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BREAKING NEWS: Uyghur Man Held in Qatar Now En Route to US

by Richard Finney

Uyghur Man Held in Qatar Now En Route to US Aug. 6, 2019 -- A Uyghur man facing deportation to China from Qatar last week is now on his way to the United States, U.S. government sources say. Ablikim Yusup, 53, had appealed for days for help on social media posts from Qatar’s Doha International Airport, saying that he feared for his safety if sent back. Yusup had previously tried to enter Europe by way of Bosnia, a Muslim-majority country, but had been sent back to Qatar, which then said it would deport him to Beijing, according to media reports. “We can confirm that Mr. Ablikim Yusup is safely en route to the United States,” a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Tuesday. “The United States is alarmed by China’s highly repressive campaign against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in Xinjiang,” the State Department said. “This campaign includes mass arbitrary detentions. The Chinese government has, by our estimates, detained more than one million individuals since April 2017.” “In these camps, there are credible reports of torture, inhumane conditions, and deaths. Individuals there are forced to renounce their ethnic identities, religious beliefs, or cultural and religious practices,” the State Department said. “We will continue to call on China to reverse its counterproductive policies that conflate terrorism with peaceful religious and political expression, to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained, and to cease efforts to coerce members of its Muslim minority groups residing abroad to return to China to face an uncertain fate,” the State Department said. Meanwhile, Germany-based World Uyghur Congress welcomed news of Yusup’s flight to the U.S., adding, “The international community must take steps to ensure Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims are provided protection.” Many held in camps Authorities in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have held up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas in internment camps since April 2017. While Beijing initially denied the existence of the camps, China this year changed tack and started describing the facilities as “boarding schools” that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization, and help protect the country from terrorism. Claims by China this week that it has already released almost all of those held in the camps were met with skepticism by human rights and Uyghur exile groups, who said that China is seeking to blunt demands for accountability for its treatment of Muslim ethnic groups in the Xinjiang region. In July, Qatar joined several other Muslim states including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain in publicly supporting China’s actions in Xinjiang, telling the U.N. in a joint letter that Beijing’s policies have countered terrorism in the region. Reported by RFA's Uyghur Service. View this story online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/route-08062019151423.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org .

5 years, 5 months

BREAKING NEWS: Large-Scale Demolition Begins at Sichuan's Yachen Gar

by Richard Finney

NOTE: Corrects sign-off to U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Large-Scale Demolition Begins at Sichuan’s Yachen Gar Tibetan Buddhist Center July 27, 2019 - Authorities in western China’s Sichuan province have begun a campaign of large-scale demolition at the Yachen Gar Tibetan Buddhist center, with Chinese work crews tearing down over a hundred dwellings of nuns evicted from the complex in recent weeks, Tibetan sources say. The destruction follows the forced removal beginning in May of over 7,000 residents of the sprawling center in Palyul (in Chinese, Baidu) county, which once housed around 10,000 monks and nuns devoted to scriptural study and meditation. Demolition of the nuns’ dwellings began on July 19 and moved ahead quickly, with at least 100 structures now torn down, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Friday. “The heavy machinery rolled out at Yachen Gar includes excavators, bulldozers, and dump trucks,” RFA’s source said, adding, “For now, it is only the nuns’ dwellings that are being targeted, but soon after this it will be the houses of the monks.” On July 20, dump trucks hauled the wreckage of the structures already destroyed to a vacant area called Nyithang Yultso and piled it there to be burned, the source said. “After each day’s work, the men and machines are now moved to rest for the night in a fenced enclosure on the outskirts of Yachen Gar close to a military camp,” he said. Senior monks and administrators at Yachen Gar have written over 40 petitions so far to Chinese authorities “at all levels,” appealing for a halt to the removals and destruction, but their requests have been rejected, the source said. “When they go to the relevant Chinese offices and departments to appeal, the Chinese officials reprimand them by pointing their fingers in their faces, and have even slapped them,” he said. “Those in charge at Yachen Gar have endured all of this silently in the hope that their petitions will be heard, but in vain.” Many of those expelled from Yachen Gar are now being held in detention and subjected to political re-education and beatings, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Chinese officials have meanwhile been stationed at the center to “maintain a tight watch” over those who remain and to check on all outside visitors, while travel to and from the center is strictly monitored and restricted, sources say. An unfolding strategy Restrictions on Yachen Gar and the better-known Larung Gar complex in Sichuan’s Serthar (Seda) county are part of “an unfolding political strategy” aimed at controlling the influence and growth of these important centers for Tibetan Buddhist study and practice, a Tibetan advocacy group said in a March 2017 report. “[Both centers] have drawn thousands of Chinese practitioners to study Buddhist ethics and receive spiritual teaching since their establishment, and have bridged Tibetan and Chinese communities,” the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said. During 2017 and 2018, at least 4,820 Tibetan and Han Chinese monks and nuns were removed from Larung Gar, with over 7,000 dwellings and other structures torn down beginning in 2001, according to sources in the region. Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Tanslated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney. View this story online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/demolition-07272019091153.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org .

