More than 100 Uyghur graveyards demolished by Chinese authorities, satellite images show

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By Matt Rivers, Lily Lee and Yong Xiong, CNN
Updated 4:02 PM ET, Thu January 2, 2020

Beijing (CNN)__ Uyghur poet Aziz Isa Elkun fled China’s far western Xinjiang region more than 20 years ago.

He’s not welcome in the country. He can’t even phone his mother. She said it was better if he didn’t, because every time he did, police would show up at her door.

So, when Elkun’s father died in 2017, there was no way he could go back to China for the burial. To be closer to his family, he would view his father’s grave on Google Earth.

“I know exactly where his tomb is,” Elkun told CNN in his north London home. “When I was a kid we would go there, pray at the mosque, visit our relatives. The entire community was connected to that graveyard.”

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