Illustration: Alexas_Fotos / Pixabay
By Uyghur captives in Syria
* Notice : This appeal was written by the representatives of Uyghur Captives in Syria and published on Uyghur Times at their request.
Here is their appeal:
We are roughly 540 Uyghur women and 2300 children that have been detained as prisoners of war by the PPK forces in Syria. Our living conditions are terrible, especially during the winter. We have suffered both mentally and physically at the hands of the PKK fighters. Some have even died in the camps because of poor living conditions, health issues, a shortage of food and medical supplies, and bad weather conditions.
We are writing this request to free countries and global human rights organizations to help bring us to a safe country.
Since 2012, thousands of Uyghurs have traveled from East Turkistan to Turkey and ‘secretly’ passed through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. China was fully aware of the exit.
We escaped our homeland because of the cruelty, tyranny, and genocide committed by the Chinese Government against Uyghurs in East Turkistan.
Most of us made it to Turkey. Many died on the way, and the others buried them in unmarked graves. We thought that we had completed our journey upon our arrival in Turkey. Unfortunately, we ended up on another voyage that had nothing to do with us.
After we arrived in Syria, we realized that the reality was far different from our dreams and expectations. The cruelty of the war separated us from our husbands and fathers. The war left us with scars that will probably never heal. We became widows and prisoners of war.
The Uyghur women and children are victims of the ongoing Syrian civil war. We had just followed our husbands from Turkey to Syria to prove our loyalty to them.
Eventually, the women and children were captured as prisoners of war and are now in camps in Syria. We never touched weapons nor took part in military training during our stay in Syria. We just went to to the country because of our husbands and family members. Our husbands died on the battlefields, and the women and children survived. Some children were even born in those camps.
We are requesting help to bring us to a safe country, if possible. Here we live in fear of deportation to China.
Our children have not had a proper education. We have tried our best to teach them, but unfortunately, we can’t give them sufficient education in conditions like this. We do not want to see our children become the next victims of a civil war like we are now.
Thus, we request free countries and global human rights organizations to help us enter freedom from these camps.
Sincerely,
Uyghur women and children living as prisoners of war in Syria