No Escape by Nury Turkel: Grim but vital read about China’s oppression of Uyghurs

June 18, 2022

Addressing a webinar organised by Senator Rónán Mullen, Omer Kanat called on Ireland to use its position on the Security Council to help his people, and referenced the Nazi extermination campaign against the Jews.

“The world said never again, but never again is happening now in China and no-one can claim they don’t know,” he said.

Asked what Ireland could do to help the mostly-Muslim ethnic group of ten to twelve million people, he said: “Don’t let the Uyghur people disappear from the earth.”

“Survivors [ of the camps ] have told us they are tortured, starved, raped, forbidden from speaking their language, subjected to forced sterilisation, and to near constant political indoctrination,” Mr Kanat said.

“They are forced to say, over and over again, my soul is infected with a disease, and, I don’t believe in god, I believe in the Communist Party.”

Children being taken into state orphanages where they are forbidden to speak Uyghur, he said.

“Probably they will be separated [from their families] forever. Even if the camps are closed, we can never trace these children if they have lost all memories of their families.”

Up to one million ethnic Han Communist Party members had been sent into Uyghur homes to spy on families. “There is emerging evidence of sexual abuses in these situations.”

Addressing what Ireland could do, Mr Kanat said the Uyghur Congress strongly endorsed the comment in The Irish Times in August by Irish academic, David O’Brien, who said it was time for the UN Security Council to act.

Read the full article at The Irish Times.