China admits death of Uyghur man who was allegedly detained in Xinjiang camps

In a rare response, Chinese government on Friday formally accepted to UN, death of an Uyghur man, whose family believe h been held in a Xinjiang internment camp since 2017.

Over one million people from Uyghur and Turkish Muslim communities in western Xinjiang have been allegedly detained in camps since 2017, under a systematic crackdown on ethnic mirities which world leers have termed as cultural gecide. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has repeatedly turned down requests by international bodies to independently visit and investigate region, despite growing backlash from international communities.

Uyghur man’s disappearance was registered with United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) in April 2019, but CCP did t respond to formal inquiries until September this year. In a statement to WGEID, China said retired driver named Abdulghafur Hapiz from Kashgar h died almost two years ago, on vember 3, 2018, due to severe pneumonia and tuberculosis.

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However, his daughter, who is also an activist in Australia believes that Hapiz was sent to camps in March 2017, and h been vocating for his release, or at least information on his whereabouts ever since. She said China’s formal ackwledgment of her far’s death was significant for Uighur community as it brings hope and potentially legal recourse in ir struggle.

One of thousands of Uyghurs herself, Abdulghafur said she has been trying to get in touch with rest of her family in Xinjiang but it is t safe for her to do so. She h received some messs via third parties over years.

WGEID also enquired after Abdulghafur’s mor and two or siblings, who have also disappeared. Authorities h reported that her 63-year-old mor was leing a social, rmal life, but she believes that her mor is under house arrest.

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UN warns China over missing Uyghurs

In its 2020 report, WGEID urged China to inform families and legal groups regarding whereabouts of missing Uyghurs and said failure to do so amounts to enforced disappearance.

New research reveals that China’s crackdown on Xinjiang is expanding with hundreds of new detention camps being set up and destruction of thousands of mosques and or cultural and religious sites. In recent months, news regarding forced sterilisation of women, and expansions of forced labour programs in region h also surfaced.

Consistently denying accusations against it, CCP says camps are vocational training centres built in response to religious extremism.

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(Im credits: AP)