5 years, 5 months

BREAKING NEWS: Large-Scale Demolition Begins at Sichuan's Yachen Gar

by Richard Finney

Large-Scale Demolition Begins at Sichuan’s Yachen Gar Tibetan Buddhist Center July 27, 2019- Authorities in western China’s Sichuan province have begun a campaign of large-scale demolition at the Yachen Gar Tibetan Buddhist center, with Chinese work crews tearing down over a hundred dwellings of nuns evicted from the complex in recent weeks, Tibetan sources say. The destruction follows the forced removal beginning in May of over 7,000 residents of the sprawling center in Palyul (in Chinese, Baidu) county, which once housed around 10,000 monks and nuns devoted to scriptural study and meditation. Demolition of the nuns’ dwellings began on July 19 and moved ahead quickly, with at least 100 structures now torn down, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Friday. “The heavy machinery rolled out at Yachen Gar includes excavators, bulldozers, and dump trucks,” RFA’s source said, adding, “For now, it is only the nuns’ dwellings that are being targeted, but soon after this it will be the houses of the monks.” On July 20, dump trucks hauled the wreckage of the structures already destroyed to a vacant area called Nyithang Yultso and piled it there to be burned, the source said. “After each day’s work, the men and machines are now moved to rest for the night in a fenced enclosure on the outskirts of Yachen Gar close to a military camp,” he said. Senior monks and administrators at Yachen Gar have written over 40 petitions so far to Chinese authorities “at all levels,” appealing for a halt to the removals and destruction, but their requests have been rejected, the source said. “When they go to the relevant Chinese offices and departments to appeal, the Chinese officials reprimand them by pointing their fingers in their faces, and have even slapped them,” he said. “Those in charge at Yachen Gar have endured all of this silently in the hope that their petitions will be heard, but in vain.” Many of those expelled from Yachen Gar are now being held in detention and subjected to political re-education and beatings, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Chinese officials have meanwhile been stationed at the center to “maintain a tight watch” over those who remain and to check on all outside visitors, while travel to and from the center is strictly monitored and restricted, sources say. An unfolding strategy Restrictions on Yachen Gar and the better-known Larung Gar complex in Sichuan’s Serthar (Seda) county are part of “an unfolding political strategy” aimed at controlling the influence and growth of these important centers for Tibetan Buddhist study and practice, a Tibetan advocacy group said in a March 2017 report. “[Both centers] have drawn thousands of Chinese practitioners to study Buddhist ethics and receive spiritual teaching since their establishment, and have bridged Tibetan and Chinese communities,” the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said. During 2017 and 2018, at least 4,820 Tibetan and Han Chinese monks and nuns were removed from Larung Gar, with over 7,000 dwellings and other structures torn down beginning in 2001, according to sources in the region. Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Tanslated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney. View this story online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/demolition-07272019091153.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org .

5 years, 5 months

BREAKING NEWS: Large-Scale Demolition Begins at Sichuan's Yachen Gar

by Richard Finney

Large-Scale Demolition Begins at Sichuan’s Yachen Gar Tibetan Buddhist Center July 29, 2019--Authorities in western China’s Sichuan province have begun a campaign of large-scale demolition at the Yachen Gar Tibetan Buddhist center, with Chinese work crews tearing down over a hundred dwellings of nuns evicted from the complex in recent weeks, Tibetan sources say. The destruction follows the forced removal beginning in May of over 7,000 residents of the sprawling center in Palyul (in Chinese, Baidu) county, which once housed around 10,000 monks and nuns devoted to scriptural study and meditation. Demolition of the nuns’ dwellings began on July 19 and moved ahead quickly, with at least 100 structures now torn down, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Friday. “The heavy machinery rolled out at Yachen Gar includes excavators, bulldozers, and dump trucks,” RFA’s source said, adding, “For now, it is only the nuns’ dwellings that are being targeted, but soon after this it will be the houses of the monks.” On July 20, dump trucks hauled the wreckage of the structures already destroyed to a vacant area called Nyithang Yultso and piled it there to be burned, the source said. “After each day’s work, the men and machines are now moved to rest for the night in a fenced enclosure on the outskirts of Yachen Gar close to a military camp,” he said. Senior monks and administrators at Yachen Gar have written over 40 petitions so far to Chinese authorities “at all levels,” appealing for a halt to the removals and destruction, but their requests have been rejected, the source said. “When they go to the relevant Chinese offices and departments to appeal, the Chinese officials reprimand them by pointing their fingers in their faces, and have even slapped them,” he said. “Those in charge at Yachen Gar have endured all of this silently in the hope that their petitions will be heard, but in vain.” Many of those expelled from Yachen Gar are now being held in detention and subjected to political re-education and beatings, sources told RFA in earlier reports. Chinese officials have meanwhile been stationed at the center to “maintain a tight watch” over those who remain and to check on all outside visitors, while travel to and from the center is strictly monitored and restricted, sources say. An unfolding strategy Restrictions on Yachen Gar and the better-known Larung Gar complex in Sichuan’s Serthar (Seda) county are part of “an unfolding political strategy” aimed at controlling the influence and growth of these important centers for Tibetan Buddhist study and practice, a Tibetan advocacy group said in a March 2017 report. “[Both centers] have drawn thousands of Chinese practitioners to study Buddhist ethics and receive spiritual teaching since their establishment, and have bridged Tibetan and Chinese communities,” the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said. During 2017 and 2018, at least 4,820 Tibetan and Han Chinese monks and nuns were removed from Larung Gar, with over 7,000 dwellings and other structures torn down beginning in 2001, according to sources in the region. Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Tanslated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney. View this story online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/demolition-07272019091153.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org .

