A building fire in Xinjiang province sparked a wave of protests against China’s lockdowns, but few know the victims were Uyghur families separated by Beijing’s crackdown.
On November 24, ten people died in a building fire in Urumqi, the capital of that region located in the northwest of the country. Many attributed this tragic balance to the rigorous sanitary confinement, which hindered the work of rescuers.
The tragedy sparked an outburst of anger in Urumqi and sparked a wave of protests in several cities across the country against the “Covid zero” policy. In December, China eased its anti-covid measures.
For the protesters, the victims of the fire were martyrs of health policy. But the relatives of the victims with whom AFP spoke consider the fire as one more tragedy against their community, harshly repressed.
Abdulhafiz Maimaitimin, an Uyghur who left China in 2016 and currently lives in Switzerland, lost her aunt Qemernisahan Abdurahman and four of her children in the fire.
Abdulhafiz does not know exactly where the other members of his family are. Chinese authorities detained Qemernisahan Abdurahman’s husband and son, as well as Abdulhafiz’s father, in 2016 and 2017.
His family believes they were transferred to a detention center. China is accused of interning more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim ethnic groups.
“My aunt waited many years for [her relatives] to be released from her, but she died before she could see them again,” laments 27-year-old Adbulhafiz.
– Doors locked –
A recent United Nations report considered that the accusations of torture in these centers were “credible” and that these detentions could constitute “crimes against humanity.”
Beijing defends that these are “training centers” and that they were created to fight religious extremism after years of bloody attacks attributed to Uyghur activists.
The Uyghur neighborhood of Urumqi, where the fire took place, had apparently been under a lockdown protocol since August.
“If my aunt’s husband and son had been there, maybe they could have used their strength to save everyone,” Abdulhafiz says. “But maybe not, because the door was locked from the outside,” he added.
Other relatives and residents of the building affirmed that the fences put up by the authorities to fight the covid hindered the rescues. The government rejected these accusations.
Memmetli Abbas, a Uyghur now living in Turkey, said his daughter and his granddaughter were only saved because they asked an officer to let them out.
Shortly after, they were “questioned about the fire,” he told AFP. He doesn’t know where they are now.
But for Memmetli’s family, the misfortunes began long before this drama.
His eldest son has been in prison since 2017 and his niece was sent to a detention camp the same year.
“I don’t know why he is detained. But I think it is because he is a Uyghur and a Muslim,” he says.
– “We are all from Xinjiang!” –
The fire provoked the anger of the population throughout the country. In Shanghai, protesters gathered on Urumqi Road, and in Beijing they chanted “We are all from Xinjiang!”
But according to experts, the demonstrations were fueled by pent-up anger at the “covid zero” policy rather than solidarity with the Uyghurs.
“It was an attempt to prevent [a disaster] from happening to them later, rather than showing empathy or understanding towards the Uyghurs,” said David Tobin of Britain’s University of Sheffield.
Jevlan Shirmemmet, a Uyghur activist living in Turkey, noted that his community had not demonstrated.
“In his opinion, why didn’t any Uyghurs participate in the demonstrations in Urumqi? Because they can’t get out. Either they are too afraid or [they know] they will be considered terrorists if they do,” he said.
In the demonstrations organized abroad there was also no awareness of the reality lived in Xinjiang.
In London, activist Rahima Mahmut unfurled a banner calling for Xinjiang’s independence. Many participants “did not know that the victims were Uyghurs,” she said.