Japan urged to investigate atrocities against Uyghurs

Parliamentarians from around the world issued a joint declaration calling on Japan to conduct an independent investigation of the Chinese government’s rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang and to sanction Communist Party officials who have played a role in it. More than 150 participants, including about 70 lawmakers from various nations, politicians, activists and representatives of civil society groups attended the International Uyghur Forum at Japan’s parliament, or Diet, in Tokyo on Oct. 30-31 to discuss international responses to the human rights violations against the mostly Muslim Uyghurs who live…

For Uyghurs, Li Keqiang will be remembered for repression

While Han Chinese are showing an outpouring of grief for the late Premier Li Keqiang, Uyghurs and Tibetans are not displaying any warm sentiments for the official who is remembered more for Beijing’s repression than any economic reforms. Li, the second-ranked member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from 2012 to 2022, died of a heart attack on Oct. 26 at age 68. He played an instrumental role in the Chinese government’s crackdown on the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang that culminated…

UN refugee agency making inquiries into Uyghurs in Pakistan

The U.N. refugee agency is investigating the situation of 18 Uyghur families facing deportation from Pakistan if they fail to comply with a government order expelling all illegal migrants, said two Uyghurs involved in the matter.  Pakistani officials issued the order after dozens of people were killed in two suicide bombings in late September. They said that most such bombings this year were conducted by Afghan nationals, but they decided to expel all migrants without a valid residence permit – including 1.73 million Afghan refugees – if they don’t leave…

Exhibit in US Capitol illustrates Uyghurs’ plight

Hands on their heads, hundreds of Uyghur men wearing blue prison uniforms and identified by a number on their chest kneel side-by-side, crammed together in rows. They fill a yard, flanked by armed guards and surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and two concrete watchtowers. The stark illustration by award-winning artist Molly Crabapple portrays Uyghurs inside an internment camp in China. It is part of a weeklong exhibit organized by Amnesty International in the U.S. Senate’s Rotunda to draw attention to the mass detention, torture and indoctrination of an estimated 1.8…

Uyghur in ‘critical condition’ after jailed on return to Xinjiang

A Uyghur man serving a 20-year sentence in northwest China’s Xinjiang region is in critical condition due to poor conditions at his prison, according to his wife, who has called for pressure on Chinese authorities to release him and reunite him with his family in Turkey. Mexmutjan Memet’s story is all too common for Uyghurs who have moved abroad only to be arrested on their return to China for actions deemed crimes by the state, including exercising their right under the country’s constitution to uphold their cultural and religious traditions.…

51 nations blast China over violating Uyghurs’ rights

In a joint statement, 51 countries, including the United States, expressed deep concern to the United Nations on Wednesday over Chinese human rights violations of Uyghurs in its far-western Xinjiang region. The move comes after China was elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council for the 2024-2026 term – despite its poor track record in protecting rights. “Members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang continue to suffer serious violations of their human rights by the authorities of the People’s Republic of China,” said the statement, which was…

Three ailing inmates die just after release from Xinjiang prison

Three ailing Uyghur women recently released from the same prison in China’s Xinjiang region have died within days of one another, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, who said inmates at the facility are only given access to medical treatment in extreme cases.  Two sisters in their 30s and a 75-year-old grandmother died in early October from different ailments they developed while in detention at the Baykol Women’s Prison in Ghulja, a city located in the upper Ili River valley near Kazakhstan that is also known as Yining…

Uyghur inmates forced to work on farmland leased to Chinese

Hundreds of Uyghur inmates at Keriye Prison in the far-western Chinese region of Xinjiang are forced to work 12-14 hours a day in vast fields of red dates called jujubes, a prison employee and a guard told Radio Free Asia. Under the watch of armed guards, the prisoners must walk to the fields while overseers wearing red vests and holding police dogs monitor them, the two people said. Armed soldiers surrounded the work area, some on horseback, to prevent any from escaping. “I witnessed prisoners being forcibly taken out to…

Police round up Uyghurs from 2 villages before China’s National Day

Authorities apprehended more than 50 Uyghur villagers from two communities in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region as part of a security operation in the run-up to the country’s National Day holiday, local officials said. On the eve of the Oct. 1 holiday, marking the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, authorities detained 44 people from Siyek village in Kériye county of Hotan prefecture and eight residents of Térim village in Peyziwat county, Kashgar prefecture. The operation focused on Uyghurs who were under the age of 18…

Report: US brands linked to Uyghur-mined gold

Hundreds of major U.S. companies may be unwittingly producing goods using gold that was mined using the forced labor of Uyghurs in China’s far-west Xinjiang region, according to a new report. The report by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, or C4ADS, also says financial firms including Vanguard, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase and Blackstone have led Americans to invest in Chinese companies operating Xinjiang-based gold mines through their index funds. Amid widespread reports of forced Uyghur labor in China, there has been “insufficient attention” paid to mining in Xinjiang, says the…