5 years, 5 months

RFA Breaking News: China’s Policy of Mass Detentions in Xinjiang ‘Has Nothing to do With Terrorism’: US Anti-Terror Czar

by Paul Eckert

China’s Policy of Mass Detentions in Xinjiang ‘Has Nothing to do With Terrorism’: US Anti-Terror Czar July 11, 2019 - The mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) “has nothing to do with terrorism,” and is part of a war Beijing is waging on religion, according to Washington’s counter-terrorism czar. In an interview with RFA’s Uyghur Service, Ambassador Nathan Sales, the U.S. State Department’s Coordinator for Counter-terrorism, dismissed China’s claims that its vast network of internment camps in the region—where authorities are believed to have held up to 1.5 million people since April 2017—is part of a vocational training program that is saving those influenced by religious extremism. “In addition to the people who are in custody and these forced labor camps there are millions more who are subjected to political re-indoctrination in daytime facilities,” he said. “The scope of this campaign is so vast and so untargeted that it simply has nothing to do with terrorism. Instead, what's going on is the Chinese Communist Party is waging war on religion. It is trying to stamp out the ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious identities of the people that it’s been targeting.” Sales also rejected statements from Beijing recently reiterated at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva by XUAR vice governor Erkin Tuniyaz that internment camps in the region had allowed detainees to “gain access to modern knowledge and enhance their employability.” “You don't need to send people who have jobs to vocational training centers,” he said. “Again, the scope of the detentions and the scope of the measures that have been applied to people outside the camps is simply so vast and overwhelming that it belies any claim that this is counter-terrorism or a targeted job training program. It’s repression, plain and simple.” Regardless, he added, counter-terrorism cannot be used as a pretext for advancing what he called “a domestic agenda political or religious or ethnic repression,” and said the U.S. is “deeply concerned” by the Chinese government’s “misuse” of the issue to achieve its goals in the XUAR. Sales stressed that the mass detentions and restrictions on religion in the region are only part of a larger attack by Beijing on an entire culture. Specifically, he highlighted reports of children of detainees being placed in state-run orphanages, where they are taught only Chinese, regularly have their names changed, and are “effectively being separated from the cultural and linguistic heritage … from which they come,” as an example of how authorities hope to force Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the XUAR to assimilate into Han Chinese culture. Holding China accountable While the U.S. Congress debates three pieces of legislation aimed at holding China accountable for its actions in the region, Sales vowed that Washington will continue to bring public pressure against Beijing to convey its view that “this is not counter-terrorism, but repression.” “Rest assured, this issue has the attention of the highest levels of our government, and we’re going to continue to focus on it,” he said. He also urged governments representing Muslim-majority nations to “speak out for members of their religion who are being targeted because of their religion” and to call on the Communist Party to “stop this war on faith.” And he advised Beijing that it is not too late to reverse its policies in the region, and honor the fundamental rights and freedoms of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities guaranteed by China’s constitution and regional ethnic autonomy laws. “Stop. Close the camps. Release the prisoners. Dismantle the surveillance state that keeps track of people outside the camps,” Sales said. “Return the children to their families so that they can be brought into the culture and religious traditions that they hold dear,” he added. “Every nation has the right and the responsibility to defend itself into defend its citizens from actual terrorism. That's not what's going on here. This is an ugly campaign of religious and ethnic repression.” Following the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001, the U.S. captured nearly two dozen Uyghurs in Afghanistan, sent them to its military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and accused them of ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban Muslim insurgency groups as part of a Uyghur group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). On Sept. 3, 2003, the U.S. placed ETIM on the Treasury Department’s list of terrorist organizations, but by the end of the year determined that the Guantanamo detainees were not security risks and eventually allowed all of them to be resettled to third countries, where they were not at risk of persecution by the Chinese government. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. government had failed to present sufficient evidence that ETIM was linked to either Al Qaeda or the Taliban, and while the group remains on the Treasury Department’s terror list, there is little to suggest that it has made significant inroads in China, nor that what limited amount of Uyghur radicalization exists in the country presents a significant security risk. Asked about current thinking on the ETIM designation, Sales declined to comment. “What I can tell you is that today the United States is deeply concerned about the misuse of counter-terrorism by the Communist Party of China to initiate and sustain a years-long campaign against the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities,” he said. Controversial visit RFA’s interview with Sales comes weeks after Vladimir Voronkov, the United Nations’ under-secretary general for counter-terrorism, traveled to the XUAR on an official visit, drawing condemnation from Washington, which said the trip risks lending credence to China’s claims that detentions in the region are related to a counter-terrorism issue, rather than a violation of human rights. The U.S.—which stopped attending the Human Rights Council last year after alleging that the forum is biased against Israel—recently called Tuniyaz’s appearance at the session “an embarrassment” to the U.N. for providing “a representative of one of the world’s worst human rights abusers a platform for propaganda.” Last month, after China’s ambassador to the U.N. invited its human rights czar Michelle Bachelet to visit the XUAR to “see for herself” what he called “education training centers” in the region, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told RFA that she would not accept unless given access to the camps on her own terms. If Bachelet accepts a trip to the XUAR, she would become the highest level U.N. official to visit the region. Reported by Mamatjan Juma for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. View this story online at: [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/czar-07112019155502.html | https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/czar-07112019155502.html ] Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org.

