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PRESS RELEASE: WUC Marks 4th Anniversary Of Continued Silence On Yarkand Massacre

PRESS RELEASE: WUC Marks 4th Anniversary Of Continued Silence On Yarkand Massacre A Uighur man looks on as a truck carrying paramilitary policemen travel along a street during an anti-terrorism oath-taking rally in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region May 23, 2014. China launched a one-year campaign against terrorist violence in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on Friday, after 39 people were killed and 94 injured in a terrorist attack on Thursday, Xinhua News Agency reported. The Chinese characters on the banner read, “Willingness to spill blood for the people. Countering terrorism and fighting the enemies is part of the police spirit.” Picture taken May 23, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA – Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA

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

On the fourth anniversary of the Yarkand massacre, the World Uyghur Congress remembers all those who were killed on, and in the days following, July 28, 2014. It has been four years since Chinese security forces violently suppressed a large peaceful protest in Yarkand, leading to the deaths of many innocent Uyghurs. Since then, we have witnessed an escalation in discriminatory state policies that have led to the an estimated one million Uyghurs arbitrarily detained in political indoctrination camps.

In the year preceding Yarkand, Uyghurs had been killed consistently in a number of violent incidents with security forces and police. What occurred in July 2014 and in the days following, however, would mark the deadliest episode since the unrest in Urumqi in July 2009, and many details about what transpired remain murky to this day. All communication to and from the region was suspended in the months following the incident as internet and cell communication disappeared.

The major cause of the initial protests, according to Uyghur sources, was the response of the Chinese government to a protest that took place in Bashkent Township that led to the extrajudicial killing of a Uyghur family of five during house to house searches in the area. This resulted in the flight of many Uyghurs to nearby Elishku Township where they would then participate in the demonstrations there.

According to the Chinese government, 96 civilians (including 59 Uyghurs) were killed when police and security forces clashed with protesters. Chinese state media labelled the incident a “premeditated terrorist attack on a police station in Xinjiang.” Although the attack took place on Monday, July 28, state media took a full day to release any official reports about the incident.

Uyghur groups, however, reported that the incident involved residents protesting against “Chinese security forces’ heavy-handed Ramadan crackdown […] and extra-judicial use of lethal force in recent weeks.”

The Chinese government has consistently used the spectre of ‘terrorism’ to justify harsh repressive measures against the Uyghur population. A Counter-Terror Law that was passed in 2016 and roundly criticized by rights groups for its overly broad and vague language, has provided further cover for the state to apply inappropriate labels to Uyghurs critical of state policies.

Four years after the Yarkand massacre, the problems that instigated the protests still persist and have deteriorated further. Restrictions on religious rights and freedoms for the Uyghur people have become increasingly severe, essentially making it impossible for Uyghurs to peacefully practice their religion in any way.

Beginning in 2017, China began to send Uyghurs en masse to political indoctrination camps indefinitely without charge. Estimates in mid-2018 put the number at around one million in the camps that essentially function as prisons, where detainees are forced to undergo political indoctrination classes aimed at eroding their unique religious, cultural and ethnic identities. Several former inmates of these camps have recalled brutal physical and mental torture.

It is in this context that Uyghurs have continued to live for years, fearful of the presence of unrestrained forced by police, backed up by a central government that has little or no tolerance for dissent or the mere practice of quotidian cultural traditions.

We therefore implore the community of states, NGOs and international organizations to come together to strongly raise the issue in order to affect change.

After four years, countless questions remain unanswered about the true number of those arrested, killed and disappeared. The lack of transparency, accountability and any semblance of justice for the families of the missing and deceased has been striking.

The WUC demands that the Chinese government act immediately and transparently to disclose whereabouts and fate of the missing and deceased to their family members and the wider community.