Dolkun Isa

Dolkun Isa (born 2 September 1967) is a Uyghur activist based in Germany, who has been designated as a terrorist by the Chinese Government since 2003.

Dolkun Isa was born 2 September 1967 in Aksu and raised by his grandparents in Kalpin County in Aksu Prefecture until 9 years old; later he moved back to Aksu City and completed his Middle school and High school there.

In 1984 he was admitted by the Faculty of Physics of Xinjiang University and studied there until his dismissal in early 1988, just a half-year before he was to graduate, due to his human rights activities for minorities.

After that he went back to Aksu and worked for education.

In 1988, when he was studying at Xinjiang University, he led the student demonstration on 15 June 1988 in Ürümqi against alleged discrimination and unfair treatment of Uyghurs and was expelled from the school in the same year.

He later continued his studies in Beijing from 1990 to 1994.

In 1990 he went to Beijing and studied English and Turkish until 1994.

In 1994, he left the country due to a claimed detention threat and studied in Gazi University in Ankara, Turkey and received a master's degree in Politics and Sociology.

Later he went to Europe and sought asylum there.

In November 1996, he played an important role in establishing the World Uyghur Youth Congress in Germany and served as Executive Chairman and President.

He has been on a Chinese list of wanted terrorists since 2003.

Dolkun has condemned all terrorist activities.

In April 2004, he played an important role in the establishment of the World Uyghur Congress.

He also served as the Vice-President of UNPO.

In 2006 he became a citizen of Germany.

China's government claims that Dolkun is the vice-chairman of the East Turkestan Liberation Organization, however, this is denied by Dolkun.

This claim by China has led to China's issuance of a red notice to Interpol, which has not been acted on by Germany or any other country in the West where he has subsequently traveled.

Dolkun was admitted to Taiwan in 2006 to attend the meeting of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, a movement co-founded by Taiwan in 1991, during the administration of pro-localization president Chen Shui-bian.

Dolkun called for a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics, which were held in Beijing, due to an alleged cultural genocide that was being conducted against the people of East Turkestan, as China's western Xinjiang region is called by the Uyghurs, and Tibet.

Dolkun told AFP that China had failed to improve human rights in Tibet and Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused by rights groups of cracking down on local ethnic groups.

Uyghur activists have been seeking independence or autonomy for East Turkestan.

There were reports in Taiwanese media in July 2009 that Dolkun had secretly entered the country in the lead-up to the World Games which were hosted in the southern city of Kaohsiung.

This prompted the National Immigration Agency of the then China-friendly KMT government to issue a ban on his travel to Taiwan.

Rebiya Kadeer was denied a visa to visit Taiwan later in 2009, a move linked to Dolkun's alleged connections with terrorists.

Premier Wu Den-yih stated that if Dolkun or Kadeer stepped down from their respective positions in the World Uyghur Congress as secretary-general and president, the ban would be lifted.

Dolkun was denied entry into the Republic of Korea and was briefly detained in September 2009 while preparing to attend the World Forum for Democratization in Asia.

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization condemned the detention and warned the Korean government in a letter that China's accusations are groundless and that extradition would certainly result in summary trial and execution at the hands of China's authorities.

After being held for two days, Isa was released without being admitted to the country, a move that was condemned by Amnesty International.

On 22 April 2016, India had issued a visitor's visa to Dolkun to attend a conference in Dharamshala.

He is the 3rd and current president of the World Uyghur Congress, in office since 12 November 2017.

He previously served as General Secretary and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the congress, respectively, and has spoken on behalf of the rights of the Uyghurs which make up the majority population in that region.

He has also presented Uyghur human rights issues to the UN Human Rights Council, European Parliament, European governments and international human rights organizations.

In February 2018, Dolkun's red notice was removed by Interpol, to strong protest of China.

The removal mollified concerns that Interpol president Meng Hongwei, a Chinese national, would exert undue influence over Interpol's decision-making process.

However, on his next return to China, Hongwei was secretly detained by authorities in China for a period of time and resigned.

On 16 February 2018, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım met with the President of the World Uyghur Congress Dolkun Isa in Munich, where he came for the World Security Conference.

Dolkun told the PM about the situation of 11 Uyghurs who were in custody in Malaysia and reminded the PM of the Chinese occupation, forced assimilation, transformation, and religious and ethnic genocide practices in East Turkestan.

Dolkun Isa also met with Süleyman Soylu, the Minister of the Interior of Turkey.

On 15 May 2018, on the occasion of a meeting of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Dolkun, Vice-President of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and President of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), together with Sophie Richardson (then China Director of Human Rights Watch) and Ulrich Delius (Director of Society for Threatened Peoples), exchanged views on the human rights situation in China, with a special focus on Xinjiang.

Dolkun Isa, Omer Kanat and Michael Polak submitted a criminal case against China in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for allegedly committing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs in northwestern China's Xinjiang region, Aug. 17, 2022.