5 years, 6 months

Radio Free Asia Recognized at New York Festivals

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 25, 2019 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Features Recognized at 2019 New York Festivals Radio Awards WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia <https://www.rfa.org/> (RFA) received honors for two news features at last night's 2019 New York Festivals <https://www.newyorkfestivals.com/radio/> Radio Awards, an annual juried competition recognizing achievements in broadcast media. RFA's Mandarin Service won a Silver Medal in the News Features category for its <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhpxddL0HGm41Vyx7DhhR2wuRPTwJ_NoB> "Gray Rhino" series, a set of short videos focused on China's financial sector and its risks for ordinary citizens. RFA's Korean Service's "North Korean Refugees in Canada <https://www.rfa.org/korean/in_focus/news_indepth/newsindepth-042020181136 50.html> " was a finalist in the same category. "These Radio Free Asia features both take a hard look at important phenomena and human experiences otherwise ignored in Chinese and North Korean media," said Libby Liu, President of RFA. "RFA Mandarin's Gray Rhino video series brings awareness to our audiences in China of the under-reported risks and landmines in the Chinese economy at a time when state-controlled media is pushing out misleading information. Chinese citizens themselves are experiencing first-hand the impact of economic insecurity, unemployment, corporate closures, and empty new housing stock. "RFA Korean continues to share the powerful stories and sacrifices of those who faced enormous risks and danger to flee North Korea's repressive conditions to make new lives for themselves elsewhere. "RFA welcomes this great recognition at the New York Festivals Radio Awards for these features from our Korean and Mandarin Services." Released in February 2019, when many Chinese households were beginning to feel the negative effects of China's economic instability, RFA Mandarin's "Gray Rhino" series took an in-depth look at major issues plaguing China's financial system, such as bad debt in the financial and government sectors, and the Chinese real estate bubble. With the series, the Mandarin Service's digital team provided clear, easy-to-understand analyses of complex issues that are not only neglected in Chinese domestic media, but also often left difficult to understand. As of June 2019, the series had about 375,000 views on YouTube. The Korean Service's "North Korean Refugees in Canada" series was made up of three special reports, each of which highlighted different aspects of North Korean defectors' experiences seeking refugee status in Canada. The series discussed the denial of refugee status to the North Korean defectors, gave practical advice for refugees from experts, and showed how North Korean refugees have adapted to life and changes in Canada. Other winners <https://www.newyorkfestivals.com/worldsbestradio/2019/> at this year's New York Festivals Radio Awards included CBS, the BBC, Al Jazeera, NPR, and Vox. Documentaries from RFA's Khmer and Mandarin Services also received <https://www.rfa.org/about/releases/new-york-festival-2019-04102019121036. html?searchterm:utf8:ustring=%20new%20york%20festivals> honors at the 2019 New York Festivals TV and Film Awards <https://www.newyorkfestivals.com/tvfilm/main.php?p=2,38> earlier this year. # # # Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the United States Agency for Global Media. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Vice President of Communications & External Relations <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

