Dolkun Isa of the World Uyghur Congress says authorities are preventing him from participating in a religious freedom forum scheduled later this month.<\/p>\n
2016-02-12<\/p>\n
Taiwanese authorities have prevented the executive chairman of an international Uyghur organization from participating in a human rights conference to be held in Taiwan later this month, the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) said Friday.<\/p>\n
Dolkun Isa, WUC\u2019s executive chairman, will not be able to attend the Asia Pacific Religious Freedom Forum on Feb. 18-21 because of likely pressure from Chinese authorities, the Munich, Germany-based organization of exiled Uyghur groups said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a true shame that a democratic country such as Taiwan should be so influenced by the will of the Chinese government,\u201d the statement said. \u201cChina has consistently maintained that human rights defenders\u2014and those supporting the Uyghur community in particular\u2014should be treated like criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conference, which is by invitation only, will be a meeting of religious freedom advocates, including lawmakers, government representatives, nongovernmental organization officials, and religious leaders who are committed to advancing religion freedom in the Asia Pacific region.<\/p>\n
Isa, who received an invitation from conference organizers three or four months ago, told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service that Taiwanese authorities informed him that they would not allow him to enter the self-governing island over which China claims sovereignty.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter what, Taiwan is a democratic country,\u201d Isa said. \u201cTheir blocking me from entering will stain Taiwanese democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe that there is a Chinese hand in it,\u201d he said. \u201cI am sure that this blockage will be lifted after the Democratic Progressive Party takes charge in Taiwan again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan\u2019s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won a landslide victory in presidential elections on the island in January. The DPP will officially assume power as Taiwan\u2019s ruling party on May 20, controlling both the presidency and parliament.<\/p>\n
A security threat<\/strong><\/p>\n When Isa visited Taiwan 10 years ago to take part in an event held by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for the protection and promotion of the human and cultural rights of indigenous people and minorities, he said he encountered no obstacles. The DPP was in power at the time.<\/p>\n The Uyghurs are a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority group that lives in northwestern China\u2019s Xinjiang region where it has complained about pervasive ethnic discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression by Beijing.<\/p>\n But in 2009, after the nationalist Kuomintang Party regained control of the government, false reports circulated that Isa had entered Taiwan with 11 other Uyghurs ahead of the World Games, which took place in Kaohsiung in July that year, and would pose a security threat, the WUC\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n In response, Taiwan\u2019s National Immigration Authority has issued a ban on Isa\u2019s travel to the country, it said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was told that they [Taiwanese lawmakers] debated in parliament about my possible entry and whether or not to forbid me [from entering],\u201d Isa said.<\/p>\n Now the problem has resurfaced again, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cEven though the Democratic Progressive Party has won the elections, the Kuomintang party is still in charge, so I have not been allowed to enter Taiwan, and that is very unfortunate and regrettable,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Reported by Mamatjan Juma for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dolkun Isa of the World Uyghur Congress says authorities are preventing him from participating in a religious freedom forum scheduled later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}