Uyghur Congress President Dolkun at Justice4Rohingya Party

World Uyghur Congress President at

Justice4Rohingya Dinner Party

Dr. Mozammel Haque

Justice4Rohingya organised a Fund-raising Dinner Party on Tuesday, 22^nd of January 2019 at the Office of the Universal Peace Federation, London. The moderator for the event, Ms Saleha, introduced Mr. Dolkun Isa, the President of the World Uyghur Congress and requested him to speak on the situation of Uyghur in East Turkestan.

Dolkun Isa, President

Of World Uyghur Congress

Dolkun Isa, the President of the World Uyghur Congress, started with Islamic greeting Assalamu Alaikum and thanking Sheikh Ramzy and Justice for Rohingya for inviting him to speak on the Uyghur issue. “Tragedy has brought the Uyghur and Rohingya people together today. Uyghurs and the Rohingyas have been attacked, assaulted, disappeared and forced to leave their lands. Millions of innocent people are suffering greatly at the hands of Chinese and Myanmar governments,” Isa said.

WUC President also mentioned, “Today millions of Uyghurs are arbitrarily detained in concentration camps by the Chinese authorities. All families are suffering being tortured and dying in the camps. Those of us living outside East Turkestan are deeply saddened and sorrowed by our inability to save them. We are in the 21^st century; communication is no issue at all today. It is a big and serious issue for Uyghurs to forget their family members.”

“99% Uyghur who are living in exile in the UK, Germany and other countries have lost contact with other members of their family. Uyghurs are subject to horrific actions by the Chinese government because we are born Uyghur and Rohingya. We are practising Muslims and we have unique cultural identities and histories,” he mentioned.

China’s Total Assimilation Policy

Dolkun Isa also said, “Uyghurs and Rohingyas are facing horrific persecution by the Chinese and the Burmese government. Millions of people are suffering and dying simply because they are Uyghurs and Rohingyas who are practising Islam. Uyghurs are in the concentration camps. The Chinese government’s policy is total assimilation of the Uyghur Muslims and as a part of this policy; China is threatening the Uyghur people of their ethnic identity, cultural language and their religion.”

“Muslims particularly has been targeted by the Chinese majority. Chinese authorities do not tolerate no other religion and it want everybody should be under the control of the absolute authority of the Chinese communist party. For this reason, the Chinese government has launched a campaign to control every aspect of religious practices in Eastern Turkestan and their religious sentiments entirely. No Uyghur people have religious freedom. Uyghur people are at risk of detention, torture and other mistreatment for their religious belief,” said WUC President.

Muslim Names banned

Dolkun Isa also mentioned, “Today if you visit East Turkestan you can see mosques are surrounded by cameras; men are not allowed to grow beards and women are not allowed to wear hijabs and traditional Muslim names Uyghur chosen have been banned. Today you cannot give the names such as – Muhammad, Ahmad, Ayesha Fatima, etc. We cannot give such a name to a newborn baby. If you are under 16 years old, you have to change your name.”

Fasting during Ramadan Forbidden

“Today during Ramadan, fasting is forbidden and Uyghurs are forced to drink beer, alcohol and even eat pork. You cannot refuse to eat pork and drink alcohol. You cannot find any example in the world of such a condition. What you drink, what you eat, and how you dress, all are determined and controlled by the Chinese government. Uyghurs daily live are threatened today,” Isa mentioned.

Qur’an confiscated

WUC President said, “Even today you cannot greet each other saying Assalamu Alaikum. There is severe punishment for this, if you say or greet Assalamualaikum. In 2017, Chinese government started confiscation of the Qur’an. An order was issued giving some dateline, such as May 2017, asking all people who keep the Qur’an or any other religious books should bring to the local government police station. If you could not bring these religious books and the Qur’an to the police station, the people will be punished. But the people who did not bring Qur’an to the local government and to the police station they would be asked why did you keep the Qur’an? Were you praying? What is the reason? Then there is a big problem. The rest of the people being afraid to bring the Qur’an to the police station or the local government threw the Qur’an, the religious books and the prayer mat into the river in the middle of night. This was happening last year.”

3,000 to 5,000 mosques destroyed

“From October 2016 to October 2017, the Chinese government destroyed 3,000 to 5,000 mosques in East Turkestan. The reason is: mosque is empty. People were afraid going to the mosque. The Chinese government has even made religious persecution into law.  Last month China has launched five year’s campaign to sinicritization of Islam. Islam should be comfortable to the Chinese communist party rule. This was launched last month. Unfortunately, all these things are happening now in East Turkestan but no single Muslim country speaks out except Malaysia. All are silent. Uyghurs are trying to explain to the international community, to the human rights groups, to the Muslim world, to the American government, to the United Nations and to the European countries,” mentioned President Isa.

WUC President expressed his happiness by saying that we have received recently some international reaction. He said, “Recently we received some international reactions. In 6^th of November, the United Nations Human Rights Council reviewed human rights situations in China. There are 14 countries, all of them spoke and made the statement asking the Chinese government close down the camps. Actually today the Chinese government is implementing not only ethnic cleansing against Uyghur; it really starts war against Islam.”

China burnt Qur’an and religious books

WUC President mentioned about the incident of the burning of the Qur’an in New York. He said, “As you remember, three years ago, one of the pastors in New York announced to burn Qur’an, then the entire Muslim world stood up and made protest; but Chinese government last year burnt Qur’an and all the religious books but no Islamic country spoke out on this. I don’t know why; may be, it is of changed situation; because of money. Most of the Muslim countries have economic; economic ties, economic relationship with the Chinese government.”

“Human rights, democracy, rule of law are valued in the western societies today. But sometimes they ignored the law. Because money is most important than the human beings; but fortunately last two three months, at least US Vice President Mike Pence and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo really made a very strong statement on this, condemning the Chinese government’s position. The European Union and the 14 countries openly condemned the Chinese government and asked the Chinese government to shut down the camps where there were three million Uyghurs,” he mentioned.

Need some concrete action

WUC President is urging everybody for their cooperation and help. He said, “We are trying to call every human being, every civic society and we are asking them to show their solidarity and to help us; because these things have been continuing for a long time; it is not new. It was already happened, East Turkestan was occupied in 1949; since then Chinese government has systematically implemented the assimilation policy of the Uyghur people. It is now more than 70 years; we talked about but nobody cares. Chinese government 20 years ago carefully implemented the assimilation policy. But today China is a big economic power in the world. That’s why; Chinese government now ignored all the condemnations. I have money; I have power; I can do whatever I want - this is China’s mentality today.”

“But it is a time now for someone, some countries, some civic societies, and some human rights groups to say to China to stop; otherwise this situation will turn into genocide like Rohingya. Behind Rohingya genocide, there is Chinese government.  Chinese government is supporting Myanmar government. We heard the voices of the United Kingdom last November.  The United Kingdom, Germany and some countries really condemned the Chinese government,” he said.

Talking about what should be done at this juncture, WUC President Isa urged international community to take some concrete action. He said, “We need concrete action, not only condemnation. We cannot wait; otherwise the Chinese government will kill three million people. This should be good enough experience after Second World War. World leaders gathered together after the Second World War and said, never again. Promised: never again; but it is happening again. But still ignoring it. So it is really a shame for the world of the 21^st century. We have to be united; world governments should speak up; civil societies have some responsibility. We have to get them together; speak up loudly and we have to put pressure on the governments – all these ways to stop this massacre.”