Jewher Ilham, daughter of imprisoned Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti attends the Sakharov Prize ceremony at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019. The European Union has awarded its top human rights prize to economist Ilham Tohti for his work defending China’s Uighur minority and urged Beijing to release him from jail. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
‘Nothing on this scale has ever happened before, except once, and that was the Holocaust,’ protester tells Evie Breese
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Andrew has been protesting outside the Chinese embassy office in Hampstead every Tuesday and Wednesday for nearly a year ( Evie Breese )
Standing by the side of the road, a lone protester pivots backwards and forwards to display his sign to every passing car. It reads: “3 Million Muslims in Chinese Concentration Camps.”
Andrew pitches up at the Chinese Embassy office in leafy Hampstead every single Tuesday and Wednesday. Sometimes he has company, but often he is alone. He’s been coming without fail for almost a year.
In late 2018, satellite images of the camps in which Uighur Muslims are being detained for what China has termed “re-education” began to emerge. Before then there had been unsubstantiated rumours of the facilities, but for Andrew, this was “undeniable proof” of concentration camps in Xinjiang.
“Because of my personal history. I didn’t feel I could sit at home,” he says.
Andrew describes himself as a “typical Orthodox Jew”. He lives in London’s Golders Green with his family, and works as a businessman. While he is protesting against one of the world’s greatest superpowers, he says he does not feel safe sharing his full name.
China has been accused of genocide by experts as reports of ethnic minority Uighur women forced to have abortions have emerged. Women who escaped the high-security camps also spoke of widespread sexual torture. UN figures have put the numbers of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities forced into “political camps for indoctrination” at between one and two million, while Andrew took his statistic of three million from a UN special rapporteur.
More recently, China has also started to demolish Uighur graveyards.
Categories: Asia, China, Europe, Europe and Australia, UK
Very sad indeed— why do KSA, Turkey, IOC , ahmadiyyah, UN not condemn China for discriminating Muslim minority ?
Why are they silince ?
I think China said they are the radical intolerant Muslims, ( like isis, taliban ) so KSA and others supported China’s policy.
Somi, did I not bring many articles exposing China? Yes, we condemn this action of the Chinese Government strongly. China is rounding up practically all Muslims. I do not exclude the possibility that a few may be radicals, but mostly they are just ordinary Muslim citizens. The result will be the opposite of what the Chinese Government aims for: they will create more radicals.