The Washington Post-China sentences Uyghur academic to life in prison in Xinjiang
September 22, 2023 3 min 541 words
这则报道揭示了中国在新疆维吾尔地区对维吾尔族人权的严重侵犯。拉希尔·达吾特，一位杰出的维吾尔族学者，七年前在中国政府加大镇压新疆时神秘失踪，现被判终身监禁。这一消息来自多年来一直致力于寻找她的人权组织Dui Hua，该组织总部位于加利福尼亚。达吾特教授被指控危害国家安全，罪名是宣扬“分裂主义”，并在2018年被定谳有罪。 拉希尔·达吾特曾是新疆大学的教授，是维吾尔民俗学的知名学者。她是300多位被认为在新疆被拘留的知识分子、艺术家和作家之一，这是中国政府推动更好同化中国穆斯林少数民族和促进民族和谐的一部分。人权组织指控中国政府通过消灭先前充满活力的维吾尔族文化来实施“文化灭绝”。 这一判决受到了国际社会的广泛谴责。Dui Hua基金会的执行董事约翰·卡姆表示：“对拉希尔·达吾特教授判处终身监禁是一场残酷的悲剧，对维吾尔族人民和所有珍视学术自由的人来说都是巨大的损失。” 更令人担忧的是，拉希尔的女儿在一份声明中表示：“我每天都担心我的母亲，想到我无辜的母亲将在监狱度过余生，这种痛苦无法承受。中国，请展现您的仁慈，释放我无辜的母亲。” 联合国人权事务高级专员去年访问新疆并经过数月的采访后，得出结论称中国政府已经犯下可能构成“危害人类罪”的侵犯行为。这一案件凸显了中国政府的广泛打压，甚至连明确支持政权的知识分子也成为了打击对象。 拉希尔·达吾特曾多年担任中国共产党党员，还曾获得中国文化部的奖项和拨款资助。她在新疆大学的工作也得到了政府的支持。 这一案件提醒我们，中国政府已经毁坏了维吾尔族文化的各种表达方式。作为一位有才华的学者，她致力于记录维吾尔族的知识，成为打击对象绝非巧合。 这一报道引发了国际社会对中国在新疆进行的人权侵犯的关切，并呼吁中国政府尊重人权和学术自由。
2023-09-22T03:02:52.597Z
Rahile Dawut, a prominent Uyghur academic who disappeared seven years ago at the height of the Chinese government’s crackdown in Xinjiang, has been given a life sentence in prison, according to a human rights group that has worked for years to locate her.
Dui Hua, a California-based rights group said in a statement Thursday that the 57-year-old professor — who was convicted in 2018 on charges of endangering state security by promoting “splittism” — had lost an appeal of her sentence in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High People’s Court.
As crackdown eases, China’s Xinjiang faces long road to rehabilitation
A former professor at Xinjiang University and leading scholar on Uyghur folklore, she is among more than 300 intellectuals, artists and writers believed to be detained in Xinjiang, amid a government campaign to better assimilate China’s Muslim minority and promote ethnic harmony. Rights groups have accused the Chinese government of committing “cultural genocide” by wiping out previously vibrant local Uyghur culture.
“The sentencing of Professor Rahile Dawut to life in prison is a cruel tragedy, a great loss for the Uyghur people, and for all who treasure academic freedom,” said John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation.
Dawut’s daughter, Akeda Pulati, said in a statement from the group, “I worry about my mother every single day. The thought of my innocent mother having to spend her life in prison brings unbearable pain. China, show your mercy and release my innocent mother.”
Last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for human rights, after a visit to Xinjiang and months of interviews, concluded that the Chinese government had committed violations that may amount to “crimes against humanity.”
Dawut’s case underlines the lengths of the government’s ongoing campaign where even public intellectuals firmly part of the establishment have been targeted.
A member of the Chinese Communist Party for many years, she received awards and grants from China’s Ministry of Culture, according to Dui Hua. Her work at Xinjiang University, which included the founding of an Ethnic Minorities Research Center in 2007, was also funded by the government.
In 2014, another prominent academic, Ilham Tohti who taught at Minzu University in Beijing, was sentenced to life in prison.
E.U.’s Sakharov human rights prize awarded to jailed Uighur intellectual, probably angering China
Dawut’s family announced her disappearance in 2018 and in 2021, former co-workers told Radio Free Asia that she had been imprisoned and sentenced but no details as to the length of her sentence were given.
“Confirmation of Rahile’s life sentence should give us pause to grasp the ruin visited on family lives of China’s genocide,” said Uyghur Human Rights Project’s director of research, Henryk Szadziewski.
“The Chinese state has taken a wrecking ball to any expressions of Uyghurness outside of its purview. As a gifted academic documenting Uyghur knowledge, targeting Rahile is no coincidence.”