5 years, 6 months

Radio Free Asia Wins Murrow Award for '709' Crackdown Video

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 18, 2019 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Wins Murrow Award for '709' Crackdown Video WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/arrest-06102019112135.htmlhttps:/w ww.rfa.org/english/news/china/arrest-06102019112135.html> (RFA) today was among the National Murrow Award winners named by the Radio <https://rtdna.org/content/edward_r_murrow_awards> & TV Digital News Association (RTDNA). RFA Mandarin's video "The Women Against the State <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sUTBmOY7jU&feature=youtu.be> ," earned the distinction in the juried contest's category of Excellence in Video. The video focuses on the aftermath of China's <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-lawyers-08302016152248.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=%20709> "709" Crackdown - a nationwide roundup of lawyers and legal activists that began in July 2015 - and the wives of those still held in custody today. "This piece, produced by Radio Free Asia's Mandarin Service, focuses on an important and ongoing issue in China and holds authorities accountable," said RFA President Libby Liu. "It gives a voice to the women who face severe intimidation tactics from their own government and whose stories are otherwise ignored by Chinese state media. "RFA Mandarin's digital team deserves full credit for this prestigious award. Their hard work to spotlight these brave individuals and share their stories speaks to Radio Free Asia's critical journalistic mission." Beginning on July 9, 2015, the "709" Crackdown aimed to repress and intimidate lawyers and activists committed to legal reform and rights defense in China. RFA's winning entry - which originally aired in July 2018 - explains the tactics that officials used in their crackdown, such as television broadcasts of forced confessions and refusing to meet with lawyers appointed by family members. The video also goes into the details of the difficulties and hardships that the women experience in their attempts to free their husbands. The Mandarin Service's digital team interviewed Li Wenzu, wife of lawyer Wang Quanzhang, one of the more prominent individuals detained. RFA has reported on Wang's case since he was arrested in July of 2015. While many of those detained under the "709" Crackdown have been reunited with their families, his whereabouts remain unknown to this day. This marks the first time that RFA has won a National Murrow Award, having previously won at least seven Regional Murrow Awards in years past. The Mandarin Service video was produced by Cherry Cheng, Zhang Li, and Alex Zhang of the service's digital team, which in late 2017 began to create short, social media-friendly videos that showcase in-depth journalism and solid data-based information. Topics addressed in their videos describe life in China, covering the social credit system, surveillance, socio-economics and unemployment, media and technology, civil society and the rule of law, and religion. The Mandarin Service's YouTube channel <https://www.youtube.com/user/RFACHINESE> recently surpassed 100,000 subscribers, notable given the challenge of reporting domestic news to a closed market. The award will be presented at RTDNA's ceremony in New York City on Oct. 14. Previous winners of the National Murrow Award include ABC News, The New York Times, CBS News Radio, The Washington Post, CNN, and NPR. # # # Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Vice President of Communications & External Relations <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

5 years, 7 months

RFA Breaking News: Rights Czar Visit to China Contingent on 'Full Access' to Xinjiang Internment Camps: UN

