Uyghurs in the diaspora commemorated the July 5th, 2009 Urumqi Massacre
World Uyghur Congress, 06 July 2018
By Shahrezad Ghayrat – On the day of July 5th, Uyghurs in the diaspora commemorated the July 5th Urumqi Massacre. On Thursday, protests took place in countries such as the USA, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, France, Australia, Turkey and Japan. Protesters demanded that the Chinese authorities disclose information about the actual account of Uyghurs who were killed and the whereabouts of those who were victims of enforced disappearance during and after the July 5th incident.
On July 5, 2009, Uyghurs peacefully assembled in People’s Square in Urumqi to protest government inaction over a deadly attack on June 26 on Uyghur factory workers in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. The details of what happened that day are unclear, however, what is known is that the city erupted into unrest that resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of people. By using the local governments influence, the Chinese government only reported the number of death of Han Chinese. However, the WUC and other international organisations reported that in the aftermath of unrest in Urumqi on July 5, 2009, the Chinese security forces conducted sweeps of Uyghur neighbourhoods in the city arbitrarily detaining Uyghur males. Hundreds were dead and many were forcibly disappeared and to date their whereabouts remain unknown.