Press Release – For immediate release
3 July 2018
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

On July 5, 2018, the World Uyghur Congress commemorates the 9th anniversary of the Urumqi massacre in Urumqi, East Turkistan. Protests will be held around the world to remember all those who were killed, forcefully disappeared and the thousands of peaceful Uyghur protesters who were injured by the armed Chinese police and security forces between July 5-7 in 2009 and the WUC calls on the Chinese government to fulfil its international human rights commitments and open an independent investigation into countless disappearances.

The peaceful protest in 2009 began with several thousand Uyghurs — mostly students marching towards the People’s square in central Urumqi at around 5:00 pm on July 5. They expressed their anger at the Chinese government’s handling of Guangdong Shaoguan incident in which two Uyghurs were killed by Chinese factory workers in a dispute. Hundreds of Chinese police with shields, rifles, and clubs were already in position and moved to disperse and arrest the protesters before they reached the People’s Square, indicating that the government had full knowledge of the protest beforehand and was well prepared to suppress it.

The regional government quickly instituted a communications blackout that lasted for months following the incidents that prevented the flow of information in and out of the area through the complete restriction on the internet and mobile phone use. These tactics have since been used frequently in an attempt to tightly control who is able to gain access to information, amid a general lack of access to independent media that persists year round.

Reports from Amnesty International and the Uyghur Human Rights Project, who both conducted interviews with eyewitnesses to the events, concluded that the security forces made liberal use of live ammunition during the unrest. Along with those that were killed and injured in the incident, a considerable number of arrests were also made shortly afterward. In a report released by Human Rights Watch, it was estimated that there were 43 verifiable cases of enforced disappearances of Uyghur prisoners arrested in the aftermath – a number that is likely much higher in reality.

The Uyghur community across the world is organizing protests in capital cities to mark the anniversary. The WUC has organized a demonstration, which will be held in Munich, Germany on July 5, 2018. This demonstration will not only remember the victims of the July 5th massacre, but will also highlight the current situation in East Turkistan, where more than one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are being arbitrarily detained in political indoctrination camps, and to demand that action be taken by the international community. Uyghurs living abroad have lost all contact with loved ones and friends who have vanished into the camps and are growing increasingly desperate at their inability to help them.

China has a history of arbitrarily detaining dissidents to criminalize and prohibit free expression and belief, as well as a host of other fundamental human rights that are at least nominally enshrined in domestic law. In the immediate wake of the July 5th protests, Chinese authorities responded with force, which resulted in many deaths, shedding a dim light on the Chinese Communist Party’s misguided pride in its policies towards ethnic unity within the territory of the People’s Republic of China.

In the aftermath of the ethnic unrest, Chinese authorities proceeded to crack down on Uyghurs’ liberty and freedoms by putting in place a ‘new strike hard campaign’, reminiscent of the previous one in the wake of the Ghulja massacre, a total internet blackout, and a systematic search for those who participated in the peaceful protests.

As Xi Jinping solidifies his power in China, the situation in East Turkistan continues to worsen. Repressive new security and surveillance measures implanted by the region’s Party Secretary, Chen Quanguo, have effectively turned East Turkistan into an open-air prison, as the most heavily policed region on earth. Uyghur culture, religion, and language have all been targeted by the Chinese government, as it launches a campaign of assimilation aimed at diminishing the Uyghur community by attacking the unique Uyghur identity.

In response to this, on July 5, 2018, Uyghur communities around the world will demonstrate to have their voices heard as they demand the rights of the Uyghur people to be respected and call for China to be held accountable for its actions. We call for justice for the victims of the July 5th massacre and for China to make known the whereabouts of the many Uyghurs who were disappeared nine years ago. We also call on the international community to listen to our calls and take concrete action to improve the situation of the Uyghur people.