A Conference on Uyghur crisis and professor Ilham Tohti
Posts by ilhamtoh
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Offener Brief an Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel in Zusammenhang mit ihre Videogipfel mit der Chinesische President Xi Jinping
O F F E N E R B R I E F 11 September 2020 Sehr geehrte Frau Bundeskanzlerin,liebe Frau Dr. Merkel, es ist sechs Jahre her, seit Prof. Ilham Tohti, auch der „Mandela der Uiguren“ genannt, zu lebenslanger Haft verurteilt wurde und im Gefängnis No.1 in Urumchi in Einzelhaft sitzt, obwohl er sich für ethnische Harmonie in China und für die Umsetzung des Autonomierechtes in Xinjiang eingesetzt hatte. Wir haben keinerlei Nachricht über sein Befinden, seine Frau und seine Kinder konnten ihn seit mehr als drei Jahren nicht besuchen. Deswegen sind wir äußerst besorgt um seinen psychischen und leiblichen Zustand und seine Familie leidet enorm unter dem Druck und sozialer Ausgrenzung in Beijing. Seit seiner Verurteilung hat sich die Menschenrechtslage der Uiguren dramatisch verschlechtert: Ein bis drei Millionen Menschen wurden in Straflagern inhaftiert, uigurische Frauen sterilisiert, Zwangsabtreibungen und Zwangsarbeit verordnet, jede Ausdrucksform religiöser Gefühle kriminalisiert, Moscheen und Friedhöfe zerstört, Kinder in Waisenheime gesperrt. Die Identität des uigurischen Volkes soll mit allen Mitteln ausgelöscht werden. Dieses Vorgehen entspricht der Definition von Völkermord gemäß der Völkermordkonvention der Vereinten Nationen. Die CCP hat chinesische Menschenrechtler und den Friedensnobelpreisträger Liu Xiaobo im Gefängnis sterben lassen und nun fürchten wir um Ilham Tohtis Leben. Doch eine liberale Stimme wie die Ilham Tohtis wäre nicht nur für die Uiguren, sondern allgemein für Frieden, Stabilität und Völkerfreundschaft von allergrößter Wichtigkeit. Angesichts dieser Situation bitte ich Sie, liebe Frau Merkel, sich für die Rechte der Uiguren einzusetzen und Xi Jinping aufzufordern, Prof. Ilham Tohti und alle uigurischen politischen Gefangenen freizulassen, sowie die Straflager zu schließen. Während der EU-Ratspräsidentschaft ist es die moralische und politische Verantwortung Deutschlands, der Volksrepublik China klarzumachen, dass der Völkermord an den Uiguren nicht hinnehmbar ist. Falls eine Freilassung oder eine Ausreise nach Deutschland zu medizinischer Behandlung absolut ausgeschlossen ist, sollte er zumindest von Urumchi […]
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Uyghur Scholar’s Release Sought [Archive]
RFA 2009-07-14 A Chinese writer petitions for the release of a prominent Uyghur economist detained after riots in China’s ethnically divided northwest. WASHINGTON—Chinese writer Wang Lixiong and his wife, the Tibetan writer Woeser, have launched an online campaign calling for the release of Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti. Tohti, a professor at Beijing’s Central Nationalities University, went missing after he reported police had summoned him from his Beijing home following July 5 riots in Urumqi, capital of China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Beijing-based Wang Lixiong is best known for his novel Tian Zang (Sky Burial), in which he explores the issue of Tibet from a perspective different from that officially espoused by the Chinese government. Wang published his petition for Ilham Tohti on the Internet July 12, and within 24 hours had collected 158 cyber signatures endorsing his appeal, most of them from Han Chinese. By Tuesday, the number of supporters had reached more than 250. Blog targeted Tohti, an outspoken economist from China’s largely Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority, was targeted by police after his blog, Uyghur Online, was cited for allegedly instigating deadly ethnic clashes in Xinjiang. Tohti told RFA’s Uyghur service that police had been surveying his home in a telephone interview on July 7, two days after deadly clashes in the northwestern city of Urumqi killed at least 184 people. “They are calling me now, and I have to go. I may be out of touch for some time,” he said. “I wasn’t involved in anything, but I am not safe. The police are calling me,” Tohti said before hanging up. Subsequent phone calls rang unanswered. On July 6, he told RFA’s Cantonese service that he had gathered information on the clashes but wouldn’t release it because the timing was sensitive. Tohti’s blog, Uyghur Online, publishes in Chinese and Uyghur […]
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Open letter to Mr. Heiko Maas, Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany
30 August 2020 Dear Mr. Maas, On the 23rd of September, it will be the sixth Anniversary of the verdict of Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti who was accused of so called “Separatism“ and sentenced to life in prison. Prof. Ilham Tohti whom is also called “the Mandela of Uyghur people“ had campaigned for the Uyghur people’s human rights and the implementation of the Autonomy Laws promised to the Uyghurs, but the Chinese Regime decided to silence him behind the bars. Ilham Tohti is kept in Urumchi Prison No. 1 in solitary confinement. We have no information about his wellbeing and his family, including his wife and children, have not been able to visit him for more than 3 years now. Therefore we are very much concerned about Ilham Tohti’s health and mental state. Since his imprisonment, the human rights situation of the Uyghur people has been steadily deteriorating: in the past 3 years, 1 to 3 million Uyghurs have been detained in Chinese interment camps, Uyghur women have been sterilised in an attempt to decrease Uyghur population, Uyghurs have been subjected to forced labour and modern slavery, Uyghur language has been banned in education, civil adminstrations and in the wider public, even basic expressions of religious sentiment have been criminalised, Uyghur mosques, shrines, graveyards and homes have been destroyed, children have been taken away from their families and the Chinese Communist Party is actively implementing these policies to eradicate the Uyghur cultural and ethnic identity with forcible assimilations. These atrocities aligne with the definition of genocide under the UN Genocide Convention. Mr. Maas, considering the above situation, I would like to ask you to defend the rights of Uyghur people during your talks with Mr. Wang Yi and urge your Chinese counterpart to release Ilham Tohti, and all Uyghur prisoners and close […]
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Outspoken Economist Presumed Held [Archive]
RFA 2009.07.08 An outspoken economist belonging to the Uyghur ethnic minority is presumed to be detained after police surrounded his home in Beijing. HONG KONG—An outspoken economist from China’s Uyghur ethnic minority, whose blog was cited for allegedly instigating deadly ethnic clashes in Xinjiang, has gone silent and his whereabouts are unknown after he reported police had summoned him from his Beijing home. “Police have been watching my home for two days now,” Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, said July 7 in a telephone interview, two days after deadly clashes in the northwestern city of Urumqi killed at least 156 people. “They are calling me now, and I have to go. I may be out of touch for some time,” he told RFA’s Uyghur service. “I wasn’t involved in anything, but I am not safe. The police are calling me,” Tohti said, and then hung up. Subsequent phone calls rang unanswered. On July 6, he told RFA’s Cantonese service that he had gathered information on the clashes but wouldn’t release it because the timing was too sensitive. Uyghur Online publishes in Chinese and Uyghur and is widely seen as a moderate, intellectual Web site addressing social issues. Authorities have closed it on several previous occasions. Tohti’s blog, Uyghur Online, was specifically targeted in a July 5 speech by the governor of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Nur Bekri, as an instigator of the clashes, along with exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer. Tohti’s last blog entry, published through a U.S. server at 10:52 a.m. Beijing time July 7 and now blocked inside China, reads: “As the editor of Uyghur Online, I want only to tell Nur Bekri, ‘You are right, everything you say is right, because you will decide everything. I have already […]
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