Uighurs speak on ’21st-century dystopia’

By JAMES GUNN
March 02, 2020

The international response to the human rights crisis in Xinjiang has been shameful, guest-speaker Omer Kanat said on Saturday.

Speaking at “Uyghurs in Chains,” a testimonial event hosted by UR’s College Republicans, Kanat briefed the audience on Uighur life and culture, before tallying the systems of abuse of what he described as a “brutal” regime and a “21st-century dystopia.”

Kanat is the executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project dedicated to “researching and exposing human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs in East Turkistan.”

East Turkistan, also spelled Turkestan, is the local name for the province more commonly known as Xinjiang in Northwest China. In October 2019, a group of 23 countries submitted a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council concerning reports of abuse of minorities in the region.