Why was I arrested and fined? Chinese government is the chief culprit
Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
My name is Abdurehim Gheni, a Dutch citizen. I live in the Netherlands with my wife and three children.
I have not seen or spoken with 19 of my relatives since May 23rd, 2017. 2017 was a significant year for Uyghurs, as this was when Chinese discrimination towards ethnic minorities were amplified. Had I stayed in my home city of Uqturpan, I would have been imprisoned, and possibly not be alive today. God saved me from this fate and enabled me to be the voice of the voiceless Uyghur people and other Turkic minorities. I began protesting at Dam Square, in front of the Dutch Parliament Building in June 2018. My protest has garnered significant attention from tourists around the world. As a result, more than 5 thousand tourists have left their signatures on my sign with a plea of “No more concentration camps, freedom for Uyghurs”, which I sent to the EU Human Rights Committee.
Although I have carried out extensive protests in Amsterdam, Paris, and in front of the UN Headquarter in Geneva, I have, to this day, been unable to discover the whereabouts of my parents and relatives. I have written multiple letters to King Willem-Alexander, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Foreign Affairs Minister Stef Blok to demand that the Chinese government provide information on the whereabouts of my family, but I have yet to receive the answers I am searching for. I was informed by the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs that they had sent all necessary information to the Chinese embassy in Den Haag, but had not received further replies from them, nor were they able to pressure the Chinese ambassador to provide an answer.
I asked Dutch government to get information of my family members through diplomatic channels. And yet, China’s government has not replied. So with desperation of finding information of my relatives and put more pressure on Chinese government, I started my protest in front of China’s Embassy in Netherlands since August, 12, 2020.
– [ ] It was all about demanding Chinese government to give information of my family and I demand Chinese government to release my innocent family members immediately if they are in concentration camps or in prisons. However, on the first day of my protest, the Chinese government didn’t give attention and didn’t care. So I decided to deliver my letter of request to Ambassador of CCP next day , 13 August.
– [ ] When I tried to enter into China’s Embassy, the guard stopped me and asked me to leave immediately. I argued with him that China is the one who is blame the tragedy of my family members and millions of other Uyghur people and they must give me an explanation. They called the police and police came and I was taken to police custody. Later, I was released with the fine of 1000 euros.
Later , I tried to stop Chinese ambassador’s car in front of China’s Embassy to demand providing information of whereabouts of my family members. But Chinese ambassador couldn’t dare to get out of his car. Instead turned around his car and left.
CCP is fully responsible for what I went through, being imposed fine and taken to police custody! Since CCP has been silent over my demand over info of my family. So I’ll file a lawsuit against the fine and against CCP behavior of not providing information of my relatives and illegal detentions of my family members.
