 "Dolkun Isa (Photo: Uyghur American Association)")
Most Indians, if not the world, would have never heard of Dolkun Isa before this week began. However, for the People's Republic of China, Isa is a man who merits a Red Notice from the Interpol.
Isa, executive chairman of World Uyghur Congress (WUC), who lives in Germany, had been invited by the Indian government for a conference being organised by US-based 'Initiatives for China'.
China's reaction to the invitation, ostensibly, made India cancel the visa granted to Isa, according to reports on Monday.
WUC claims to represent the struggle of the people of 'East Turkestan', officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, to determine their political future.
Xinjiang, which has a population of over 10 million Uyghur — Turkik origin Muslims, has been on the boil for several years over Uyghur protests against the large-scale settlements of Hans from different parts of the country.
But, who is Isa and who are the Uyghur people?
One man's terrorist, another man's freedom fighter?
Expressing his country's unhappiness over the invitation extended to Isa, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "What I want to point out is that Dolkun is a terrorist in red notice of the Interpol and Chinese police. Bringing him to justice is due obligation of relevant countries."
However, Isa has categorically denied any links to terrorists and China's allegations against him.
Responding to the cancellation of his visa, Isa, in a statement published on the World Uyghur Congress page, said: "I also reject any comparison or association to China’s recent veto by the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee of Pakistani militant leader, Mazood (Masood) Azhar. Such an unjustifiable comparison seeks only to delegitimise my decades of impassioned work as a strictly non-violent campaigner for Uyghur rights. China’s clear abuse of Interpol’s Red Notice issuance is also concerning."
This is not the first time Isa has fielded questions regarding China's allegations against him.
In a March, 2014, interview to Zee News, while responding to whether he believed that the Uyghur had any relations to international terrorists, he had said: "...We believe in peaceful and non-violent activities in WUC, and we will always struggle through peaceful measures on international platforms. But the Chinese government has accused WUC of terrorist activities and tried to stop our lobbying several times."
An editorial in the Republic of China's (Taiwan's) Taipei Times, dated July, 2009, says that Germany gave Isa asylum in 1997 and citizenship in 2006.
It added that Germany, till that date, had not appeared to be too concerned about China's allegations against him.
Additionally, the US National Endowment for Democracy, which according to the piece funds the WUC, and even Taiwan’s National Foundation for Democracy, which hosted the 2006 General Assembly of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation and invited Isa, did not appear to be concerned either.
An article in Design & People, dated 2011, sheds some light on Isa's early years, before he became an exile.
The article describes him as a student-leader who was involved in pro-democracy demonstrations at Xinjiang University in the 1980s. The report adds that Dolkun, as a consequence of his activities, was dismissed from the University. After his dismissal, Isa then pursued his Master's Degree in Politics and Sociology from the Gazi University of Turkey.
The Chicago Tribune describes his student days in greater detail. According to a Bloomberg View report carried by it, after his expulsion from the university in Xinjiang, Isa had began distributing Uyghur history books to Uyghurs deprived of learning about their culture in Chinese communist schools and, according to the report, for that act he was exiled to Turkey.
According to the same report, In March this year, ahead of the meeting between US President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing protested the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington presenting an honour to Isa a day ahead of Xi's meeting.
Describing how China has attempted to curb his movement, Isa, while responding to India's move to cancel the visa, said: "This is not the first time that I have had faced difficulties in my international travels to advocates Uyghur rights. In September 2009, I was detained briefly and denied entry to South Korea while travelling to attend the World Forum for Democratisation in Asia, to which I was an invited guest. China also has regularly attempted to block or interfere with my human rights work at the UN in Geneva, in particular."
