Current Writers in Prison (12)

Nurmuhemmet YASIN (born 6 March 1974), a Freelance Uighur writer of the Uighur-language Kashgar Literary Journal, is currently serving a 10-year imprisonment in Urumqi No.1 Prison, Urumqi City, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Nurmuhemmet Yasin was arrested in Kashgar on 19 November 2004 for the publication of his short story ‘Wild Pigeon’ (‘Yawa Kepter’), first published in the bi-monthly Uighur-language Kashgar Literature Journal. He was convicted of “inciting Uighur separatism” and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

‘Wild Pigeon’.

Translated by Dr Dolkun Kamberi

I gaze at my mother for the last time. She seems peaceful, and brave. I stretch my damaged mouth out toward her. My beak, my only remaining weapon, an enemy to the humans, it protected and fed me, and then led me into the humans’ trap. It is broken now, shattered by my failed collision with the iron bars.

The poisons from the strawberry flow through me like the sound of freedom itself, along with gratitude that now, now, finally, I can die freely. I feel as if my soul is on fire – soaring and free.

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Protesting against the organizers of the London Book Fair 2012 who have not featured in their programme any writers imprisoned by the Chinese regime, this blog will be highlighting one such writer every day leading to the book fair. Although this will only show the tip of the iceberg of today’s ‘literary persecution’ under the rule of the CCP, I hope it will make more people realize the necessity of our daily question: Why haven’t British Council, Reed Exhibitions and London Book Fair invited Liu Xiaobo and other writers imprisoned by the CCP?