China’s Ethnic Minority Group: Uyghurs
Recently it was accused of repressing Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region of China. Because of this, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ‘Michelle Bachelet’ is visiting this area. However, China has called this thing just a rumour.
Related case:
- Several countries have called on China to “ensure full respect for the rule of law” for the Uyghur community in Xinjiang province.
- It is estimated that more than a million people have been forcibly detained in Xinjiang.
- Extensive surveillance is being carried out, inappropriately targeting people from Uyghurs and other minority communities, and Uyghur culture & fundamental freedoms have been restricted.
- China denies abuse of Uyghurs, and talks about running a “vocational training” center designed to combat extremism.
Uyghurs
- They are a predominantly Muslim minority Turkish ethnic group, whose origins are believed to be in ‘Central and East Asia’.
- The language of the Uyghur community is similar to the Turkic language, considering itself culturally and ethnically closer to the Central Asian countries.
- China considers the Uyghur community only as a regional minority and refuses to recognize them as an indigenous group of the country.
- In China, the largest population of the Uighur ethnic community resides in the Xinjiang region.
- However, the rest of the Uighur population is also found in neighboring Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
- For decades, Uighur Muslims have been abused by the Chinese government on false charges of terrorism and separatism, torture, forced detention, intensive investigation, surveillance and even slavery.
Source – The Hindu
