Uyghur Community Starts #MeTooUyghur Movement To Find Missing Relatives in China

These people don’t know if their relatives are alive or dead since China reportedly detained one million Uyghur Muslims.

The Uyghur community is using #MeTooUyyghur to call on the Chinese government to provide proof of life for their detained loved ones.
“Every single Uyghur has at least one relative of a friend who has disappeared, sent to camps or jail,” #MeToooUyghur founder Murat Harri explained. “However, people have remained silent for fear of retaliation.”

Uyghur Muslims are a minority group in China who primarily live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. International human rights groups say many detained Uyghur people are being held in internment-style camps that reportedly opened in 2017. The Chinese government has regularly refuted the claim.

Members of the Uyghur community who are living freely in the region are reportedly under intense surveillance by the Chinese government.

Harri started the #MeTooUyghur movement after the Chinese government released a video of a prominent Uyghur musician saying he was alive and in “good condition.” He says everyone in the Uyghur community has family members in detention and deserves to know how they are.

“I started it for highlighting the point that millions of people are detained, this should gain some attention,” he said. “If Chinese authority have released the video of Mr. Heyt, that means there are possibilities to communicate with the authority in different way. Then, this is kind of way of communication gives hope to my fellow Uyghurs.”

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