China Accused in Death of Uyghur Researcher Returning From Japan
Voice of America
The suspicious death in December 2020 of a Uyghur plant biology researcher at a detention facility in Xinjiang has drawn attention on social media.
Mihriay Erkin, 29, left her job at Japan’s Nara Technology and Science Institute in June 2019 and returned to China over concerns about the safety of her parents in Xinjiang. She was arbitrarily detained and sent to the Yanbulaq detention center in Kashgar in February 2020. Her relatives blame Chinese authorities for her death, which they say they learned about only recently. China denies all allegations pertaining to the persecution of Uyghurs and calls the internment camps "vocational institutes" that deradicalize extremists. “I learned the news almost six months after my niece Mihriay was killed by Chinese authorities, but I still don’t know if she has an actual grave or not,” said Abduweli Ayup, Erkin’s uncle and a Norway-based Uyghur rights activist.This handout photo taken June 9, 2024, and provided by the South Korean Defense Ministry shows unidentified objects believed to be North Korean trash from balloons that crossed the inter-Korea border, on a street in Seoul. A North Korean military guard post, top, and South Korean post, bottom, are seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, May 31, 2024.
A textbook is seen on a high school student's desk during a philosophy class at the Averroes school, France's biggest Muslim educational institution that has lost its state funding, Lille, France, March 19, 2024. Middle school students, some wearing a hijab, listen to teacher Ilyas Laarej during an Islamic ethics class at the Averroes school, France's biggest Muslim educational institution that has lost its state funding, Lille, France, March 19, 2024. High school student Noha Fouad and her friend walks toward a classroom and in front of a banner that says "Ramadan Kareem" in the courtyard of the Averroes school, Lille, France, March 19, 2024. A middle school student scribbles on a piece of paper during an Islamic ethics class at the Averroes school, France's biggest Muslim educational institution that has lost its state funding, Lille, France, March 19, 2024. Students wearing abayas put their shoes back on as they prepare to leave the prayer room at the Averroes school, France's biggest Muslim educational institution that has lost its state funding, Lille, France, March 19, 2024.
FILE - Students protest for more public university funding and against austerity measures proposed by President Javier Milei, featured on the sign, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 23, 2024. FILE - Sally Otto, owner of a downtown craft collective, speaks May 21, 2024, in Greeley, Colo. FILE - Kristina McGuffey with her 12-year-old daughter, Molly, and 9-year-old son, Wyatt, speaks while making a purchase at a downtown craft collective May 21, 2024, in Greeley, Colo.
U.S. WWII veteran Harold Terens, 100, left, and Jeanne Swerlin, 96, arrive to celebrate their wedding at the town hall of Carentan-les-Marais in Normandy, France, June 8, 2024. U.S. WWII veteran Harold Terens, 100, left, and Jeanne Swerlin, 96, celebrate their wedding in Normandy, France, June 8, 2024. U.S. WWII veteran Harold Terens, 100, left, and Jeanne Swerlin, 96, kiss in Normandy, France, June 8, 2024.