Press Release – For immediate Release
14 June 2023
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org 
+49 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) commemorates the 35th anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy Uyghur student protest in Urumchi and highlights the courage of the protestors. The Urumchi protest preceded the Tiananmen Protest in 1989 and became one of the most significant large-scale public expressions of discontent against the Chinese government’s discrimination policies against Uyghurs. 

Already in 1985, students mobilised a mass protest to denounce discriminatory education policies that disadvantaged Uyghur students, birth control policies and the devastating effects of nuclear testing in the Lop Nur region on the health of locals, and the lack of genuine representation in government and employment opportunities for Uyghurs. 

‘’In university, I quickly learned the limitations of being an Uyghur. The policies implemented by the State were explicitly discriminatory against us. This is why I became a student leader leading up to the 1988 pro-democracy protest’’, said WUC President Dolkun Isa. ‘’At the time, there was still some freedom to organise such movements. Today, everyone is locked up.’’ 

The Uyghur student protest movement of the 1980s was led by current WUC President, Dolkun Isa, who had earlier established the Scientific and Cultural Association. Its aim was to educate Uyghur students across the country about their own rights according to the Constitution. On June 15 1988, Mr. Isa and Erkin Tursun, representing Uyghur students, had a five-hour intense debate with high-level officials of the Chinese government about these discriminatory policies. After failing to find a compromise, the two student leaders went back and mobilised thousands of students in the streets of Urumchi. 

In the aftermath of the 1988 protests, Mr. Isa was expelled from the university and was forced to flee the country in 1994, later seeking asylum in Germany, where he has continued to speak out on Uyghur human rights.

Likewise, Mr. Isa, Erkin Tursun was another prominent figure during the 1988 protest movement. He later became a reputable TV producer and journalist, who worked for Ili Station for nearly 30 years. On April 21, 2021, it was confirmed that he was serving a 20-year sentence for ”inciting ethnic hatred, discrimination and covering up crimes”, according to Beijing authorities. Another prominent Uyghur activist and Mr. Isa’s classmate, Waris Ababekri was a co-founder of the Students Cultural Scientist Union at Xinjiang University. Ababekri co-organized the June 1988 student protest, which ultimately also led to his expulsion. Ababekri was reportedly sent to a camp at the beginning of January 2019 and released in mid-November. He passed away a week after his release, on 24 November 2019. 

Although the student democracy protests in East Turkistan were ultimately stamped out by the Chinese government, these demonstrations were the seeds for the future of the Uyghur human rights movement. 

On this important commemorative day for the Uyghur people, we ask the international community to stand with the Uyghur people in their calls for human rights, freedom, and democracy. The WUC reiterates the need for coordinated, urgent and concrete action to end the genocide.