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The Uyghur intellectual received this Thursday, October 24 Sakharov prize for freedom of spirit. In 2014, he was sentenced by the Beijing regime to life imprisonment. What impact can this reward have?
Among the defenders of Ilham Tohti in France, the Sakharov prize is a great victory. Sinologist Marie Holzman, president of the Association Solidarité Chine, has campaigned for the European Parliament to award him the reward, since the sentence in 2014 to the life imprisonment of this former professor at the University of Minorities in Beijing. The award is far from being limited to the symbol, she explains: " This award will serve to focus on the behavior of the Chinese in Xinjiang. Ilham Tohti himself said: "If I go to prison and because of my arrest, we talk a little more about my people and my country, then I would have done useful work". There he won his bet! "
Ilhan Tohti is the third Chinese dissident to receive the Sakharov Prize, after Hu Jia in 2008 and Wei Jinsheng in 1996. He also echoes the Nobel Peace Prize awarded in 2010 to another jailed democracy activist in China: Liu Xiaobo.
Same satisfaction at Dilnur Reyhan, teacher at the Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco) and activist of the Uyghur diaspora in France. " I have been waiting for this reward for a long time and I am very happy, like all Uighurs! First, she hopes that this prize will " contribute to the fastest release of Ilham Tohti, unfairly condemned " and that " the world will hear better the cry of the Uyghurs who are currently undergoing genocide ".
"Cultural Genocide"
According to the report of the investigators of the UN Commission on Human Rights, which does not speak of genocide as such, more than one million Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic groups are detained in refugee camps. internment in Xinjiang. This is a " cultural genocide ", writes German researcher Adrian Zenz , the first to highlight the scale of forced internment. The physical elimination of the Uighurs " is not at all the goal of Beijing, " he argues, and " it is very likely that it will not happen ."
Since Xi Jinping's appointment of Chen Quanguo as head of China's northwestern province, the population has been subjected to a policy of repression and surveillance using high technology: biometrics, facial recognition, artificial intelligence or other applications " "sneak" to download mandatory in cell phones.
For Marie Holzman, this award is also an important message sent by Europe to China. This is the second time in two months that Ilham Tohti has received a prize from the old continent. Already on September 29, he was awarded the Vaclav Havel Prize by the Council of Europe for "giving a voice to all Uyghur people". " It's a way of telling him: your behavior towards the Uyghurs is absolutely unacceptable! "Insists the sinologist.
On Thursday, the European Parliament added a request for the " immediate release " of the Uyghur intellectual to the awarding of the Sakharov Prize. " Although he is a moderate voice and reconciliation, he was sentenced to prison following a show trial ," said David Sassoli, the speaker of the Strasbourg parliament, in a statement.
Respected intellectual
Arrested in January 2014, the former professor of the University of Minorities in Beijing was sentenced to life imprisonment for "separatism and support for extreme terrorism". A nonsense for Marie Holzman: " It's someone who has never organized an opposition party, who never advocated independence contrary to what the Chinese government accuses, which was obviously fiercely against terrorist acts. He was a man of dialogue and peace. "
Ilham Tohti was a highly respected intellectual in the international scientific community. " His condemnation is a huge mistake on the part of China," says Marc Julienne, researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS). Those who know him and have read his writings know that he has never campaigned for independence. He was a high-flying economics teacher who spoke perfect Mandarin and talked to the Chinese authorities. He was convicted for the opposite of his fight, for separatism while claiming just more autonomy under the constitution. It was completely legal. "
"The mistake of Beijing"
Can this price in Ilham Tohti be a surprise for Beijing? None, according to Marc Julienne. " China should have expected it," he says. By condemning Ilham Tohti in perpetuity, she made him a martyr to democracy and human rights. This is the paradox of the Chinese who, by repressing peaceful personalities, give the West an example to oppose the model of liberal democracy to the Beijing regime. "
In early October, China had strongly denounced his nomination for the Sakharov Prize. " We demand that [the European Parliament] make a clear distinction between good and bad, withdraw its nomination and stop supporting separatism and terrorism, " Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang had blasted.
American pressures
This award to Ilham Tohti comes in a context of growing interest in the fate of the Uyghurs. The intellectual had also been recommended by US officials to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, in a context. US Congressmen recently sharply criticized the detention of more than one million Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in internment camps in Xinjiang . This month, the United States has even blacklisted 28 Chinese law enforcement entities in northwestern China.
Endowed with 50 000 euros, the Sakharov prize for freedom of the spirit owes its name to the nuclear physicist Andrey Sakharov, great figure of dissent at the time of the USSR. The award ceremony is to be held on December 18th. No doubt the memorial of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo will be remembered on December 8, 2010. The award was placed on an empty chair.