Comment The reception at the interview point was dull – the gaze of a Uighur skier wearing a torch at the opening told everything

Zhangjiakou

Did not detach interview, no.

Admittedly, expectations were not clouded that Uighur, which represents China in cross-country skiing, Dinigeer Yilamujiang would have stopped at the Zhangjiakou interview point after Tuesday’s free sprint time trials.

“I will try my best, but it can be really hard to get that interview, a Chinese woman working in a cross-country ski area interview area, said in advance.

The rules require all athletes to pass through the mixed zone. Giving an interview is not mandatory, but in the spirit of a gentleman, all athletes usually agree to it.

But when Yilamujiang, who finished 56th in the time trial, arrived and the Chinese woman tried to get her for an interview, the reception could even be described as boring.

Yilamujiang had not even heard the media organizer’s speeches. He only glanced once at the interview point, but continued his purposeful journey all the time — keeping his eyes firmly on the ground.

Even before arriving at the interview site, the Uighur skier was even seen smiling alongside a Chinese teammate. Yilamujiang’s behavior only changed when his name was shouted. Direct.

The skier’s surprising change of direction left the impression that it was as if he had been barred from giving interviews – at least to Western journalists.

“Sorry, he wasn’t excited at all. I can’t do more, ”the organizer said, spreading his hands.

Already in Beijing the first days of the olympics have shown that human rights issues in china are a very sensitive issue. Stories about the real situation of the Uighurs in particular have not just been published.

According to human rights organizations, the Chinese authorities have closed hundreds of thousands or even millions of Uighurs to “retraining camps,” which in practice are believed to be penal and forced labor facilities. The organizations see the activities of the camps in Xinjiang, China, as ethnic cleansing and cultural assassination.

Yilamujiang, originally from Xinjiang, was the last to hold the torch at the opening ceremony of the Olympics – together with a Chinese combined athlete Zhao Jiawen with.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) tried to convince the world that a skier of Uighur descent was not chosen for the honorary position because of his origin as a polisher of China’s promised human rights record.

Dinigeer Yilamujiang carried a torch at the opening ceremony of the Olympics along with Chinese combined athlete Zhao Jiawe. Picture: Zumapress / MVPhotos

Many Western leaders have boycotted the race over human rights abuses in China, and for example, program manager for the International Uighur Organization in Exile; Zumretay Arkin criticizes China’s arrangement as political.

“China took advantage of the Uighur athlete,” he summed up South China Morning Post -in leaf.

Expert in Xinjiang and Assistant Professor at Frostburg State University in Maryland Ma Haiyun in turn, said the election of Yilamujiang was meant to send a message.

“By choosing an Uighur athlete’s torch to light, China is trying to respond to Western criticism of the Uighur genocide or persecution,” he underlined in the same paper.

Yilamujiang is from the city of Altay in Xinjiang. His father is a cross-country ski instructor who won a bronze medal in the 1993 national skiing competition.

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