{"id":548,"date":"2020-04-26T21:20:14","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T21:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ilhamtohtiinstitute.org\/?p=548"},"modified":"2020-04-26T21:23:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T21:23:18","slug":"jailed-uyghur-scholar-ilham-tohti-receives-freedom-houses-freedom-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ilhamtohtiinstitute.org\/?p=548","title":{"rendered":"Jailed Uyghur Scholar Ilham Tohti Receives Freedom House\u2019s \u2018Freedom Award\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RFA Uyghur news<\/a> 2019.05.09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti was honored on Wednesday at a ceremony in Washington D.C., where he was given the Freedom Award in absentia by the democracy watchdog group Freedom House.

Accepting the award on her father\u2019s behalf at the May 8 gathering at Washington\u2019s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Tohti\u2019s daughter Jewher Tohti  said that she wished her father could have been present to accept his award in person.

\u201c[And] I wish that this recognition were unnecessary,” Jewher Tohti said, “because that would mean that the Uyghur people were free.”

Ilham Tohti is someone who sees political and cultural oppression as a problem to be fixed, Jewher Tohti said, adding that China\u2019s treatment of the Uyghur ethnic minority in northwestern China\u2019s Xinjiang region, the Uyghurs\u2019 historic homeland, \u201cwas always causing bigger societal damage.\u201d

\u201cEven before the horrendous crackdown, the camps, the torture of innocent people, China was creating larger, longer-term problems between groups of people,\u201d she said.

\u201cWhen people are treated and labeled as separate or different, as wrong or bad, human connection cannot happen.\u201d

In remarks introducing the granting of the award, U.S. Senator from Colorado Cory Gardner said that Ilham Tohti knew that he would someday be jailed for \u201ctelling the story of his community, the Uyghurs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe expected that his peaceful calls for connection and understanding between Uyghurs and Han Chinese would need to be silenced,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike other historic champions of freedom and human rights, Ilham Tohti embodies a fearlessness to which we all aspire,\u201d Gardner said, adding, \u201cTo put the cause of human liberty ahead of your own life is the ultimate act of courage,\u201d Gardner said.

Convicted of ‘separatism’<\/strong>

An outspoken economics professor who regularly highlighted the religious and cultural persecution of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority in northwest China\u2019s Xinjiang region, Tohti was charged with promoting ethnic separatism and was handed a life sentence by a Chinese court on Sept. 23, 2014 following a two-day trial.

The court decision cited Tohti\u2019s criticism of Beijing\u2019s ethnic policies, his interviews with overseas media outlets, and his work founding and running the Chinese-language website Uighurbiz.net, which was shut down by Chinese authorities in 2014.

International rights groups and politicians in the U.S. and Europe have condemned China\u2019s network of political \u201cre-education camps\u201d that have held up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring \u201cstrong religious views\u201d and \u201cpolitically incorrect\u201d ideas since April 2017.

Though Beijing initially denied the existence of the camps, China has tried to change the discussion, describing the facilities as \u201cboarding schools\u201d that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization, and help protect the country from terrorism.

Reported by RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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