Campaign for Uyghurs Founder Rushan Abbas Testifies before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

  • May 18, 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                             4/9/2019

 

Campaign for Uyghurs Founder Rushan Abbas Testifies before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Washington, DC – Ms. Rushan Abbas, Director and Founder of the Campaign for Uyghurs, today testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the detention of over one million Uyghurs in Chinese Re-Education Camps in East Turkestan.

Said Ms. Abbas: “Since early 2017, the Chinese government has conducted a policy of mass disappearance, internment, and imprisonment of Uyghur people. Experts have estimated the number of Uyghurs interned in the concentration camps at between 800,000 to 1.5 million, in addition to approximately 1.5 million imprisoned formally, making this campaign targeting an ethnic minority – in this case, Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs – the most extensive since the Second World War.”

Ms. Abbas’s and that of other Uyghur’s activism in support of human rights is not without severe consequence. On Sept. 11, 2018, after Ms. Abbas spoke at a major event at a Washington Think Tank, her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, and her aunt were abducted and detained in Xinjiang’s Orwellian political re-education camps. Since then, Ms. Abbas had no contact or information regarding her family members.

Among other, Ms. Abbas called in her testimony on the U.S. government to immediately pass the “Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act” introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and to impose sanctions against responsible Chinese officials under Global Magnitsky Act authorities (Pub.L. 112–208). Ms. Abbas further demanded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) must act to protect Uyghur-Americans from the Chinese government “influence operations” here in America as they occur regularly.

Please see the full testimony here:

https://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/aria-in-action-part-1-human-rights-democracy-and-the-rule-of-law-040919

 

Picture of Jacob

Campaign for Uyghurs

Campaign for Uyghurs

We defend the human rights of Uyghur people and the free world by exposing and confronting the Chinese government's genocide, and empowering Uyghur women and youth in the diaspora.

Donate Now

READ MORE

Forced Labor, Coercive Land-Use Transfers, and Forced Assimilation in Xinjiang’s Agricultural Production
Located in the northwest of China, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region boasts long hours of sunshine and ample water for irrigation — making the region geographically ideal for growing cotton. Cotton grown in Xinjiang, which has good coloration and long fiber, is favored in both domestic and foreign markets.
‘This Has Been Delayed For Too Long’
Source: RFA Rushan Abbas, a former broadcaster for RFA’s Uyghur Service and the director of the U.S.-based Campaign for Uighurs exile group, recently testified at the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in Washington about rights violations in northwest China’s
Uyghurs in Exile Launch Campaign Calling on China to Release Video of Missing Family Members
Source: RFA More than a dozen ethnic Uyghurs living in exile have called on China to release video of family members held in political “re-education camps” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) after Chinese state media published what it
Tough Curbs on Burials
Source: RFA HONG KONG—Ethnic minority Uyghurs from the far-west Chinese city of Urumqi say authorities attach strict conditions when they release the bodies of Uyghurs who die in custody. Hundreds of Uyghurs were detained as part of a broad crackdown
I’ve fought China’s slow-motion genocide of Uighur Muslims. Now, my family are victims.
Source: USA Today   The world is finally waking up to the ongoing and terrifying violations of human rights against the Uighurs — a Muslim minority in Northwest China. My own family is victim to these violations. As both an American citizen and
Remarks by Ambassador Sam Brownback at Taipei Religious Freedom Conference
Remarks by Ambassador Sam Brownback at Taipei Religious Freedom Conference March 11, 2019 I would like to thank President Tsai’s comments and her for taking the time to be here out of her busy schedule. I can’t help but just
On Capitol Hill, persecuted Muslims unite to protect religious minorities’ rights
(RNS) — More than 125 members of the minority Ahmadi Muslim sect spent Monday (April 1) on Capitol Hill advocating for international religious freedom causes — particularly lending their voices on behalf of beleaguered Uighur Muslims. As part of its
As Countries Seek Trade With China, Imprisoned Uyghur Community Has Become “Collateral Damage”
China’s top trade negotiator is traveling to Washington this week as tension over trade intensifies between the two nations. President Trump is threatening to impose a 25 percent tariff on nearly all Chinese imports after the U.S. accused China of

STAY
INFORMED

Add your name to our mailing list so we can keep you updated about upcoming events, speciality drives, new initiatives and more.