The Olympics are over, but the genocide in my homeland continues.Hi John,

This is the first time I’m writing to HOPE not hate supporters, so let me
introduce myself: my name is Rahima Mahmut. I’m a Uyghur singer and activist in exile , and I lead “Stop Uyghur Genocide”, the UK-based campaign to defend Uyghurs
and other Turkic Muslims from the genocide being perpetrated against them by the
Chinese government.

I was born in Ghulja, near the Kazakhstan border, and I come from a large Muslim
family. I came to the UK in 2000, a few years after Chinese police massacred peaceful
protestors in my hometown , and have lived here ever since.

It has now been more than five years since I have had any contact with my family
back home . As reports of concentration camps and unprecedented surveillance emerged from
the Uyghur region (so called “Xinjiang”) in 2017, thousands of Uyghurs in exile like me received final messages from their family , all communicating the same thing: please do not contact us – when things change, we will reach out to you.

Uyghurs like myself that have spoken out, including brave concentration camp
survivors, do so at huge personal cost. But we won’t be silenced .

Sunday marks the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, coined the
“Genocide Games” by campaigners and activists across the world due to the Chinese government’s
persecution of the Uyghurs and other Turkic groups native to the Uyghur region.

While China puts on a show to entertain the world, the genocide continues with
alarmingly little attention for the plight of the Uyghurs. Let’s use this moment while the world’s attention is on China to stand in
solidarity with the Uyghurs and shine a spotlight on the genocide taking place in my homeland.

Will you take part in a “Twitter storm” to tell the world that while China
celebrates the end of the Beijing Olympics, the genocide against the Uyghurs
continues?

Send your tweet
[[link removed]]Not on Twitter? Read and share this blog
[[link removed]] which explains more about what’s happening in the Uyghur region and what we can
do about it.

It is estimated that anywhere between 1 and 3 million Uyghurs are forcibly
detained in so-called “re-education camps” , where systemic sexual violence, cultural erasure, birth prevention measures,
organ harvesting and torture are commonplace.

And outside the camps, Uyghurs are transported across China to work in
factories, under prison-like conditions and subject to a mass-surveillance state
that monitors their daily practises.

This has been going on for years with almost no consequences for the Chinese
government . China hosting the Olympics adds to their legitimacy, despite the atrocities
being committed there. If you agree this is unacceptable, please join me in speaking out on social
media on the day of the Olympics closing ceremony .

Send your tweet
[[link removed]]( Or read and share this blog
[[link removed]] which explains more about what’s happening in the Uyghur region and what we can
do about it.)

Thank you for reading and for your support,

Rahima

Rahima Mahmut
UK Director of the World Uyghur Congress
[[link removed]] and Executive Director of Stop Uyghur Genocide [[link removed]]


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