{"id":4330,"date":"2018-10-29T17:41:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T17:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2018\/10\/29\/mother-pleads-help-end-uighurs-nightmare\/"},"modified":"2018-10-29T17:41:36","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T17:41:36","slug":"mother-pleads-help-end-uighurs-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/mother-pleads-help-end-uighurs-nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother pleads for help to end Uighurs\u2019 \u2018nightmare\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sydney community services worker and mother of three Zulfia Erk \u2014 who has five brothers locked up in detention camps in northwest China \u2014 broke down in tears as she told her story for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt is not really easy for me to share this story because obviously the rest of the family will be affected,\u201d she told The Australian<\/i>. \u201c(My brother\u2019s) wife or kids, for example, I have no idea if they are going well or not; it\u2019s hard to get any information from them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany people here, Uighurs, think if we keep silent that helps, but actually it\u2019s not, it\u2019s not helping us. It\u2019s allowing (China) to keep doing it \u2014 and my brothers have ended up in a camp.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A UN human rights panel said this month it had received many credible reports that as many as one million ethnic Uighurs in China could be detained and that the region of Xinjiang in northwest China now resembled a \u201cmassive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Australian<\/i> can reveal that the federal government has privately acknowledged that ethnically Uighur Chinese citizens are being locked up arbitrarily and has pledged to work with the Uighur community to investigate the situation in Xinjiang.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is aware of Uighurs who have disappeared into official custody in recent years, and reports by overseas Uighurs of police harassment of their China-based families, including detentions,\u201d the Department of Foreign Affairs\u2019 East Asia branch assistant secretary Elly Lawson wrote in a letter to South Australian Labor MP Tony Zappia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to work with the Uighur Australian community to develop our understanding of the situation, and problems they or their families face in China.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr<\/span><\/span> Zappia has a number of ethnically Uighur Australians in his electorate and has spoken up about the issue in federal parliament.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Turnbull government ministers have avoided sharp public criticisms of China over the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked whether Australia accepted the UN\u2019s judgment, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop simply said: \u201cThe Australian government shares concerns expressed by the international community on the situation in Xinjiang.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms<\/span> Erk said politicians were worried about damaging the country\u2019s relationship with China. \u201cI know our story isn\u2019t nice to hear; it\u2019s very terrifying and it\u2019s not really beneficial (to Australia). The reason is China is too powerful; another reason is money to business (is at risk) so they don\u2019t want to get involved (in this issue).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms<\/span><\/span> Erk said it was possible at least half of her relatives were now detained in Chinese government re-education camps and added that her sixth brother, who lives with his wife in Uzbekistan, has been unable to get Uzbek citizenship and is under pressure <\/span>to return to China, where he could be detained.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms<\/span> Erk has nightmares every night thinking of her family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel helpless and hopeless. We are seeking a peaceful life but our life is not in peace, mentally we are not in peace. All night I have to fight with my nightmares and then I know the world doesn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms<\/span> Bishop said in a letter to <\/span>Mr<\/span> Zappia the government had urged Beijing to \u201cexercise restraint\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Source: The Australian<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney community services worker and mother of three Zulfia Erk \u2014 who has five brothers locked up in detention camps in northwest China \u2014 broke down in tears as she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-4330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4330"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=4330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}