SA Uyghur community and supporters protest against disappearances of relatives in China
Protesters held photos of missing loved ones outside the Chinese Consulate-General on Friday, calling attention to the suppression and forced labour of Uyghurs.
SA News
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An Adelaide woman is leading a charge to stop the forced labour of many Uyghur people in China.
Ramila Chanisheff, president of the Australia Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association, led a gathering of 140 people outside the Chinese Consulate-General in Findon on Friday. They held pictures of loved ones who had mysteriously disappeared in China, thought to be in detention camps.
There are around 400 Uyghur people living in SA.
“Adelaide has quite a bit of an Uyghur community here, and every one of us has a family member or a close friend who has been taken in, and made to disappear,” said Ms Chanisheff, who has not been able to get in touch with her cousins in China for years.
The Adelaide woman, who did not wish to provide her age or suburb due to fear of being targeted for her protests against China, said she believes her cousins are victim to the concentration camps.
“I do fear for my cousins, but because I don't have proof, I can’t speak up, I just can’t get in touch with them. We haven’t been able to connect with them in the last four or five years.
“Wherever we go, they ask for proof, … and I don’t have that.”
The protest follows a global movement after retired Doctor, Gulshan Abbas, an Uyghur woman, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on terrorism charges by the Chinese Government.
Ms Chanisheff said she would like all people released from the concentration camps and freedom granted to all people.
“At least (then) we can talk to them and see that they’re OK, that they’re alive.
“We want them to live their own life.”
Ms Chanisheff has liaised with Senator Rex Patrick, Greens MLC Tammy Franks and other politicians to introduce bills banning the importation of goods from suspected Uyghur detention camps in China.
The US and UK this week announced plans to ban Chinese imports linked to forced Uyghur labour.
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