‘Uyghurs are facing a full-fledged genocide’ Says Rights Activist Rushan Abbas

Washington DC: Rushan Abbas, the Founder and Executive Director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, exposed the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, characterising the situation as an “active and full-fledged genocide” in a discussion with The Epoch Times.

Abbas, a dedicated human rights advocate and the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress, outlined various abuses, including mass detentions, forced labour, sterilisation, and organ harvesting, all witnessed by a largely indifferent international community.

Abbas noted that her activism has incurred a significant personal toll. In 2018, soon after she publicly addressed the mass detention of Uyghurs in East Turkestan at the Hudson Institute, Chinese authorities detained her sister, which she believes was an act of retaliation. “I’ve been a U.S. citizen since 1995 and have lived in the United States since 1989,” she remarked. “But that didn’t make a difference. They abducted my sister to retaliate against me.”

This action, she explained, is part of what she referred to as “transnational repression,” a strategy employed by Beijing to target activists overseas by threatening or punishing their relatives still in China. She pointed to the existence of more than 100 secret Chinese police stations worldwide, including in the United States, which are said to monitor and intimidate diaspora communities, such as Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and practitioners of Falun Gong.

On the current situation of Uyghurs in China, Abbas asserted that all aspects of Uyghur identity, including language, religion, and ethnicity, have been criminalised. The Chinese government, she claimed, believes that Uyghurs need to be “re-educated” to assimilate as Han Chinese. “In the eyes of this barbaric regime, we are not even viewed as normal human beings,” she stated, citing forced sterilisation of women, separation of children from their families, and the dismantling of Uyghur businesses and agricultural land.

She illustrated a systemic effort to eliminate Uyghur identity while profiting from their exploitation. Abbas reported that over 3 million Uyghurs were subjected to forced labor in the past year alone. Much of the cotton exported from China, she noted, is handpicked by Uyghur workers under duress. “From the garments you wear to the tomatoes in your pasta, they all might be stained by the blood, sweat, and tears of Uyghur slaves,” she cautioned. (ANI)

Also Read: Uyghur groups demand US action on China’s atrocities at White House rally

Also Watch: