Why Islamic World Is Silent On The Persecution Of Uyghur Muslims?

SALEEM SAMAD

The United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) softly blames “China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang (former Turkestan province).

The human rights office releases a long-awaited report last week to expose China’s treatment of ethnic Uyghur Muslims and says ‘serious human rights violations have been committed in Xinjiang, home of 10 million Uyghurs.

Well, the bigwigs of the Chinese Communist Party in the capital Beijing calls the report ‘completely illegal and void’. China has forcefully denied any maltreatment in Xinjiang and issued a 131-page (nearly three times the length) in response to the 48-page UN report in which decried the findings as “based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces.”

Outgoing UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who is former President of Chile says, China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang in the north-western region of China “may constitute crimes against humanity”.

The report came four years after the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) revealed that more than one million Uyghurs were being held in visible network of detention centres across Xinjiang.

Widespread persecution, discrimination and forcible confinement have occurred in Xinjiang. Besides Uyghurs, other ethnic Hui (Chinese Muslims), Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Tatars, Tahurs and Russians are also locked up in internment centres, while the world remains quiet.

In the internment camps, they face appalling human rights abuses from forced labour, coerced sterilisation, and the destruction of their culture and religious identity. It’s indeed a humanitarian crisis!

Throughout persecution since 2017, the international organisations within the UN have done little or less regarding the allegations of human rights abuses in China.

The Islamic world including the influential Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and powerful countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan remains conspicuously silent.

Except for European nations, Britain, Canada, the United States and Australia, the apologetic Muslim countries instead of rebuking the Chinese for the crime against humanity are the main beneficiaries of the Road and Belt Initiative (BRI) mega projects to keep them in good humour.

The Islamic countries and Muslim-majority nations deliberately do not wish to embarrass China for their appalling human rights abuse.

Apologetic media, international organisations and Muslim countries explain that it’s a “domestic issue”, their “internal affairs” and are “combating terrorism”.

Nevertheless, China extends its “golden heart” to the Muslim countries – also to the hard-line Islamic countries like Iran, Pakistan and Arab states.

In fact, all Muslim countries have a similar problem with their human rights record in compliance with the UN Charter of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In the 1971 blood war of liberation in Bangladesh, no Muslim country, Muslim leader or any Muslim aid agency helped the plight, agony and sufferings of the 10 million refugees. They either supported the marauding Pakistan military junta. Nor did they raise their hand while the military committed war crimes, genocide and rape as a weapon of war.

Similarly, the same Muslim community did not urge international bodies to protest the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina by warlord General Radovan Karadzic under the command of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

After the military intervention of NATO, the civil war ceased. International Court of Justice indicts 161 individuals, including the warlords for crimes against humanity. No jubilation in any city in a Muslim country. No statement by Muslim leaders appreciating the initiative of The Hague verdict.

Leaked official documents in Chinese reveal for the first time the systematic use by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to justify the indefinite detention on trivial grounds of millions of citizens in heavily fortified internment centres across the province.

The leak exposes what appears to be a detailed and far-reaching system of state surveillance in Xinjiang, run by the provincial local government enables to target the Uyghurs, apparently Chinese citizens to the peaceful practice of their culture or religion.

Chinese official records, verified by a team of experts commissioned by rights groups and international media, show people are transported to detention facilities for simply “wearing a veil”, growing “a long beard” or performing “Muslim prayer”.

The Chinese government admits to locking up several million Uyghurs in “vocational education and training centres”, a mass “deradicalisation programme” targeting “potential extremists”.

Thousands of siblings, parents and kith and kin were victims of arbitrary detention after their relatives living in exile slammed Chinese authorities for human rights abuse and persecution of their loved ones.

Interestingly, Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, formerly known as Dihua, has the world’s best-sophisticated surveillance system. Each person is under the authority’s radar 24/7 with a hi-tech CCTV network with audio equipment to spy on what they discuss on the street corners and hangouts.

The OHCHR said that “serious human rights violations have been committed” in Xinjiang in the context of the government’s application of “counter-terrorism and counter-‘extremism’ strategies”.

“There are credible indications of violations of reproductive rights through the coercive enforcement of family planning policies since 2017,” the OHCHR report said.

The punitive actions by the Chinese against the Uyghur “may constitute international crimes, in particular, crimes against humanity”.

The report recommended the Chinese government take prompt steps to release all those detained in training centres, prisons or detention facilities.

It is expected that the international community must take action or be ‘wilfully complicit’.

Several exiled Uyghur leaders, however, lamented that the report was the “bare minimum” which could be expected from the international community.

“The report will do little for the people (Uyghur),” a survivor of the internment camps in exile observed.

First published in The News Times, 3 September 2022

Saleem Samad, is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleemsamad@hotmail.com>; Twitter @saleemsamad

Nations divided by history

SALEEM SAMAD

There are many nations and communities that became divided after years of animosity but were later reunified. 

The reunification of Germany is the best example of such reunification. Vietnam, Romania, and Moldova are also living peacefully as one ethnic community or based on nationalism.

North and South Yemen’s unification in May 1990 formed the present Republic of Yemen. Yemen has topped the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with women and children, and especially infants, bearing the brunt of the civil war.

Many historians argue that China should also be listed as a unified country following the rise of the Communist Party. But the controversial invasions of Tibet and East Turkestan (Xinjiang province) have provoked a political crisis after ethnic Tibetan and Uyghur Muslims refused to accept the Chinese Communist Party’s hegemony.

Thousands have fled the region, including the most revered Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, after the invasion of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Today, the ethnic Tibetan and Uyghur are dehumanized and marginalized, and the majoritarian Hans from central China govern the nation.

