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A few days ahead of the Beijing Olympics, several Uyghur activists and human rights experts at a webinar argued that the Winter Games will implicitly approve of the rights violation of the Muslim minority community in China.
Since the early 2000s the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has conveniently labelled Uyghurs as "terrorists" due to their Muslim identity, said Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, Vice-Chairman of the World Uyghur Congress Executive Committee. Kokbore made these remarks during a webinar titled "CCP's Uyghur Genocide and Diplomatic Boycott of the Beijing Olympics" on January 27. This webinar was conducted by the independent foreign policy think tank Red Lantern Analytica. The Red Lantern Analytica convened a panel discussion with experts on Uyghur rights, Chinese domestic security, and civil rights activists. During the discussion, Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, Vice-Chairman of the World Uyghur Congress Executive Committee said since the Chinese conquered Xinjiang, the Uyghurs have been subjected to Chinese-sponsored Genocide. "Since the early 2000s, following 9/11 incident, the Chinese Communist Party has conveniently labelled Uyghurs as 'terrorists' due to their Muslim identity. Chinese authorities have imprisoned Uyghur academics and suppressed any criticism," he said. Since the occupation, not only residents in China's illegally occupied regions have been subjected to Chinese threats and ill-treatment, but also residents of neighbouring countries such as South-Asian countries, according to Kokbore. Additionally, he stated that the International Olympic Committee has legitimized Chinese atrocities, just as they did with the Nazis at the 1936 Olympics. He also noted that the Chinese Communist Party will utilize the Olympics to whitewash the Genocide of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other persecuted populations. Dr. Erkin Sidick, Senior Advisor to the World Uyghur Congress and Founder of the Uyghur Projects Foundation (UPF), disclosed that around 1.8 million Uyghurs were transferred to Concentration Camps and another 2.1 million were subjected to organ harvesting. "Up to 4 million Uyghurs are detained in camps and forced labour facilities. Around 14,000 forced labour factories are estimated to exist in occupied XinJiang alone." He also stated that the number of Uyghurs slain and disappeared in the Chinese-sponsored Uyghur Genocide is more than that of the Holocaust. Julie Millsap, the third speaker is an advocate for Uyghur human rights, emphasized how China has failed to learn from its past mistakes, continuing to murder people and hold them captive in concentration camps. Additionally, she charged China with mass genocide against its Uyghur ethnic group. The government in China, according to her, has failed to live up to its commitments to its citizens. She then asserted that the Foreign Olympic Committee is corrupt and that she hopes for foreign organizations to impose pressure on the Chinese government and intervene to alleviate humanitarian conditions. Jevlan Shirmemmet, an Uyghur activist in Turkey whose family is jailed in Chinese concentration camps, claimed that no Uyghur from the Uyghur Diaspora has been permitted to leave China since 2016-17. He noted that the Chinese government have frequently denied the existence of Concentration camps, referring to them as "Re-education" camps that provide vocational training to Uyghurs. He stated that while everyone can communicate with anyone in current times, the CCP's nefarious schemes prevent people from communicating with their own relatives for many continuous years. According to him, anyone who watches the Chinese winter Olympics in 2022 will implicitly approve of the Uyghur genocide and the persecution of countless others over the last several years. (ANI)
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