You read the title correctly. Uyghurs on three floors of a residential building in Urumqi were burned alive, and those on the top four floors suffocated. When the fire broke out at 19:47, the residents in the building were awake, neighbors were awake, and the fire brigade was next door, yet the fire continued for three hours. So why didn’t they get out? Were the dead and injured shackled to the building?
The answer is yes. Although not restrained by handcuffs, they were trapped due to the zero-COVID lockdown. The doors of the building and all of its units were locked, and the fire door of the building was blocked.
Thus, residents could not escape their units. Mothers clung to children, and children clung to fathers, feeling one another’s pain as they said goodbye to the world. In the beginning, they were heard begging, “The building is on fire! We are on fire! Please open the door! Save us.” Although firefighters arrived within five minutes, they either did not or could not enter the building.
The building was not only locked but also surrounded by layers of wood and barriers. Vehicles parked in front of the building had not been driven for months. In addition, some of their owners were in quarantine, so they could not move the vehicles. As a result, ambulances could not approach the building, and fire hoses could not spray water on the fire. People burned as the disaster spread. Neighbors who saw the incident could not stand the tears and cries, but could not help because they were in lockdown.
One of the saddest stories about the victims is that while a woman named Qembernisa was burning to death with her three children, her husband and eldest son, who were sentenced to 10 and 12 years in prison, respectively, were not with them. Her burned five-year-old daughter was born while her father was in prison, and her father had not seen her yet. The girl was counting the months and years until she saw her father and older brother. What a calamity this is. Six members of a family were erased in two campaigns of the “superpower” of China — two during a campaign against extremists and four during the zero-COVID campaign.
As a human being and a religious believer, I remember God and His intentions.
It is clear that God, who created and regulated the universe and the human body, would not have given such a huge tragedy to a family without reason. None of the members of this family had killed or risked hundreds or thousands of lives – their lack of fame is a testament to this. They did not go astray or lead thousands of others astray – they were unable to commit such atrocities. So was this a signal to Uyghurs? No, it cannot because the Uyghur people have been in isolation for three months, in concentration camps for six years, and under occupation for seventy years. They have never had a chance to sin.
Is it a signal to the world? Maybe. Perhaps God is telling the Muslim world the following: China has put millions of your brothers and sisters in camps where they are dying one by one, even if you cannot see it. They destroyed your mosques, even you couldn’t see them. They burned your Qur’an, even though you couldn’t smell it. Let me test your vigilance: Now that your brothers and sisters are being burned alive, what happens to your feelings and behaviors?
Perhaps God is calling the Western world more than anyone else:
China’s concentration camps appeared in satellite images, yet you didn’t demand they close. The genocide order was revealed yet you didn’t say to stop. The police files were leaked, yet you didn’t take action. Now we see this burning scene too. You knew that China committed genocide, you wrote reports, and you called them murderers. However, you held their hand, maintained your friendship, and embraced them in the G20. You turned a blind eye to the people who died in the camps. You did not sincerely sympathize with Uyghur activists crying at your door. You have religion and policies on human rights, so how can you ignore the cries of burning mothers? How can you remain silent while listening to the cries of burning children?
In particular, God is speaking to the USA with this incident: Your factories were taken, your market was destroyed; your technology has been stolen, yet you are silent. You’ve witnessed the laws and regulations that you’ve drawn for the world being changed and destroyed, and you didn’t speak up because the Chinese market is too lucrative. More than a million of your citizens died from COVID-19, which came from China. You did not dare reveal , even refer to the origin of the virus because you are too busy looking for enemies among your own countrymen. Whether you use the term “opponent” or “enemy,” that is the true nature of the incoming superpower.
This is your opponent’s path to ruling the whole world – including you. You were the leader of the peacekeeping forces in the world, so I will test your conscience: While your billionaires are making more billions in the Chinese market or thinking of making them, Uyghurs are on fire, burning centimeter by centimeter. Do you still value money at the expense of innocent people’s lives? If not ask yourself this question: If China is willing do do this to its own citizens, what do you think it is willing to do to you?
Let us finish this piece with demands of Uyghur demonstrators in front of Lincoln memorial:
“We know that the Chinese authorities, who are committing genocide in our homeland do not take responsibility for this on their own, so we call on the international community to send an independent investigation team to the region to determine the situation and bring China to the appropriate punishment.”
Kok Bayraq is a Uyghur political dissident and journalist who left China after ‘trouble with the authorities’ and writes under a pseudonym to speak freely on the Uyghur genocide.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.