by Richard Finney

cid:1915c8e0862855975f4b9d7894416fbbd4c5b76a@zimbra Rights Czar Visit to China Contingent on 'Full Access' to Xinjiang Internment Camps: UN June 14, 2019 - The United Nations is demanding unfettered access to internment camps in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) after Beijing's envoy invited U.N. human rights chief Michele Bachelet to "see for herself" what he called "education training centers" in the region. In an emailed statement on Friday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) confirmed to RFA's Uyghur Service that Bachelet had received an invitation to visit the XUAR, but suggested she would not accept unless given access to the camps on her own terms. "The High Commissioner has been invited to visit China and we are continuing to discuss with the Government for full access," said OHCHR spokesperson Marta Hurtado. "We can also confirm that she met with China's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva this week." On Thursday, Chen Xu, China's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told reporters that he hoped to find "a time which is convenient to both sides" for Bachelet to visit the XUAR, where up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas have been held in a vast network of internment camps since April 2017. He denied reports of mass incarcerations in the region, saying that "what is happening in Xinjiang is education training centers to help young people, especially young people, to get skills, to be well-equipped for their reintegration into society," according to a report by Reuters news agency, adding that Bachelet should "see for herself . [that] there are no so-called re-education camps." If Bachelet accepts a trip to the XUAR, she would become the highest level U.N. official to visit the region. Bachelet, the former president of Chile who succeeded Prince Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein of Jordan as the U.N.'s human rights czar in August last year, has repeatedly urged China to allow the United Nations to investigate reports of mass detentions of Muslims in the XUAR. In January, China's foreign ministry welcomed U.N. officials to visit the region, provided they "abide by Chinese law and comply with relevant procedures," and "avoid interfering in domestic matters or undermining [China's] sovereignty." Al-Hussein had previously warned that a government-controlled tour of the XUAR would offer little insight into the true conditions at the camps, particularly if U.N. officials are refused permission to interview detainees. Thursday's invitation comes as Vladimir Voronkov, the U.N.'s under-secretary general for counter-terrorism, is traveling in China on a week-long official visit. Reports suggest that Voronkov plans to visit the XUAR, but a spokesperson for the U.N. would not confirm the details of his itinerary, and a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson refused to comment on the claims. Voronkov's potential trip to XUAR has drawn criticism from international rights groups who say that sending him risks lending credence to China's claims that detentions in the region are related to a counterterrorism issue, rather than a violation of human rights, and that his trip could be used as propaganda by Beijing to undermine a possible visit by Bachelet. 'Insincere at best' Rights groups greeted news of Chen Xu's invitation to Bachelet with skepticism. In a post to Twitter on Thursday, New York-based Human Rights Watch's China director Sophie Richardson suggested that Chen Xu's invitation was part of a bid by China to counter criticism of its rights record in the XUAR in the lead up to the 41st session of the U.N.'s Human Rights Council, planned for June 24 to July 12. "Gosh, what a coincidence-to repeat this hollow offer just ahead of #UN #HRC41," she wrote. Dolkun Isa, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, called the invitation "insincere at best," adding that if Beijing had nothing to hide in the XUAR, it "would have invited [Bachelet] to visit a long time ago." He echoed Richardson's claim that China's invitation is an attempt to deflect international scrutiny of its camps in the XUAR ahead of the Human Rights Council session next week. "China understands that human rights watchdogs and many governments will criticize its Uyghur concentration camps and urge it to close them down," Isa told RFA. "Therefore, this invitation is a preemptive measure to blunt any U.N. and state criticism of China's crimes against humanity in East Turkestan," he said, using a name preferred by many Uyghurs to refer to their historic homeland. Isa also warned that China's government would try to place "preconditions" on any visit by Bachelet in such a way to "only allow her to visit Potemkin camps on guided tours," and that if she accepts, Beijing will use the trip to claim that the U.N. endorses its policies in the XUAR. "A visit is worth it only if China unconditionally allows an independent U.N. fact-finding mission to visit East Turkestan with unfettered access to all camps, all detainees, and to speak with any detainees and officials they want," he said. "Otherwise, this visit will only be used by China to deceive the international community and to justify its crimes against humanity in East Turkestan committed upon the Uyghur people." Recent visits China recently organized two visits to monitor internment camps in the XUAR-one for a small group of foreign journalists, and another for diplomats from non-Western countries, including Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Thailand-during which officials dismissed claims about mistreatment and poor conditions in the facilities as "slanderous lies." Reporting by RFA's Uyghur Service and other media organizations, however, has shown that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities. In May, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in an apparent reference to the policies of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union, cited "massive human rights violations in Xinjiang where over a million people are being held in a humanitarian crisis that is the scale of what took place in the 1930s." Last week, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told RFA's Uyghur Service in an interview that countries around the world must speak out on the Uyghur camps, or risk emboldening China and other authoritarian regimes. "The Muslim countries should do that. The Western world, the entire world, should do this and condemn these sort of internment camps, of over a million people interned in the year 2019, and they are interned primarily because of their faith and the practice of their faith," he said. The U.S. Congress has also joined in efforts to halt the incarcerations, debating legislation that seeks accountability for China's harsh crackdown on the Uyghurs. The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act would appoint a special State Department coordinator on Xinjiang and require regular reports on the camps, the surveillance network and the security threats posed by the crackdown. Reported and translated by Alim Seytoff for RFA's Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. View this story online at: <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/access-06142019124359.html> https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/access-06142019124359.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . Richard Finney Editorial Radio Free Asia 2025 M.Street NW Ste. 300 Washington, DC 20036 Telephone - (202) 266-4006 CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION This e-mail message is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. Any unauthorized dissemination, distribution, or copying is strictly prohibited. If you receive this transmission in error, please contact <mailto:network@rfa.org> network(a)rfa.org.

5 years, 7 months

RFA Breaking News: Interview: 'Now is The Time For The World Community to Act'

