China: Europe must not forget the most prominent Uyghur prisoner!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has appealed to Germany and the rest of Europe to use the human rights dialogue with China to call for a release of Ilham Tohti, the most prominent Uyghur prisoner. “Tohti will be 57 years old tomorrow. This is already his third birthday in custody. The world must not forget him! Tohti had tried to further understanding and reconciliation between the Uyghurs and the Han Chinese – tirelessly and undauntedly. Given the increasing tensions in Xinjiang/East Turkestan, his life’s work is now more up-to-date than ever before,” explained the STP’s China-expert, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Monday. The German-Chinese Human Rights Dialogue will take place on November 7 and 8, 2016, followed by the European-Chinese Human Rights Dialogue one week later.

In October 2016, the well-known political prisoner was awarded the prestigious Martin Ennals Award. He is also nominated for the 2016 Sakharov Human Rights Prize of the European Parliament. “He risked his own life and that of his family by working towards peace, more democracy and human rights in his Uyghur homeland. He was punished with life imprisonment and permanent separation from his family,” said Delius. Tohti was transferred from a detention center in Beijing to a prison in Xinjiang/East Turkestan and is thus 2.400 kilometers away from his wife and his young son, who live in the capital. His daughter, who lives in the United States, is more than 10,000 kilometers away. Tohti had been offered a guest professorship there, but only his daughter – who is now studying in the US – was allowed to travel.

The professor of Economics, who has been imprisoned since January 2014, is especially important because he tried to build bridges between hostile ethnic communities – even in times of confrontation and violence. Thus, he informed the Han-Chinese (in Chinese language) about the background of the rebellion of the Uyghurs – which was what brought him behind bars, as the Chinese authorities systematically deny any human rights violations against the Uyghurs. The law enforcement agencies investigated against the professor for six months, and many of his students were arrested and forced to testify against him. The result was an absurd accusation of alleged “secessionism” against a person who never questioned the unity of China.

Header Photo: Adrian Hancu via istock