Several Uighur representatives yesterday called attention to the plight of Uighur Muslims living in China’s Xinjiang as they marked the 10th anniversary of major ethnic riots in the region.
“Today, nearly 3 million Uighurs are detained in China’s concentration camps. The prelude to this is what we called the ‘July 5th Urumqi Massacre,’ which resulted in the disappearance of many Uighur people,” Japan Uighur Association chairman Ilham Mahmut said in Taipei.
Ilham might have referenced an estimate made in May by US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver.
Chinese Muslims were being imprisoned in “concentration camps,” Schriver said, justifying the term by saying: “Given what we understand to be the magnitude of the detention, at least a million, but likely closer to 3 million citizens out of a population of 10 million.”
Ilham, who is also the World Uyghur Congress’ representative for East Asia and the Pacific, said that the world’s failure to denounce China’s role in the 2009 unrest sent Beijing a dangerous message that “it will not be stopped regardless of what it does around the world.”
He was referring to large-scale riots between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese majority that took place in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, on July 5, 2009.
The congress, a Munich-headquartered international organization representing the interest of Uighurs in East Turkestan and abroad, said the unrest was triggered by Beijing’s inaction over the deaths of several Uighur workers in a Guangdong toy factory the previous month.
China’s official data suggested that 197 people died in the ethnic violence, among them 134 Han Chinese, while more than 1,500 people were injured.
However, Uighurs believe that more people from their ethnic group died in the conflict.
Taiwan Friends of Uighurs chairman Paul Lin (林保華) said that a major cause of the unrest was the Chinese government’s long-term attempt to “Sinicize” Uighurs, whether through having more Han Chinese move into Xinjiang or bringing young Uighurs to work in China’s coastal cities.
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