Radio Free Asia provided a unique international information service to Uighurs which exposed the rampant persecution by China of the Muslim Muslim group in real time, leading to the declaration of the possible American government of a genocide.
RFA UGHUR was at the forefront to report massive repression in the Xinjiang region in the far west of China in 2017, which led to around 1.8 million people confined to internment camps. By directly speaking to sources inside the Xinjiang, he documented the repression of the Uighurs at the start of the repression before other media focus on the issue.
The FRG has also played an important role in promoting Uighur language and culture when it was attacked, and focused on human struggles and the resilience of Uighurs to maintain their dignity and their identity.
Mass detentions start in 2017
In 2017, while Uighurs faced an increasing pressure from the Chinese authorities of Xinjiang, RFA documented the crisis as happened. The Uighur Service reported on the confiscations of the corans, the forced sampling of Uyghours DNA which had not committed any crime, the verification of digital devices as surveillance has been increasingly intrusive and the conversion of mosques to propaganda centers.
Then, in September, RFA confirmed with police sources that thousands of Ughurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities were held in contactless rehabilitation camps with their families under a policy designed to counter “extremism”.
Mass death reported in an internment camp
In October 2019, the FRG reported that at least 150 detainees died over a period of six months in a single internment camp in the county of Kuchar, marking the first confirmation of mass deaths since the camps were introduced in 2017. This information came from a police officer who had been an administrative assistant at the n ° 1 international camp in the Yengher district.
The report corroborated the previous declarations of a former police chief who was held to have revealed that more than 200 inhabitants of his canton died in the camps.
Still held in the camps despite complaints in China
Radio Free Asia Ughur Service revealed during the period from 2018 to 2020 according to which despite the Chinese claims that the Xinjiang internment camps had been closed, several installations remained operational, including large camps in Kashgar City and the surrounding regions. The UGF Uighur Service said thousands of UGHurs have continued to be held in these installations without legal proceedings, officials admitting to “permanently entered”. Some of the largest camps, such as the Yanbulaq in Kashgar, have held thousands of people who were forced to learn Chinese Mandarin and undergo political indoctrination.
We: Genocide against Uighurs in Xinjiang
On the eve of the release of the administration of the first administration of Trump, in January 2021, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the United States had determined the repression of China of Uighurs and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang, including its use of interminal camps and forced sterilizations, equivalent to “genocide” and “crimes against” humanity ”.
The historic decision was greeted by the Uighur groups which said that this would prevent the international community from ignoring the atrocities of the Xinjiang.
Xinjiang police files
RFA provided crucial coverage of the leak of Xinjiang police files, documenting how these official Chinese files revealed detailed information on thousands of Uighur prisoners. The files included clear images and information on the prisoners of the camp arrested in 2018 in the county of Kashgar Kona Sheher, the youngest only 14 years old and the oldest 73.
The FRG has interviewed Uyghours in exile who found images and information on their parents, friends and former cell comrades missing in the disclosed documents, giving a lot of their first confirmation of what had happened to their loved ones.
Stories of Uighur resilience and success
The FRG has reported on the Uighur diaspora community which prevailed by adversity and obtained professional success. In the United States, Adalet Sabit described the challenges of raising her a young Uaigure girl who was separated from her father. Adalet’s husband Ablimit Abliz was prevented from leaving China after the authorities confiscated his passport.
RFA also spoke to Arfiya Eri, the first person of the Uighur heritage to present himself as a major candidate in a Japanese election. Born and raised in Japan, she defined success as “when an individual can live the life he wishes freely, according to the path he has chosen”.
Edited by RFA staff.