Press Release – For immediate release
11 April 2014
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), in cooperation with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and Society for Threatened Peoples, and with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy, will be convening a conference entitled ‘The Silenced Crimes against Humanity: Enforced Disappearances, Arbitrary Arrests, and Extra-Judicial Killings of Uyghurs in China’ in Munich, Germany, from 13 to 16 April, 2014.

The conference will serve as a platform for dialogue on one of the most alarming developments in China; the odious crimes against humanity specifically targeting the Uyghur community with the aim of silencing peaceful dissent. The conference will serve as a discussion to raise the issues of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial killings and organ harvesting, in light of new Chinese leadership and increased international attention to China’s deteriorating human rights record.

The conference will begin with an Uyghur cultural event held on Sunday, 13 April and will officially open the following day with statements delivered by Rebiya Kadeer (World Uyghur Congress), Marino Busdachin (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization), Ulrich Delius (Society for Threatened Peoples), Louisa Coan-Greve (National Endowment for Democracy) and Marco Panella (Non-violent Radical Party Transnational and Transparty).

During Panel I, entitled ‘Under the “Reformer”’s Gaze: Xi Jinping and Growing Resentment of Human Rights Violations in China’, Enver Tohti (Expert of the ‘Lop Nor Project’), Vittorio Pagliaro (Second University of Naples) and Umit Hamit (World Uyghur Congress) will discuss China’s current political turmoil, widespread human rights violations, and State-sponsored ethnic discrimination, particularly the targeting of Uyghurs.  Ethan Gutmann (Fellow at the Foundation for Defense and Democracies) and Peter Irwin (London School of Economics) will take the floor during Panel II, which will focus on China’s policy changes since the Urumqi incident of 5 July 2009, and will be further enriched by a witness testimony. The first day of the conference will finish with a video presentation introducing the audience to the topic of enforced disappearances in East Turkestan.

On Tuesday 15 April 2014, Panel III, called ‘China’s Policy of Fear, Intimidation and Coerced Conformation: Understanding Enforced Disappearances’, will start with an intervention by Aileen Bacalso (Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances), followed by Erkin Emet (Ankara University) and Alim Seytoff (Uyghur American Association), who will discuss the extraditions and enforced disappearances of Uyghurs. A launch of the report on enforced disappearances will follow to complement the morning’s fruitful debate. To discuss the occurrence of arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial in East Turkestan, Iva Petkovic (UNPO), Ulrich Delius (Society for Threatened Peoples) and Perhat Muhammedi (East Turkestan Union in Europe) will analyze China’s role in the endless cycle of tragedies during Panel IV.

The second day of the conference will draw to a close with Panel V, which will aim to look at the ways forward and international strategies for ending crimes against humanity in China, with contributions by Louisa Coan Greve (National Endowment for Democracy), Nury Turkel (Uyghur Human Rights Project) and Aileen Bacalso (Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances).

For further information, please contact the WUC Executive Chairman Mr Dolkun Isa ([email protected]).