中国の弾圧にさらされるウイグル文化、知識人が相次ぎ消息不明に

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】中国・新疆ウイグル自治区の自宅から、ブグラ・アルキンさんの父親であるアイエルケン・イブライン氏が突然、公安関係者によって連れ去られてから、2年近くがたった。（写真は同自治区にある再教育施設とみられる建物。資料写真）
　２０１８年１０月に拘束される以前、イブライン氏は多数の書籍をウイグル語に翻訳する大手出版社を経営していた。だがアルキンさんはそれ以降、父親の消息を知らない。
　「父親は、ウイグルの出版業界に強い影響力を持っていた。そのせいで、中国政府の標的になった」
　米カリフォルニア州に住むアルキンさんはそう説明し、「これはまったく受け入れられないことで、私たちの生活は文字通り破壊された」と語った。
　だがこれは、アルキンさんに限った話ではない。
　米首都ワシントンに本部を置く人権擁護団体「ウイグル人権プロジェクト」によると、２０１７年４月以降、ウイグルの知識人少なくとも４３５人が拘束されたり、消息を絶ったりしている。
　ウイグル人の言語研究者や学者、出版者の摘発は、ウイグル人のアイデンティティーや文化を拭い去り、同国の多数派である標準中国語を話す漢民族に同化させようとする、中国共産党による活動の一環だと、海外の人権擁護団体はみている。
　その一方で中国外務省は、「いわゆる『ウイグル文化を抹殺するためにウイグル知識人を拘束している』という見解は、まったくのデマであり中傷だ」と反論した。
　ウイグル人の文芸評論家で作家のヤルクン・ロジ氏は、新疆ウイグル自治区共産党委員会書記に強硬派の陳全国氏が就任した後、２０１６年１０月の一斉摘発の第一波で拘束された知識人の一人だ。
　同氏の親族は後に、ロジ氏が２０１８年１月に国家政権転覆扇動罪で懲役１５年の有罪判決を受けたことを突き止めた。国家政権転覆扇動罪は通例、政治犯に対して適用される漠然とした罪だ。
　息子のカマルトゥルク・ヤルクン氏によると、ロジ氏が拘束されたのは、１０年以上にわたって使用されてきたウイグル文学の教科書の編集を担当していたことに関係していると、当局は示唆したという。
　教科書に携わったロジ氏の同僚全員が、この時期の前後に拘束されている。
　新疆では２０１２年以降、２６０万人近い生徒たちに向けて、学校において標準中国語とウイグル語の２言語教育を徐々に適用してきた。
　これ以前には、主にウイグル語やその他の少数派言語で授業が行われていたという。
　「こうした教科書の廃止とウイグル語教育の撤廃によって、ウイグルの次世代の若者たちは、自らとウイグル文化のつながりを見いだせなくなるだろう」とヤルクン氏は指摘。
　「ウイグル人の全てのアイデンティティーを消し去り、中国語を話し、中国語で考え、自分たちの歴史や文化を知らない人々…になるように同化させるのが中国のやり方だ。これについて私は、悲しみと同時に憤りを覚える」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/07/27-13:42）

It has been almost two years since Bugra Arkin's father Aierken was abruptly snatched from his home in China's troubled Xinjiang region by national security agents.
Aierken Yibulayin's publishing firm -- one of the biggest in the region -- translated thousands of books into Uighur before he was detained in October 2018. Arkin has not heard from him since.
My father had a strong impact on the Uighur publishing industry, and that made him a target of the Chinese government, said Arkin, who lives in California.
This is very unacceptable and our lives were literally destroyed.
He is not the only one.
At least 435 Uighur intellectuals have been imprisoned or forcibly disappeared since April 2017, according to the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
The rounding up of Uighur linguists, scholars and publishers is seen by overseas advocacy groups as part of a campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to erase the ethnic group's identity and culture and assimilate it into the dominant, Mandarin-speaking Han population.
Renowned Uighur linguist Alim Hasani was taken by authorities in August 2018 during a Beijing work trip, according to his son Ershat Alim.
Alim believes that his father, a retired division head of the Xinjiang Ethnic Language Work Committee, was detained for his research, which aimed to standardise Uighur-Han translations.
Hasani, who compiled several dictionaries, was a Communist Party member whose projects had previously been approved by the state and won awards.
When I first heard that my father was arrested, I never once thought that this could happen to him. He must have been very surprised as well, said Alim, who lives in France.
More than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minorities have been held in re-education camps in Xinjiang following a spate of ethnic violence, according to rights groups.
Chinese authorities describe the facilities as vocational education centres where Uighurs learn Mandarin and job skills to steer them away from extremism.
In a statement, China's foreign ministry said: The so-called notion of 'imprisoning Uighur intellectuals to extinguish Uighur culture' is complete rumour-mongering and slander.
- 'Don't know where he is' -
Alim last heard from an acquaintance that his father's trial, which began in January, had been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but fears he will soon be sentenced and jailed.
His mother, who lives in Xinjiang, wouldn't dare talk about Hasani's arrest.
I certainly felt very bad and didn't know how to express it. For a long time I couldn't concentrate on my work either, Alim said.
All 11 linguists in his father's work unit have also been detained, including 64-year-old Hemdulla Abdurahman, who was snatched in January 2019, according to his son Yashar Hemdulla.
In March 2019, I was told my father had been taken to a 'hospital' ... but the family acquaintance on the call mimed handcuffs on her wrists, said Hemdulla, who lives in Norway.
I do not know where he is now.
Hemdulla knows several intellectuals whose relatives say they were first detained in camps, then given long-term jail sentences, and he is concerned his father might suffer the same fate.
At the time, I found it extremely hard. I am an only son, my mother is all alone and my father is not young -- how much more can he take? said Hemdulla.
While authorities said in December that all people from vocational centres have graduated, researchers say they have been gradually moved to other forms of detention.
Many have been prosecuted and given prison sentences of up to 20 years, said Gene Bunin, a researcher on Uighur issues and creator of the Xinjiang Victims Database.
This has partially been a trend in the last one or two years, with the camps being emptied, Bunin said, estimating that at least 300,000 people remain incarcerated.
Fears have also been raised over jailed Uighur intellectual Ilham Tohti, who was awarded a top human rights prize by the European Parliament -- but has not been seen in years.
- 'Sad and angry' -
Uighur literary critic and writer Yalqun Rozi was among the first wave of intellectuals to be detained in October 2016 after hardline Xinjiang Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo took office.
His relatives later discovered that Rozi had been sentenced to 15 years in prison in January 2018 for inciting subversion of state power -- a vague charge commonly used for political prisoners.
Authorities suggested that Rozi's detention was related to his role in compiling Uighur literature textbooks that had been in use for more than a decade, said his son Kamalturk Yalqun.
All his father's textbook collaborators were also detained around this time.
Since 2012, bilingual Mandarin-Uighur education has gradually been applied in schools in Xinjiang, with the aim of reaching 2.6 million students.
Prior to that, classes were mostly taught in Uighur and other minority languages.
By abolishing these textbooks and eliminating Uighur language education altogether, the next generation of Uighur youth will have no way to find their link with Uighur culture, said Yalqun.
It is a way for China to eliminate the entire Uighur identity and assimilate them to become... people that speak Chinese, think Chinese and don't know their own history or culture. That makes me sad and angry at the same time.