by Paul Eckert

Interview: 'Now is The Time For The World Community to Act' June 6, 2019 - Sam Brownback is a lawyer, former United States Senator and former governor of the state of Kansas who has served as the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom since February 2018. He spoke with RFA Uyghur Service Director Alim Seytoff on June 5, the Muslim Eid holiday, about U.S. policies in response to the persecution underway in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where authorities have held an estimated 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas in a network of political “re-education camps” since April 2017. RFA: More than one billion Muslims around the world are celebrating the Eid holiday with their families and friends. At the same time, more than one million Uyghurs are detained in China’s so-called political reeducation camps. The State Department last week called on China to release all the Uyghurs detained in the camps, but the Chinese government has not released them. What’s your message today to the Chinese government? Brownback: This is a terrible mistake that they’ve made. They shouldn’t have done it. Locking up this many people of faith simply because they’re Muslims and the Chinese are trying to control the Muslim population in their country. We continue to call upon them to release these individuals. And the world has taken note, the world will take note, and there will be actions that follow this consequence of what China is doing. If you think about it, we’re in 2019 and we’re talking about internment camps and reeducation camps and these sort of things that sound like they should belong in the 1940s and 1950s, not where the world is today. I think this is a terrible mistake that the Chinese have made and we call upon them to release all the Uyghurs and to allow them to peacefully and freely practice their faith. Particularly in this season, where Ramadan is just over and it’s a celebratory time, the Chinese really should do the right thing. And it also sends a message to the world: If China is willing to do this to their own Muslim population, what do they think of Muslims around the world that peacefully practice their faith? A country the size of China—the biggest population in the world, the second biggest economy—they need to be far more interested in what they’re projecting to the world and what they think of people of faith. Particularly the Muslim faith, but they’re doing this to Christians, they’re doing this to Buddhists, they’re doing this to Falun Gong, across the board. RFA: On this very special day, Uyghurs, especially Uyghurs in exile, cannot be with their family and friends. Most of them do not even know whether their family and friends are alive or in detention camps. They cannot call their parents to say ‘Eid Mubarak.’ They’re living in a very difficult situation. A lot of them are very distraught and they cannot see hope. What’s your message to the Uyghur people – not just those in exile, but the Uyghur people who are inside the camps and those outside the camps who also live in what many scholars describe as a police state? Brownback: My message to them is to pray and have hope, not to give up hope. This situation is coming clearer in focus around the world. You’re seeing protesters now mount up in some Muslim countries. In Indonesia there were protesters. The Turkish government has spoken up. The United States government has spoken up strongly and with clarity. Not to give up on hope and continue to believe that right ultimately does win. We have seen situations in the world over history where initially it looks like the situation is hopeless. There’s a phrase in the bible about ‘God is not mocked.’ There is a clarity of truth that comes through in due season. It doesn’t mean there won’t be pain and difficulty, but God is not mocked. There will be truth. There will be righteous things in the future. Maintain that hope. RFA: The United States government is at the forefront in defending the rights of Uyghurs and other Muslims in the region after the Chinese government has arbitrarily detained anywhere from 800,000 to two million Uyghurs and others. Yet aside from Turkey, the rest of the Muslim majority countries are silent on this issue. Some even support and endorse the Chinese government’s repression of the Uyghurs. What’s your message to the Muslim majority countries? Brownback: My message is to them is that they really should examine the factual situation, what’s happening here, and stand up for the human rights of Uyghurs and everybody else when they are persecuted. I think some governments are concerned that ‘well, we don’t want people to criticize us so we won’t criticize somebody else.’ Is that the sort of standard that we ought to have? The United States we have places that people can criticize and be critical of what’s happened here. We’ve had recently two shootings at Jewish synagogues taking place. But we acknowledged that and we fight and we push back against that. That’s what I would call on these Muslim countries to do: Do the right thing and just stand up and have your voices be heard and stand for religious freedom for everybody. Stand for it in your country and stand for it in China as well, and don’t be afraid of China. So many countries…I’ve met with a number of them, and I’ll raise the issue of the Uyghurs and they are concerned about China using its economic power to bully them to be quiet. Is that how you address somebody that’s doing something wrong? Do you act in fear or you don’t act because of fear? That’s how you push back against somebody. You speak truth clearly, and they should do that. The Muslim countries should do that. The Western world, the entire world, should do this and condemn these sort of internment camps, of over a million people interned in the year 2019, and they are interned primarily because of their faith and the practice of their faith. This is wrong. RFA: Do you support sanctioning the Chinese officials who are responsible for the atrocities that are happening to the Uyghur people under the Global Magnitsky Act? Brownback: There are discussions taking place on that right now, and the United States doesn’t announce its position until it’s taken. That’s the status of where that is now, and I can’t announce a position one way or another what’s happening, but when the United States takes action, the world will know. RFA: What will happen to the Uyghur people if the international community, besides expressing its concerns, fails to take any meaningful action? Brownback: We’ve seen this in the past. When the international community doesn’t take actions to address issues, when they take an appeasement strategy, it just emboldens the people that act. What we will see taking place, if China is not confronted in Xinjiang, we’ll see these tactics used in other places by other authoritarian regimes. We’ll see these other high-tech surveillance systems put in place by authoritarian regimes with artificial intelligence (and) facial recognition systems. We’ll see oppression taking place. In some cases in Xinjiang, people aren’t locked up but you can’t act in the society. You can’t go to a mosque. You’ll get seen going in there, and if you get seen, you’ll get a low social credit score, then you can’t participate in the culture or the society and you get blocked out by these very high-tech systems. I think you’ll see these systems multiply if the world doesn’t confront China with what it’s doing now. That’s the history of this. If you don’t confront them, then it just expands. Now is the time for the world community to act. RFA: In your recent remarks, you stated that China is at war with religion and especially Islam, and the Uyghur people’s cultural, religious, ethnic identity is under severe assault. Do you think China will win its war on Islam against the Uyghur people? Brownback: No. Think how many regimes in the past have tried that and how successful have they been. You can put down a faith community for a while. But by the very nature of faith, you’re trying to put down the soul of man. It is a fight you cannot win and you will not win. Now for a while you can lock people up. Look at the Soviet Union. An officially atheistic county for 70 years, and they were trying to squash faith everywhere. Well, that regime no longer exists and the faith community is back. The Orthodox Church is back. I was in Romania recently, and the headquarters of the Orthodox Christian community is now in the old parliament building that was put forward by the communist regime during the period when Romania was under Soviet domination. It was a fake parliament, they weren’t really doing anything. It was just kind of a show, but now it’s the headquarters for the Orthodox Church. And you’re going: ‘Well, okay. Where’s communism now? Where is the Orthodox Church?’ The Orthodox Church has been around for over 2,000 years. Islam has been around for a long period of time, and it’s going to be around. This is a war that China will not win and regimes have tried and failed in the past and the Chinese will fail, too. View this story online at: [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/brownback-intreview-06062019162449.… | https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/brownback-intreview-06062019162449.… ] Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org | engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org ] . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org | engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ] . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at [ mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org | mahajanr(a)rfa.org ] .

