The World Uyghur Congress faces intimidation ahead of its general assembly

The General Assembly of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) will begin on Thursday, after months of sustained intimidation by the Chinese government, which has described the top Uyghur organization as “unprecedented.”

In the months leading up to the group’s eighth general meeting, which will take place this year in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Uyghur organization has weathered numerous attempts to derail or even cancel the event, the group said. The intimidation included threats of physical harm, arrest and sabotage.

Groups advocating for the human rights of Uyghurs have long faced harassment from the Chinese government, but this recent harassment was particularly extreme, according to Zumretay Arkin, the WUC spokesperson and director of global advocacy.

“This time it has reached another level,” Arkin told VOA from Sarajevo. “The World Uyghur Congress is one of the most important organizations in our movement, in the diaspora, and they want to destroy it completely.”

In one of the most serious examples, a WUC employee’s email account was hacked, Arkin told VOA. The unidentified hackers on Monday sent emails, which VOA reviewed, to all attendees, including WUC delegates and candidates, as well as foreign lawmakers, falsely claiming the general meeting had been postponed.

The WUC holds its general meeting every three years. At each meeting, the organization chooses its leadership and sets strategic priorities in response to human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, where most Uighurs live.

“We advocate not only for the human rights of the Uyghurs, but also for the self-determination of the Uyghurs. And that is seen as a threat to the Chinese government,” said Arkin, who is running to become the next vice president of the WUC.

The Germany-based WUC has condemned the harassment.

“It is a clear attempt to intimidate the Uyghur community and silence their voices,” the organization said in a statement on Friday.

In other cases of intimidation, the Chinese embassy in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has pressed for the general meeting to be canceled altogether and indicated that it would encourage local authorities to ban former WUC president Dolkun Isa, who is a German citizen to arrest.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has an extradition treaty with China. When Isa and Arkin arrived in Sarajevo on Monday, Arkin said they had no problems entering the country.

China’s Foreign Ministry and embassy in Sarajevo did not immediately respond to VOA’s emails seeking comment.

In another example, an informant with knowledge of the situation told Norway-based Uyghur activist Abduweli Ayup that Chinese authorities were considering various ways to disrupt the general meeting, including staging a car crash or cutting off electricity.

“He told me they might cause a car accident and cut off the electricity, or protest in front of the World Uyghur Congress,” Ayup told VOA.

Chinese authorities have also directly targeted WUC delegates from countries including Australia, Germany, Ireland and Turkey, Arkin said. Those authorities pressured delegates not to participate in the general meeting, including by issuing threats against family members still in Xinjiang, Arkin said.

And in the case of Uzbekistan, local Uzbek authorities have pressured WUC delegates living in Uzbekistan not to participate in the general assembly, according to Arkin, who said that as a result no delegates from Uzbekistan will attend.

The Uzbek embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to VOA’s email seeking comment.

Beijing has long targeted Uyghur rights groups and activists around the world to silence criticism, said Sophie Richardson, a visiting scholar at Stanford and former China director at Human Rights Watch. This recent bout of harassment is just the latest example.

“It is the ultimate expression of how desperate it (Beijing) is to stop people from talking about genocide and crimes against humanity,” Richardson told VOA.

The Chinese government is accused by human rights groups and several Western governments of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, which many Uyghurs prefer to call the Uyghur Region or East Turkestan. Beijing denies any wrongdoing in the region.

Part of the reason why the Chinese government has been so brutal in its transnational repression is that Beijing has long done so with almost complete impunity, Richardson said.

“They’ve been doing this for decades now and have accelerated it significantly in the last decade — and they didn’t really have to pay a price for that,” Richardson said.

With the general meeting starting in a few days, there are many things on Arkin’s mind. The most urgent of these is the safety of the WUC members, her family members still in Xinjiang, and herself.

Nevertheless, Arkin thinks the Chinese government’s extreme lengths to derail the General Assembly could also underscore Beijing’s own fears.

“We are building a system that is ours. We’re building something that’s completely opposite to what the Chinese government has, and that’s why they’re afraid of it. They are afraid of democracy and human rights,” Arkin said.