FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York,

July 7, 2010

Contact:
(1) Kathy Polias, World Uyghur Congress, (347) 285-6546, [email protected].
(2) Tulga Tekman, Young Turks USA, (203) 331-5415, [email protected]; AND/OR
(3) Cenk Coktosun, Young Turks USA, (718) 864-8157, [email protected].

The World Uyghur Congress (www.uyghurcongress.org) and the Young Turks Cultural Aid Society, Inc. (also known as Young Turks USA) will stage a demonstration directly across the street from China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, 350 E. 35th Street, New York, NY this Thursday, July 8, 2010 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.  The demonstration will be to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the tragic events in Urumchi, the regional capital of East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China), and protest the Chinese government’s horrific persecution of the Uyghur people.  On July 5, 2009, Chinese security forces brutally suppressed a peaceful protest by Uyghurs in Urumchi and killed many protestors according to eyewitnesses.  Ethnic unrest and violence followed, as well as one of the Chinese government’s fiercest and most repressive crackdowns on Uyghurs in history.  The human rights violations that the Chinese authorities have perpetrated against the Uyghurs in the aftermath of the July 2009 incidents have included but have not been limited to:  mass and arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances of Uyghurs, including minors; arbitrary sentencing of Uyghurs to death and other severe sentences after trials plagued with politicization and strangleholds on due process; and arbitrary executions.

The demonstration in New York City on Thursday, July 8th will include speeches from human rights activists and is part of an international week of action spearheaded by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) one year after the Urumchi tragedy.  WUC is led by prominent Uyghur human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer and promotes the human rights of the Uyghur people on behalf of the Uyghur exile community worldwide.  WUC and its affiliate Uyghur human rights organizations are organizing actions in 15 countries this week, including but not limited to the United States, Japan, Turkey, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.  See www.uyghurcongress.org/en/wp-content/uploads/Protest-Clandar-EN.pdf for a list of actions worldwide.

“My people have been suffering tremendously at the hands of the Chinese authorities for decades and since July 5, 2009, that suffering has even reached new heights,” said Rebiya Kadeer, President of the World Uyghur Congress, former prisoner of conscience, and multiple-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee.  “We hope that more governments and more individuals around the world will respond to our calls for help and that their compassion and humanity will not be compromised by our oppressor’s economic and political power.  We hope that the actions that we are organizing for the one-year anniversary of July 5th will help to educate the world about the magnitude of our plight.”

See www.uyghurcongress.org/en/?p=2948 for the World Uyghur Congress’ press release on the international week of action, which among other things, provides sourced background information on the July 2009 incidents in Urumchi and the human rights violations committed by the Chinese authorities against the Uyghurs during and since those incidents.