China’s western province of Xinjiang is the epicenter of a silent cultural genocide. At least two million people are being kept in “re-education” camps, where they are forced to study propaganda for hours each day, subjected to torture, and made compliant with medication. A large contingent of those held in the camps are ethnic Kazakhs. This is particularly concerning to residents of neighboring Kazakhstan, some of whom have relatives and loved ones in the camps.
China-born Kazakh activist Serikzhan Bilash spent years documenting the human rights violations in Xinjiang. He compiled interviews from hundreds of former detainees, creating an invaluable resource for the international network of civil society organizations advocating for the closure of the camps. Serikzhan is an active critic of the camps and he has not shied away from calls to action. He made one such call to a group of Uyghurs in February 2019, urging them to supply information to the outside world. The next month Serikzhan was arrested for inciting discord and faced a seven-year prison sentence.
In July 2019, on the same day Serikzhan’s trial started, Freedom Now filed a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his behalf. We also worked with the U.S. House of Representative’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to have him adopted as a prisoner of conscience under their Defending Freedoms Project. Two weeks later, Serikzhan was released.
A year later, Serikzhan fled to Turkey with his wife and three sons and eventually re-settled in the U.S where he lives today and continues to speak out about Kazakhstan and China’s human rights abuses. However, Chinese security agents pursued him across borders and keep a close watch on his activities.
Freedom Now continues to work with Serikzhan to address violations of freedom of expression and assembly in Kazakhstan. In January, he provided us with valuable information about more than a dozen activists who were arrested and face up to 10 years in prison for participating in a peaceful protest.