Lawmakers in Australia have established a parliamentary group they say will give ethnic Uyghurs a platform from which to air concerns about attempts by Beijing to infiltrate their local community, as well as the persecution they face back home in western China’s Xinjiang region.
On Tuesday, lawmakers officially formed the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Uyghurs, or AAPPGU, at a ceremony and discussion event held at the Australian Parliament House in the capital Canberra. The event was co-hosted by MPs Tony Zappia and Andrew Wallace, the group’s co-chairs, and the Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association, or AUTWA.
Speaking to RFA Uyghur at the gathering, Zappia called the formation of the AAPPGU an important step for the global Uyghur community.
“It will give voice to Uyghur people here in Australia as well as all of those back in the homeland,” he said, referring to China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or XUAR.
The new parliamentary group will also enable Australian lawmakers to better understand the Uyghur issue, Zappia added.
For nearly a decade, Chinese authorities have clamped down harshly on Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in Xinjiang, putting an estimated 1.8 million in concentration camps in the name of stamping out terrorism and religious extremism. Meanwhile, countries with sizable Uyghur communities in exile have said China is pressuring members to spy on each other while systematically monitoring politically active people.
Long time in the making
Tuesday’s event was attended by representatives of Uyghur organizations from across Australia as well as members of the global Uyghur community. Parliamentary members from various parties were also in attendance.
Delivering comments at the event, Ramila Chanisheff, chairwoman of the AUTWA, applauded lawmakers for their work in forming the AAPPGU, which she said had been a long time in the making.
“Every Uyghur sitting here has a family member that’s been affected by the concentration camps, by the prison systems, by torture, rape, and family separation,” she said, adding that China is forcing the younger generation of Uyghurs in the country to give up on their language and identity as part of a policy of ethnic assimilation.
China claims the concentration camps are re-education and vocational training centers, and that most of them have since been shut down. The United States and other Western parliaments have labeled China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as a “genocide” — a claim China denies.
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Ramila noted that more than 60,000 Uyghurs are living as stateless refugees around the world, with many at risk of deportation to China, where they are likely to face persecution. She called on Australia to increase the number of Uyghurs it resettles in coming years.
‘We need to elevate their voices’
MP Fatima Payman, who played a key role in establishing the group, told RFA that it will empower Australia’s government to take a stronger stance on the Uyghur issue.
“We need to acknowledge that this genocide has been going on for too long.” Fatima said. “We need to elevate their voices in our senate, in our Parliament, and make sure, with all the atrocities and the chaos that’s taken place around the world, that the Uyghurs are not forgotten.”
Alim Osman, President of the Victoria Uyghur Society, told RFA that the primary goal of the parliamentary group is to amplify Uyghur voices and bring awareness of China’s crimes against Uyghurs.
He also expressed hope that the group will have an influence on Australia’s foreign policy toward China.
Prior to the establishment of AAPPGU, similar groups had been set up in the parliaments of the United States, Canada, France, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, and the European Union.
Edited by Martin Shawn and Joshua Lipes.