Examination on Cause of Death Not Allowed<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cSome men came to get my younger brother. They said, \u2018It\u2019s just an educational facility. You\u2019ll be home in a month,\u2019 then took him away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zaituna (not her real name) is a Uyghur woman in her 40s living in the Kanto area. In September 2017 she received news that her younger brother in Xinjiang had been taken away to a re-education camp. He did not come home after the month passed, and her mother\u2019s inquiries with the police got nothing but \u201cwe don\u2019t know\u201d responses.<\/p>\n
Then, after eight months, the police suddenly contacted her mother to inform her that her son had \u201cdied of heart disease.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother kept calling and calling the police, crying, \u2019Why did you take him away? What crime did he commit?\u2019 But the police never answered,\u201d said Zaituna with tears in her eyes.<\/p>\n
The family was not allowed to claim her brother\u2019s body nor was a medical examination to determine cause of death allowed.<\/p>\n
According to Ilham Mahmut, 49, president of the Japan Uyghur Association, it is not just Uyghurs who are being detained, but also other Islamic minorities in Xinjiang, such as Kazaks and Huis.<\/p>\n
Mahmut said that detainees include not only those suspected of harboring Islamic extremist ideologies or separatist ideologies. The Chinese also detain persons engaging in Islamic prayer practices, those who have traveled overseas and those with relatives living overseas.<\/p>\n
Zaituna believes that her brother\u2019s attendance at weekly Friday prayer services, considered very important for Muslims, was the reason for his detention.<\/p>\n
Forced to Memorize Communist Ideology<\/strong><\/p>\nIn an interview with a former re-education camp detainee, the Washington Post<\/em> reported that detainees are forced to memorize Chinese communist ideology. If they fail to do so, punishments include withholding of meals or being forbidden to sleep or even to sit down.<\/p>\nDaily lessons include singing songs that praise President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n
Those who break the rules suffer cruel treatment, such as water torture and being bound and forced to stand for long periods of time.<\/p>\n
The quality of meals is very poor. Detainees are forced to consume pork and alcohol, both prohibited in Islam.<\/p>\n
What Is the Purpose of This Crackdown?<\/strong><\/p>\nIlham points out that the Xi administration\u2019s plan for a giant economic sphere, the \u201cOne Belt One Road\u201d initiative, is a reason for this crackdown. Xinjiang is considered to be an important strongpoint for President Xi\u2019s One Belt One Road initiative and stability in the region is crucial to its success.<\/p>\n
However, frequent raids and disturbances carried out by Uyghur groups dissatisfied with the Chinese authorities have made that difficult. In 2009, riots between the Uyghurs and Hans broke out on a massive scale in the capital city of Urumqi.<\/p>\n
According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, on August 13, China denied the existence of re-education camps, saying reports were \u201ccompletely untrue.\u201d But prior to this statement, U.S. members of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination voiced criticism, citing numerous reports indicating the existence of large-scale secret detention facilities in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n
A Uyghur exchange student in Japan reports that her parents, who had already reached retirement age and were enjoying a quiet life in their 60s, were taken away to a re-education camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s because I\u2019m studying in Japan,\u201d she said. The exchange student has no idea what has become of her parents and prays that they will return home safe one day soon.<\/p>\n
The nephew and female cousin of a Uyghur man, who has lived in Japan for last 17 years, were also taken away. This man claims that one reason for their detention involved his nephew\u2019s overseas study experience. Another was that his cousin wore a veil, often worn by Muslim women to cover their heads according to religious protocol, for example, when attending a relative\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n
\u2018I Can Never Go Back\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\nNot wanting to incur the displeasure of the authorities, Uyghurs in Xinjiang no longer want to keep in touch with relatives overseas. Meanwhile, Uyghurs living overseas have no way of knowing how their families are faring or if they are safe.<\/p>\n
Zaituna has obtained Japanese nationality and has been told by relatives that she should \u201cnever come back to Xinjiang.\u201d She has had to come to terms with the fact that she cannot see her mother nor visit her father\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n
Zaituna pleaded: \u201cI was always proud of my homeland of China. I loved China. I no longer have a bit of that feeling now. The Chinese authorities\u2019 actions against Uyghurs will not solve anything. They\u2019ll only bring about hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n
Author: The Sankei Shimbun<\/em><\/p>\nsource: <\/em>JAPAN FORWARD<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American human rights activists recently criticized the forced detention of over a million people in re-education camps in the Uyghur Autonomous Region in Xinjiang, China. Uyghurs living in Japan also…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-4351","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\/4351","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=4351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4351"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=4351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}