“Untold Stories of the Uyghurs” Book Published

By: Hebibulla Izchi

January 13

A new book titled “Untold Stories of the Uyghurs, Voices of Resistance Under Oppression”, chronicling the suffering and hopes of the Uyghur people in recent history, has been published. The book was prepared by the Uyghur Transitional Justice Database in central Norway and published with funding from the East Turkistan Research Center in Turkey.

The book is composed of firsthand accounts collected from witnesses, forming a series of authentic, documented narratives. It covers events from the early 1950s in East Turkistan up to the present day, including the so-called “Land Reform,” “Cultural Revolution,” the “Migration Wave to Central Asia,” the “Ghulja Massacre,” the July 5, 2009 Urumqi Massacre, and major crackdowns after 2014. It preserves testimonies of living witnesses who experienced ethnic cleansing and other atrocities targeting the Uyghur people.

The testimonies in the book recount the lives of ordinary people from various parts of East Turkistan. They include victims of famine and massacres, intellectuals punished by political persecution, women harmed by family planning operations, and young men and women forced into slave labor in China’s interior under the so-called “Sent-Down Labor” program. Across all periods, the accounts reveal the multiple forms of oppression, discrimination, and surveillance Uyghurs have endured, exposing the true nature behind the Chinese government’s slogans of “opening and flourishing.”

According to Bahtiyar Omer, founder of Uyghur Transitional Justice Database , collecting these testimonies alone is vivid proof of the current plight of the Uyghur people, a process that took over two years. Many potential witnesses feared for the safety of relatives in their homeland and refrained from giving testimony, and some even requested deletion of already prepared materials due to Chinese government suppression and tactics preventing some Uyghurs from returning home.

Bakhtiyar Omar told a Uyghur post reporter: “The purpose of publishing this book is not only to document oppression but to ensure this painful reality is not forgotten and not repeated. The testimonies in this book are a moral treasure that must be preserved for future generations. This book also gives a voice to the millions of silenced Uyghurs still enduring ongoing massacres in East Turkistan. Our hope is that it will serve as a reminder of the immense suffering and a step toward ending this oppression. Readers can not only learn about the past but also understand the present and future because these massacres and stories are still continuing.”

This article was originally published in Uyghur Post and has been translated from Uyghur into English and republished by Uyghur Times.

Hebibulla Izchi, Reporter and Writer, he Contributed to Tengritagh, Sada, and Azatliq Meshili in the 1990s and wrote for Tibetische Perspektive on Uyghur issues. Author of Kök Tashliq Archive – July 5 Massacre (in translation) and upcoming Kök Tashliq Archive – 2. Former reporter for Uyghur Agency and Radio Free Asia.