{"id":111178,"date":"2019-04-24T19:40:55","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T19:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uhrp.org\/?p=2643"},"modified":"2019-04-24T19:40:55","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T19:40:55","slug":"mainstreaming-stories-a-day-of-solidarity-with-uyghurs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2019\/04\/24\/mainstreaming-stories-a-day-of-solidarity-with-uyghurs-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mainstreaming Stories: A Day of Solidarity with Uyghurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henryk Szadziewski, Senior Researcher, Uyghur Human Rights Project<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The accounts of the \u2018re-education\u2019 regime that people are undergoing in those camps are harrowing\u2026I imagine my lovely, principled, dedicated colleague there, and I feel incredibly angry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Rachel Harris<\/a>, University of London<\/p>\n

The disappearance of Dr. Rahile Dawut, a leading expert on Uyghur folklore and traditions at Xinjiang University, into an internment camp around December 2017 shocked her academic peers outside of China as the above quote notes. Dr. Rahile worked and is friends with several overseas scholars focused on Uyghurs. In an essay<\/a> for the Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em>, Dr. Darren Byler wrote about the indispensable support Dr. Rahile offered to researchers from the United States and Europe. Rahile\u2019s pioneering ethnographies and student-centered approach earned her the respect of the academic community in the Uyghur homeland and abroad. She collected stories and as Darren Byler wrote she showed “how Uyghurs can take control of their own stories by sharing knowledge of their land.”<\/p>\n

\"D47XzTMWwAUe9vU\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been more than two years since we learned about the mass-internment of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in camps. Researchers have used Internet searches of government construction bids, analysis of satellite images, and interviews with Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples to uncover these secretive camps. One of these researchers, scholar Adrian Zenz, estimates the number of individuals in camps at a staggering 1.5 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The tight state restrictions imposed on research in the Uyghur homeland can create an information void on what is happening in the region. However, the painstaking work of these scholars offers credible evidence contradicting the Chinese government\u2019s claim that the camps are merely \u2018vocational training centers\u2019 and presents an analytical understanding of current conditions undertaken from years of interactions with the land and people.<\/p>\n

The response to Dr. Rahile\u2019s disappearance and the determined exposure of human rights abuses on a vast scale is testament to a close connection between knowledge and relationships among scholars of the Uyghur experience. Given these commitments, at a time of emergency, academics are speaking out. The academy is sometimes criticized as slow to respond to crises, so when a large group of experts raises the alarm, we should listen to these voices.<\/p>\n

For example, the November 26, 2018 \u2018Statement by Concerned Scholars on China\u2019s Mass Detention of Turkic Minorities<\/a>\u2019 includes 646 signatories from 40 countries and “calls on states and institutions to issue formal statements demanding that Xi Jinping and Chen Quanguo immediately abolish the \u2018transformation through education\u2019 detention system and release all Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other detainees.” The \u2018Xinjiang Initiative<\/a>\u2019 includes 278 academics willing “to raise awareness of the situation in Xinjiang at every public event in which they are a participant,” and 391 academics have signed<\/a> the \u2018Czech and Slovak Appeal for the Closure of Political Reeducation Camps for Uyghurs and Other Minorities and for the Observance of Internationally Acknowledged Human Rights in the People\u2019s Republic of China.”<\/p>\n

On April 26, scholars will take a further step and hold \u2018Mainstreaming Stories: A Day of Solidarity with Uyghurs<\/a>.\u2019 Leading researchers on Uyghurs will hold a local talk in twelve locations about the ongoing emergency in the Uyghur homeland and the initiative includes presentations by:<\/p>\n