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A UN Body Sheds Light on the Fate of Disappeared Uyghurs
A little-known United Nations body, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, is helping to shine a light on the extent of China’s enforced disappearances in East Turkistan (Xinjiang).
Starting from 2017, Chinese authorities intensified a large-scale campaign of repression that aimed to fundamentally transform the social, cultural, and religious life of this area, which has been traditionally inhabited by Turkic-speaking peoples.
As part of the crackdown, an estimated more than one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other predominantly Muslim people were sent involuntarily to high-security camps, which China labeled “vocational education and training centers.” Within these camps, torture, harsh interrogation, forced medication, and rape were common, according to research conducted by the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Very little is known about the fates and conditions of the people sentenced to prison during the crackdown. The Chinese government has made it nearly impossible for the outside world to know what is happening on the ground.
The WGAD investigates cases of arbitrary detention throughout the world. It sends urgent appeals and communications to the governments that have reportedly detained people in an arbitrary manner, to which these governments must then respond. Ideally, governments will take action to rectify any human rights violations.
Over the past year, the WGAD has issued opinions on three cases involving Uyghurs, and the information contained in these opinions gives us insights into the fates of those sentenced to long prison terms in East Turkistan.
Crucially, all of the individuals that the WGAD issued opinions about were determined to have been arbitrarily detained and victims of enforced disappearance under international law. The WGAD has called for their immediate release.
But besides finding these Uyghurs to be arbitrarily detained, these U.N. opinions also contain some shocking details.
A Uyghur Cultural Figure Imprisoned For No Reason
One of the cases examined by the WGAD is that of Yalkun Rozi. A Uyghur literary critic who worked on the editorial board for the Uyghur Textbook Department of Xinjiang Education Press from 2001 to 2011, Rozi was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 on the charge of “splitting the State or undermining the unity of the country.”
Rozi is far from alone. Many Uyghur cultural figures with no history of violent activity have been subjected to unfair trials – and the Chinese government cannot provide even the slightest reason why they were detained in the first place.
As the WGAD notes, in Yalkun Rozi’s case, “there is nothing to suggest that Mr. Rozi engaged in or incited violence.” The WGAD then essentially called the bluff of the Chinese government’s logic by failing to explain how a textbook editor could somehow merit being sentenced to life in prison for having “authored several books that had been in circulation in schools for more than a decade with the full approval of the authorities.”
The WGAD also determined that Rozi “was denied appropriate legal assistance during his detention and subsequent trial.”
Ultimately, the WGAD concluded, “In the absence of any explanation by the Government as to the reasons for the arrest and detention of Mr. Rozi, or any rebuttal of the very serious allegations presented by the source, the Working Group concludes that the arrest and detention of Mr. Rozi was based on discrimination on the basis of him belonging to the Uyghur and belonging to the Muslim faith, in violation of article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
In another case from 2022, the WGAD issued an opinion on the case of an entire Uyghur family: Abdurashid Tohti, his wife Tajigul Qadir, and their two sons, Ametjan Abdurashid and Mohamed Ali Abdurashid. The WGAD stated that it was “disturbed by the total secrecy that appears to surround the fate and whereabouts” of the four people, because the Chinese government refused to provide any information about the detained individuals.
Relatives of Abdurashid Tohti were told by the Chinese Embassy in Turkey that he had been sentenced to 16 years and 11 months’ imprisonment for the “crimes of disturbing social order and preparing to commit terrorist activities.” But no evidence was given. Similarly, Qadir was sentenced to a 13-year prison term for the “crime of preparing to commit terrorist activities” – again, without explanation
Day of the Disappeared
August 30 marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Numerous civil society groups have written an open letter to raise awareness of the Chinese government’s use of enforced disappearances and have urged the Chinese government to free disappeared human rights defenders, like lawyer Gao Zhisheng, as well as Uyghurs and Tibetan environmental defenders.
If middle-aged people, like Abdurashid Tohti, age 54, or Gulshan Abbas, age 61, are given very long prison sentences – in prisons where hunger, torture, and lack of medical care are common – there is a good chance that these arbitrarily detained people could die in prison.
Chinese state media frequently dismiss the accusations that it has engaged in “crimes against humanity” or “genocide” in the Uyghur region as a bunch of “lies.”
But when confronted with real cases, such deflection becomes hard to sustain.
Can the Chinese government answer the basic questions raised by the WGAD? Can it provide information about the fate of Tajigul Qadir and her family? How is Ekpar Asat doing? Where is Gulshan Abbas?
As the WGAD notes, there is a pattern to the Chinese government’s behavior:
In its 30-year history, the Working Group has found China in violation of its international human rights obligations in numerous cases. The Working Group is concerned that this indicates a systemic problem with arbitrary detention in China, which amounts to a serious violation of international law. The Working Group recalls that, under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty in violation of the rules of international law may constitute crimes against humanity.
By continuing its campaign of systematic imprisonment, even in defiance of U.N. bodies, the Chinese government continues to provide evidence that it is engaging in ongoing crimes against humanity. To regain trust with the international community, the Chinese government should immediately release all those who have been victims of enforced disappearance.
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02/09/2023