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Uyghurs in the diaspora commemorated the July 5th, 2009 Urumqi Massacre

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.

The WUC conducted detailed reports on the enforced disappeared of 47 individual cases. In the aftermath of the incident, the Chinese authorities also had a major crackdown on Uyghur websites such as “Diyarim” “Shebnem” “Altun Tarim” “Orxun” etc. sentencing the organisers and administrators from a minimum of five years up to imprisonment for life. Individuals cases such as Gülmire Imin, Nijat Azad, Memetjan, Gheyret Niyaz, Niyaz Qahar are just a few people among many more.
According to the report conducted by the WUC, it is still unknown the whereabouts of those Uyghurs who fled to countries like Cambodia and Thailand, who were all deported back to China and disappeared.
It is safe to say that the July 5th Urumqi incident marks one of the major turning points in the treatment of Uyghurs by the Chinese government.