Cyprus remains divided since the slice of cake is shared by the Turkish and Greek military. Despite their United Nations-brokered peace, the rival countries refuse to withdraw troops occupying the picturesque island.

Korea is another bitter example of a split-up since the Korean War (1950-53). North Korea remains under the hegemony of China. The giant neighbour provides military aid and spoon-fed economic benefits to the despotic rule of the Kim Il-sung dynasty. The reunification of Korea remains a far cry, and the tears of thousands of separated families in Korea have dried.

In South Asia, however, several ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural communities have been divided by a thick line since the partition of 1947. The British colonialists deliberately wanted to divide Punjab and Bengal. Their prime annoyance was that native revolutionaries against the British Raj were fortunately born in Bengal and Punjab.

Pakistan, months after independence in August 1947, sent troops to forcibly occupy an independent Balochistan. It was also able to grab a chunk of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in 1948, and still retain the territories. The annexed “heaven on earth” is “Azad Kashmir,” governed by a puppet administration handpicked by the generals in Rawalpindi GHQ.

Both the United Nations and the OIC have shown cold feet on the issue of Kashmir. The UN Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on April 21, 1948, concerns the resolution of the Kashmir conflict.

Before 1947, J&K was a princely state under the British Raj and was ruled by a Hindu Maharaja. With the declining British Empire, it was decided that the rulers of 584 princely states would be given the option of “accession” with any new of the countries of India and Pakistan, or remain an independent nation-state.

The raiders of Kashmir were recruited from the fiercest Pashtun warriors, and the Maharaja fled to Delhi and signed an accession treaty in October 1947. The clandestine invasion happened with the full knowledge of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and a green signal from Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan.

Promptly, India took the matter to the UN Security Council and claimed Pakistan’s armed barbarians had attacked J&K, which was Indian territory. The UN Resolution 47 urged that armed Pakistan nationals and tribesmen be withdrawn. Similarly, India must withdraw its military and hold a plebiscite (referendum) to determine the future of the people of Kashmir.

Neither India nor Pakistan have any intention to withdraw troops, and the neighbours have fought four wars over Kashmir. Meanwhile, the Pakistan spy agency ISI regularly infiltrates militants and jihadists to give a strong message that they have not forgotten Kashmiri Muslims.

Kashmir is one of the world’s few countries where truce along the Line of Control (LoC) remains elusive, because of “high walls” that leaders have built between the nations.

First published in the Dhaka Tribune, 3 August 2021

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He can be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter @saleemsamad

Journalists’ junket to China

Is China weaponizing the free press?
SALEEM SAMAD

In a rare glimpse inside the dragon nation, the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) claims China has built its discourse power beyond borders and engineered a change in the global news landscape.

How? The new report “The China Story: Reshaping the World’s Media” was launched on June 25, by IFJ, a global network of affiliated journalists unions spanning the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East to protect media rights and promote freedom of expression worldwide.

IFJ, the world’s largest voice for journalists, does not hesitate to say Red Republic’s media-warriors is increasing its global footprint in the world’s media and its strategy showed clear signs of targeting journalists to “outsource its influence” in developing countries with ineffective or repressive governments, yet also clearly cut across both the developed and developing world.

Journalists from 58 countries were asked whether they received overtures from Beijing. There’s evidence that hundreds of senior journalists, media practitioners from both developed and developing nations, had taken part in all paid extravaganza trips to mainland China.

The research said 67% of the respondents surveyed had been approached by Chinese entities under the media outreach campaign program in almost every continent. The media outreach initiatives include journalism exchange programs, union cooperation, content sharing, training courses, and media acquisition.

The global research details how unions described a recent emphasis on organizing Chinese tours for Muslim journalists, even from non-Muslim countries, with selected some being taken to the Xinjiang province, where at least 1 million Uyghur are reported to be in political indoctrination in so-called re-education camps, in an attempt to rewrite the global narrative of the Muslims in former East Turkestan.

What they have to do in return is speak in favour of the Uyghur camps or cheer China’s coronavirus response, and write editorials and opinion columns drum-beating China’s grand infrastructure scheme, the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI).

Almost half of all respondents (44%) in African countries, Latin America, and Asian countries said they have received tangible support, such as the donation of computers and recording devices for journalism unions, as well as educational aid and agreement for content sharing and a series of training programs.

On the other hand, some journalists expressed concern about the increasing role of Chinese propaganda in the media space in their respective countries.

China’s hegemony in global media footprint has won the hearts of chiefs of state media outlets, especially television, radio, official news agency, and press information department.

In a bizarre truth, the lucrative media exchange program and skill development training courses have also been offered to the press wing of prime ministers’ and presidents’ offices in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

IFJ has reasons to raise an alarm regarding China’s influence on the government’s media institutions. Well, the IFJ report did not indicate whether the Chinese media outreach program had a hidden agenda of espionage.

In the Philippines, journalists voiced suspicions that Beijing’s ultimate aim was to influence the Filipino government itself through close cooperation with President Duterte’s communications team.

Stating Australian media exposure with China, the report says:“The results have, in many cases, produced stories that faithfully echo Beijing’s position on issues ranging from the South China Sea to technological developments in China.

“With increasing numbers of Chinese journalists working globally, it also provides insight and understanding of the powerful place China’s media now occupies and one that should not be underestimated.”

The report recommends that journalists’ unions can play a role in educating and preparing journalists to better educate the public on how to detect biased news.

First published in the Dhaka Tribune, 29 June 2020

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com. Twitter @saleemsamad