(RNS) — Two years since then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referred to as China’s repression of the Uyghurs a genocide, rights teams and political leaders proceed to demand an finish to China’s human rights abuses.
“Time is working out,” mentioned Salih Hudayar, prime minister of the East Turkistan Authorities in Exile and chief of the East Turkistan Nationwide Motion, at a information convention Thursday (Jan. 19). “If China’s genocidal insurance policies and colonialism proceed, Uyghurs and different Turkic peoples … will stop to exist as a folks inside 50 years.”
The ETGE is an exile authorities that sees itself as representing East Turkistan, a area China calls “Xinjiang,” which means “New Territory.” It’s the historic dwelling of many Uyghurs, who’re predominantly Sunni Muslim, and different ethnically Turkic folks. Each the ETGE and East Turkistan Nationwide Motion advocate for the top of Chinese language occupation within the area, which was most just lately colonized by China in 1949.
Mamtimin Ala, strategic adviser of the ETGE, mentioned the world has an “inescapable, sacred and humanistic accountability” to cease the genocide. Audio system at Thursday’s convention mentioned the violence can solely be halted by way of East Turkistan independence. They famous that whereas the overwhelming majority of Turkic folks from the area apply Sunni Islam, the motion for independence will not be tied to any type of Islamic extremism.
Ghulam Yaghma, president of the ETGE, introduced that the exile authorities and East Turkistan Nationwide Motion would quickly be releasing a 300-page report back to fight Chinese language propaganda about East Turkistan and the Uyghurs. A nine-page abstract of the report is accessible on-line.
China has lengthy focused Uyghurs within the East Turkistan/Xinjiang area, the place there’s a historical past of tensions between the group and the Chinese language majority Han folks. In response to the Uyghur independence motion and an uptick in Uyghur assaults in opposition to civilians in 2014 — which East Turkistan teams declare have been truly carried out by Chinese language intelligence operatives — President Xi Jinping started detaining reportedly greater than 1 million Uyghers in prisonlike camps for alleged infractions, starting from having greater than two youngsters to carrying a scarf.
Regardless of international consideration on the plight of the Uyghurs, China has unilaterally denied accusations of genocide and compelled labor. Whereas the federal government acknowledged the existence of the camps, it referred to as them “vocational training and coaching facilities” and mentioned they have been designed to advertise counterterrorism. The federal government maintained that the facilities closed in 2019. The United Nations has been unable to verify whether or not the camps are nonetheless in use, however in a 2022 report, the U.N. contended that “the authorized and coverage framework that underpins the operation” stays and may very well be reengaged at any time.
The U.N. report detailed mass detention in camps the place Uyghurs and different Muslim-majority teams endured pressured labor, contraception, abortions and unidentified injections. Detainees interviewed for the report additionally described torture, sexual violence and being in a state of fixed starvation and surveillance. They mentioned they have been forbidden from talking their languages or training their faith and have been subjected to overt political indoctrination.
Since January 2021, different governments, together with Canada, France, the UK and the Netherlands, have joined the U.S. in condemning China’s actions as genocide. In December 2021, Congress handed the Uyghur Compelled Labor Prevention Act, which presumes that merchandise made in Xinjiang have been manufactured with pressured labor and blocks them from coming into the USA. However the leaders at Thursday’s convention mentioned these actions fell brief.
“The one approach ahead for folks of East Turkistan … is to revive our independence and our freedom,” mentioned Hudayar. “That’s the solely option to really finish the genocide and make sure the survival of our folks.”