Concerned about the growing influence of China in Taiwan, World Uyghur Congress (WUC) president Rebiya Kadeer’s daughter Raela Tosh yesterday called on Taiwanese to stand in solidarity with Uighurs and Tibetans, to defend the values of freedom and human rights.
Tosh arrived in Taiwan yesterday morning to attend screenings of a documentary film on her mother, The 10 Conditions of Love, as the movie was officially released on DVD in Taiwan last month.
Although the organizer of the screening events, Guts United Taiwan (GUT), had planned to invite Kadeer to the screenings, they found that she was subject to a three-year entry ban after being denied a visa last year on the grounds that the WUC has close connections to terrorist groups.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Tosh was met by several law enforcement agents when she arrived in Taiwan and escorted through immigration.
“I felt special coming to Taiwan,” she said, laughing.
In the airport lobby outside the restricted area, three GUT members waiting to pick up Tosh found dozens of police and immigration officers there when they arrived.
The officers asked the GUT members whether they would shout any slogans, and videotaped them.
“Labeling Uighurs as terrorists is a Chinese invention. The Taiwanese government should not use the term ‘terrorist’ to describe Uigur organizations,” she said in an interview with the Taipei Times yesterday.
“Sometimes I would be worried about Chinese influence getting bigger in Taiwan,” she said.
Although most Taiwanese have a different view of freedom and human rights from the Chinese, Tosh said the policies pursued by the Taiwanese government and the increasing number of Chinese nationals in Taiwan could change that.
Citing Hong Kong as an example, Tosh said that Hong Kong used to be a free and prosperous society where everyone wanted to go, “but look at it now, it’s already become half communist.”
She warned that Taiwan could become the next Tibet or East Turkestan — currently known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region — in just a few decades if Taiwanese trust the Chinese government.
“We [Uighurs] have always regretted believing in the Chinese 60 years ago,” she said, adding that everything the Chinese government promised them when it invaded East Turkestan was a lie.
However, Tosh said that, fortunately, the Taiwanese are not a “weak” people.
“If we — Taiwanese, Uighurs, Tibetans and everyone in free countries — work as a team, we can defeat it,” she said.
Because of her and her mother’s confidence in the Taiwanese — who they said have always been supportive of the Uighurs — both women do not think it is too big a deal that the government would not allow Kadeer into the country.
“In an authoritarian country, you need to convince the government, but in a free country, it’s more important to convince the people,” Tosh said. “That’s why I’m here, I came to educate the Taiwanese more about the Uighur issue — I don’t care about what the government thinks.”
Although Tosh said she has become a “second Kadeer,” she actually tried to stop her mother from participating in the Uighur rights campaign a few years ago.
Tosh said she was very worried about her brothers and a sister who were arrested and jailed in China, in 2006 because of her mothers activities.
“I feel depressed when I think of my brothers and sister, especially when it comes into my mind that they may not be eating, may not be getting any sleep or being treated badly — that’s how prisoners are treated in China,” Tosh said. “I blamed my mother for it.”
Tosh said she felt lost at the time, especially because Kadeer was only released from a Chinese prison in 2005.
When she asked her mother to stop what she was doing to save her brothers and sister, Kadeer replied: “You are right, but should I choose the 25 million Uighurs or my four children?”
Tosh said that she too has had to deal with the inner conflict the struggle with China has caused.
After experiencing a difficult relationship with her mother for many years, Tosh eventually began to support what her mother was doing about two years ago.
“I saw how Uighurs were treated, especially before and after the Beijing Olympics,” she said.
“Boys and girls are disappearing from schools, some people were randomly shot on streets by cops just because they look Uighur,” she recounted. “These people are walking on the streets of their own country. They have their mothers, brothers, or sisters too.”
“It’s beyond what I can comprehend, I just cannot stand it anymore,” Tosh said.
She said suddenly felt that, though her brothers and sister are still in prison, at least they are still alive and that they will see each other again one day.
Recently, when Kadeer has been feeling frustrated and talked about quitting, it was Tosh who encouraged her.
“I told her: ‘If you don’t [do] it, what happens to Uighurs won’t go [away],’” Tosh said. “I told her it’s not time to back up, just go forward.”
“Somebody’s got to do it, and since my mother has already become an icon in the Uighur movement, her participation would be more effective,” she said.
Since Tosh became more supportive of her mother’s work, she feels that they have grown closer and get along much better.
Although Kadeer appears tough in public, Tosh said she knows her mother loves her children in prison very much, and worries about them all the time.
“She hangs pictures of my imprisoned brothers and sister in her office, so she sees their pictures every day. I’ve seen her looking at the pictures for 10, 15 minutes, and crying,” Tosh said. “I know she blames herself inside, but she knows that she has to continue with what she’s doing.”
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