my nephew, who had not seen his father once after his birth.”
Abdukerim’s family did not know his whereabouts for two years, though Oghuz later obtained information that he was in prison in Korla, known as Ku’erle in Chinese and Xinjiang’s second-largest city, two years after he was taken away.
“My innocent uncle has been in jail for the last six years,” Oghuz says in the multilingual videos. “I demand that the Chinese government release my uncle, Alim Abdukerim, immediately.”
‘I couldn’t bear this injustice’
The videos have received a great deal of attention from Uyghurs in the diaspora, as well as a large number of reactions on social media.
“As we couldn’t get any information about him, I couldn’t bear this injustice,” Oghuz told Radio Free Asia by phone from Istanbul, where she and her family have lived since 2015.
“So, I gave this testimony. For the past few years, we kept silent for fear that our testimony would cause harm to other relatives in our homeland,” said the second-year English journalism student at Istanbul University in Turkey, who studied in bilingual classes in Xinjiang until secondary school.
“Although I have not openly defended my uncle before so as not to cause trouble for my relatives at home, I have defended my uncle through various channels in a more discreet manner,” he said. “Realizing that my uncle had suffered too much, we lost our trust in the Chinese government’s justice and began to openly demand his release.”
Chinese police detained Abdukerim shortly after he got married amid a broader crackdown on Uyghurs that began in 2017, during which authorities arbitrarily detained ordinary and prominent Uyghurs, including businessmen, writers, artists, athletes and clergy. Muslim in “re-education” camps.
China has claimed the camps were vocational training centers set up to prevent religious extremism and terrorism in the troubled majority Muslim region. But those who survived the camps say the Uyghurs there were subjected to torture, sexual assault and forced labor.
The US government, the European Parliament, and the legislatures of several Western countries have declared that the Chinese government’s abuses against the Uyghurs amount to genocide and crimes against humanity. A report issued by the UN human rights body has said that detentions in the camps may constitute crimes against humanity. .
Reason for arrest unclear
Abdukerim, who has a young son whom he has never seen, was a computer engineer responsible for running computer and internet-related businesses at a family business called Halis Foreign Trade Ltd. He and Oghuz grew up together.
Oghuz said he tried to get information about him from relatives in Xinjiang and Chinese social media sources.
“We don’t know why the Chinese government arrested him,” he said. “He had never been abroad. I think the Chinese authorities detained him because he is a Uyghur and a Muslim.”
Following Abdukerim’s arrest, the family business closed its doors. His crime and the length of his sentence remain unknown, although Oghuz has learned that he is being held in a prison in Korla that operates under the auspices of the Xinjiang Construction and Production Company, a state-owned economic and paramilitary organization also known as Bingtuan.
His prisoner number is 3153.
“I hope the Chinese government will release my uncle and allow him to meet his son,” he said. “It’s okay if I don’t see him, but his son needs to see his father. I will not stop being the voice of my uncle until the Chinese authorities release him.”
Different languages
Oghuz said they presented their testimony in Turkish, hoping that the Turks would heed the plight of the Uyghurs, thousands of whom live in the diaspora in the southern European country.
He gave it in English, hoping the international community would also pay attention, at a time when Uyghur rights groups are calling for concrete steps to hold China accountable for its actions in Xinjiang.
And he gave testimony in Chinese to try to force the Chinese government to respond to his demand.
“For those who think they cannot testify in foreign languages, they can testify in the Uyghur language,” Oghuz said.
“His testimony will eventually cause anxiety among the perpetrators,” he said. “The Chinese will see your testimony and worry that if more people like you speak out, they will expose your crime to the wider world community.”
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.