Headlines- Kurdish troops reported that a coalition led by the United States shot down multiple drones over Erbil, the capital of the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq, on Wednesday.
- The potential sale of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems and related equipment to Saudi Arabia for an estimated $1.96 billion was approved by the US State Department on Wednesday.
- In protest of this week's ban on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's foreign ministry summoned Britain's ambassador to Tehran on Wednesday, vowing that the move would "not go unanswered".
- U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Wednesday that a U.S. aircraft fired on an oil tanker that "attempted to violate the U.S. blockade" on Iranian ports.
- US President Donald Trump stated that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps cannot be negotiated with and that the United States might have to eliminate it.
Tag: Uyghur Plight
‘I Wish I Could Wipe my...
Since fleeing China, Sidik says that she has been unable to contact her family in the XUAR, other than receiving a phone call from her husband in February this year to request a divorce, shortly before he disappeared
Detainees Endure Forced Labor in Xinjiang...
Detainees at an internment camp in an area of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where Disney shot part of its blockbuster film Mulan, are being subjected to forced labor making socks and crushing gravel, according to a local official
Three Camps in Xinjiang’s Uchturpan Believed...
Beginning in October 2018, Beijing acknowledged the existence of the camps, but described them as voluntary “vocational centers,” despite reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service which has found that detainees are mostly held against their will in poor conditions, where they are forced to endure inhumane treatment and political indoctrination
Hong Kong, Xinjiang Crackdowns Haunt China...
Germany’s top diplomat urged China to allow a UN mission to investigate the internment camps holding Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and called for the withdrawal of the national security law in Hong Kong that has led to the arrests of top pro-democracy figures, German media reported
Xinjiang Authorities Jail Family Members of...
Asat Abdukerim and his younger brother Anwar Abdukerim, of Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture’s Qorghas (Huocheng) county, were detained in 2017 for their respective travels to Turkey and the Netherlands, Asat’s Turkey-based daughter, Dilbar Asat, and his sister, Canada-based Marhaba Abdukerim, recently told RFA’s Uyghur Service.
Xinjiang Authorities Restrict Islamic ‘Nikah’ Wedding...
Historically, Uyghur couples have performed nikah on the morning of their wedding, gathering with their immediate families, as well as their best man and maid of honor, in the presence of an akhun, or Muslim officiant. Multiple wedding receptions—complete with food, dancing, and merriment, and attended by extended family and members of the couple’s social circle—typically follows during the same afternoon and evening, or over the course of subsequent days
Uyghur Activists Fear Ankara is Bowing...
Many of China’s Uyghur minority have sought sanctuary in Turkey following China’s crackdown on the largely Muslim Turkic-speaking minority. Observers describe conditions of those detained by the Chinese government as akin to concentration camps. With Beijing stepping up pressure on Ankara, some Uyghur refugees fear for their future in Turkey
Uyghur Exile Group Urges IOC to...
The complaint, submitted by London-based rights lawyer Michael Polak, referred to evidence the WUC said proves that a number of crimes against humanity are taking place in the XUAR, including arbitrary detention in internment camps, torture, repressive security and surveillance, and forced labor and slavery
Public Toilet Erected on Former Site...
The Mosque Rectification drive, part of a series of hardline policies under top leader Xi Jinping, predates the mass incarceration of as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps in the XUAR that began in April 2017
‘I Still Don’t Know Anything About...
Gheni recently spoke with RFA’s Uyghur Service about his more than two-year campaign to locate his family members in the XUAR—which he and many other Uyghurs refer to as East Turkestan—how the Dutch government has assisted him, and his meeting with Ambassador Hoekstra, which he described as inspirational. RFA also spoke with Hoekstra, a former U.S. Representative for Michigan, who discussed U.S. support for the Uyghur diaspora in the Netherlands, thought to number 1,500, and for Uyghurs in their homeland