Beijing [China]: A 20-year-old Uyghur student, Nefise Oghuz, said giving a testimony about the illegal imprisonment of her uncle was her “duty”.
She also discussed the alleged genocide of Uyghurs in western China. Nefise Oghuz released the message on social media, including Twitter and Facebook, in four languages—Uyghur, English, Mandarin, and Turkish—and talked about how police in Urumqi detained her uncle, Alim Abdukerim, 33, at his house on August 28, 2017, according to Radio Free Asia.
Nefise Oghuz explained to Radio Free Asia, “I dared to share this video testimony as I could not bear the sufferings of my people facing genocide.” She further said, “I could not accept the fate of my uncle and that of millions of Uyghurs in the concentration camps, and I felt terrible for my nephew, who had not seen his father even once after he was born,” as per the Radio Free Asia report.
Nefise Oghuz said she gave the testimony in Turkish, expressing hope that the Turks would pay attention to the sufferings of the Uyghurs. She gave the testimony in English, hoping the international community would pay attention. She further said that she presented the testimony in Chinese to try to force the Chinese Government to listen to her demand.
As per the news report, Alim Abdukerim’s family was unaware of his whereabouts for two years. Later, Nefise Oghuz learned that he was in prison in Korla, known as Ku’erle in Chinese in Xinjiang, two years after being taken away.
Nefise Oghuz, in the multilingual videos, said, “My innocent uncle has been in jail for the past six years.” She called on the Chinese Government to immediately release her uncle. The videos have grabbed the attention of Uyghurs and outpouring of reactions on social media platforms.
Speaking to Radio Free Asia over the phone from Istanbul, she said, “Since we could not get any information about him, I could not bear this injustice. Nefise Oghuz and her family have been living in Turkey since 2015. She said that they remained silent for the past years, fearing that the testimony could harm their relatives in their homeland”.
Abdukerim was detained by Chinese police shortly after he married amid a larger crackdown on Uyghurs beginning in 2017. During the crackdown, authorities arbitrarily detained ordinary and prominent Uyghurs like businesspeople, writers, artists, athletes and Muslim clergy members into “re-education” camps, as per the news report.
At a family-run company called Halis Foreign Trade Ltd, Abdukerim, a computer engineer, managed internet and computer-related operations.
According to Nefise Oghuz, she tried to learn more about him from Xinjiang-based relatives and Chinese social media sources.
Nefise Oghuz said, “We don’t know why the Chinese Government arrested him”, adding, “He had never been abroad. I think the Chinese authorities detained him for being Uyghur and Muslim”, Radio Free Asia reported.
After the arrest of Alim Abdukerim, the family closed its business, as per the news report. His crime and the length of his sentence remain unknown. However, Nefise Oghuz learned that he is being held at a prison in Korla that operates under the auspices of the Xinjiang Construction and Production Company.
China has said that the camps were vocational training centres established to stop religious extremism and terrorism. However, those who survived the camps have said that Uyghurs there were subjected to torture, sexual assault and forced labour.
(with inputs from ANI)
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