5 years, 7 months

RFA Breaking News: Kazakh and Uyghur Detainees of Xinjiang ‘Re-education Camps’ Must ‘Eat Pork or Face Punishment’

by Paul Eckert

Kazakh and Uyghur Detainees of Xinjiang ‘Re-education Camps’ Must ‘Eat Pork or Face Punishment’ May 23, 2019 - Kazakh and Uyghur held in political “re-education camps” in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are being forced to consume pork, despite the dietary restrictions of their Muslim faith, in a bid by authorities to assimilate them into Chinese culture, according to three former detainees. Since April 2017, authorities in the XUAR have held an estimated 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas in the camps, which China claims are an effective tool to protect the country from terrorism and provide vocational training. Reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service and other media organizations, however, has shown that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities. Gulzire Awulqanqizi, an ethnic Kazakh Muslim who was held at the Dongmehle Re-education Camp in Ili Kazakh (in Chinese, Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture’s Ghulja (Yining) city from July 2017 to October 2018, recently told RFA in an interview that detainees are told they must eat pork, or face punishment. Awulqanqizi said she and other detainees were initially given pork at a meal without their knowledge. “They simply said it was a ‘friendly feast,’ but we could tell there was pork, which we can’t stand to eat,” she said. Later, Awulqanqizi said, authorities at the camp would serve pork for dinner more regularly, but only after stressing the importance of creating “unity among nationalities” and getting along with members of the Han Chinese majority when detainees are released. Awulqanqizi told RFA that she vomited after eating pork the first time. But instead of helping her, camp officials told Awulqanqizi that her distaste for pork was all in her head and threatened to send her to a different camp if she continued to get sick from eating it. Awulqanqizi forced herself to eat pork whenever it was served until she left the camp last year. ‘Eat or face punishment’ A similar account was told to RFA by Omurbek Eli, a Muslim Kazakh national of mixed Uyghur and Kazakh heritage from the XUAR who was arrested by police in Turpan (Tulufan) prefecture in 2017 while visiting his parents and accused of “terrorist activities.” Eli was refused legal representation and held at a prison for more than seven months, before being released with the assistance of the Kazakh government, and sent to a re-education camp for nearly a month. During his time in the camp, Eli said, detainees were made to eat pork every Friday. “They would give us a kind of food made with rice, but it didn’t look like polo (Uyghur pilaf) or anything, and they would place thumb-sized pieces of pork on top of it,” he said. “The guards would even ask, ‘Isn’t the pork we gave you delicious?’ But they would also say, ‘You have to eat pork or you’ll face punishment.’” ‘No right to ask’ A Kazakh national named Gulbahar Jelilova told RFA that she also was regularly served pork while detained at a camp in the XUAR from May 2017 to August 2018, though guards never told her it was in the food. “It appeared once or twice a week in small pieces in our food, but if we separated out the meat when we ate, the guard monitoring us on camera would rush into our cell and yell, “Why are you wasting the food the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has given you,” said Jelilova, a businesswoman who now lives in Istanbul, Turkey. There was one old lady who said she only wanted to eat buns and drink water, instead of the food with pork. She was punished for her refusal and deprived of food for a few days.” Jelilova said that in several cases, detainees who separated the pork out of their meals were placed in solitary confinement as punishment. “We had no right to ask what meat was in the food or say we didn’t want to eat it,” she said. Pork and alcohol In February, sources told RFA that Chinese authorities in the XUAR were delivering pork to Muslim households during the Lunar New Year holiday, and forcing some Muslims to drink alcohol, eat pork, and display emblems of traditional Chinese culture. Residents of Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture said officials had invited them to celebratory dinners marking the Lunar New Year at which pork was served, then threatening to send them to a "re-education" camp if they refused to take part. Photos sent to RFA also showed an official from Ili's Yining city visiting Muslim households and distributing raw pork, in the name of helping the less well-off on the eve of the Year of the Pig. Pork and alcohol are forbidden by Islam, and the celebration of Chinese festivals has roots in polytheistic folk religion, which includes Buddhist iconography. Muslims honoring such festivals risk committing the unforgivable sin of espousing more than one god. Reported by Shohret Hoshur and Gulchehra Hoja for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Alim Seytoff. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. View this story online at: [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/pork-05232019154338.html | https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/pork-05232019154338.html ] Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org | engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org ] . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org | engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ] . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at [ mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org | mahajanr(a)rfa.org ] .

5 years, 7 months

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