Amerika Haus: Rushan Abbas About Concentration Camps in Xinjiang, China
Rushan Abbas, a Uighur American whose family members have been detained in China, spoke at the Amerika Haus Wien about various human rights violations against Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province. In her presentation "China’s Concentration Camps in a Muted World" she pointed out, that far West China’s Uyghur people, a minority Muslim group, face a high-tech police state, cultural genocide, and mass detainment in modern concentration camps.
Rushan Abbas, Director of Campaign for Uyghurs, at the Amerika Haus, Friedrich Schmidt Platz 2, 1010 Vienna. / Picture: © Vindobona.org
China has perfected the art of persecution over decades of Human Rights abuses and forced assimilation.
It’s no longer about the freedom of religion, it’s about survival for the Uyghurs today.
Rushan Abbas, Director of Campaign for Uyghurs, herself a Uyghur, came to Washington, D.C., to study, and started raising international awareness for this situation.
The Uyghur people have suffered decades of human rights abuses and forced assimilation at the hands of the Chinese government.
Currently, the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group in the far west of China, face a high-tech police state, cultural and religious repression, and mass detainment in modern concentration camps, in part because they are seen as an obstacle to China’s “Belt and Road Initiative.”
Rushan Abbas started her activism work while she was a student, participating in the pro-democracy demonstrations at Xinjiang University in 1985 and 1988. Since her arrival in the U.S. in 1989, Ms. Abbas has been an ardent campaigner for the human rights of the Uyghur people and has worked closely with members of Congress since the 1990s.
In 2017, Rushan Abbas founded Campaign for Uyghurs to advocate and promote human rights and democratic freedoms for Uyghurs, and mobilize the international community to act to stop the human rights atrocity in East Turkistan. Ms. Abbas has over 15 years of experience in global business development, international relations, and government affairs throughout the Middle East, Africa, CIS regions, Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and Latin America.
Rushan Abbas is a former student activist of the pro-democracy demonstrations at Xinjiang University in 1985 and 1988. She served as the Vice-President of the Students’ Science and Culture Union at the university in 1987.
Ms. Abbas frequently briefed the U.S lawmakers and officials on the human rights situation in East Turkistan.
She advocates for the Uyghur cause and gives public speeches in universities and thinktanks.
She currently resides in Herndon, Virginia.
About the Uyghurs
According to Wikipedia "the Uyghurs/Uygurs are a minority Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia.
The Uyghurs have been recognized as native to only one region, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Advocates of Uyghur independence call it East Turkestan. They are considered to be one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities. The Uyghurs are recognized by China only as a regional minority within a multicultural nation and rejects the idea of them being an indigenous group."