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Prominent Uyghur activist learns about father’s death in East Turkistan months after demise
Abdulhakim Idris, executive director of the Center of Uyghur Studies based in Falls Church, Virginia, and former inspector general of the World Uyghur Congress, found out on Wednesday that his father, Abdulkerim Zikrullah Idris, 81, died in January in the city of Hotan.
Abdulhakim was informed of the news from a source who insisted on anonymity for safety reasons.
The last contact he had with his father was during an April 2017 phone call.
Chinese authorities in East Turkistan have detained most of his other family members since then amid the mass detentions or imprisonment of Uyghurs in “re-education camps.”
The situation reflects the Chinese government’s ongoing repression of Uyghurs in East Turkistain, as well as of political activists like Abdulhakim, who live abroad but remain under the scrutiny of Chinese authorities and bear a substantial burden when it comes to their relatives back in East Turkistan.
Abdulhakim told Radio Free Asia that the news of his father’s death saddened him because he had limited opportunities to spend time with the man.
“He was a man of sincerity, an advocate for education, and a hard-working, diligent individual,” Abdulhakim said. “He is the reason why all of us pursued education and grew up with a strong dedication to this path.”
Uyghur political activists are consistently on China’s radar, subjected to surveillance, monitoring and various forms of persecution. Still, they strive to secure human rights for Uyghurs in Xinjiang and hold China to account for its actions. Ultimately, they hope to establish a Uyghur homeland called East Turkistan.
In recent years, Uyghurs in East Turkistan (Xinjiang) have endured what the United States and several Western parliaments have declared a genocide or crimes against humanity at the hands of China.
Uyghur political activists and nongovernmental organizations abroad have dedicated considerable effort to exposing Beijing’s oppressive actions to the global community and to trying to put an end to them.
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21/08/2023