Image: Screenshot from Spirit of Asia
By Anne Kader
Ahead of Michelle Bachelet’s (the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) visit to the Chinese-occupied Uyghuristan/ East Turkistan, Uyghur exiles have been tagging their social media posts with #VisitMyFamily. Some have gone as far as to give her their family home address in Uyghuristan.
Konasheher list, a recently leaked Chinese document, has shed light on some missing relatives of Uyghurs in the diaspora. An elderly Uyghur man living in Turkey has been looking for his sons for five years. He found them on the leaked list showing they had received lengthy prison sentences in 2017.
Norwegian-based Ughur activist Abduweli Ayup told AFP he recognized the names of around thirty relatives and neighbors on the leaked list. “In Oghusaq, my father’s home village, and Opal, my mother’s home village, you can see that every house has someone detained,” Ayup said.
Many doubt that China would give Bachelet unfettered access to the concentration camps, where millions of Uyghurs and members of other Turkic people are kept for political indoctrination. There are also reports that the local government has forbidden local Uyghurs to engage with the UN inspection team or tell them or any foreign media about the camps.