5th February Ghulja Massacre Press release
Dear members of the press and civil society representatives:
Today, we have gathered here to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the massacre that took place in Gulja, East Turkistan, on February 5, 1997. These events took place as a result of the Chinese occupation and resulted in the bloody suppression of peaceful protests that started with the people's demands for justice, democracy and human rights.
In the events that took place on February 5, 1997, when women in the city of Gulja wanted to perform their religious practices, many people were arrested, tortured, and lost their lives. The peaceful demonstration, which started in reaction to this situation, was violently suppressed by the occupying China's police and soldiers, and hundreds of people lost their lives because of the shooting. According to independent international sources, following the February 4 and 5 protests, nearly 4,000 innocent people were arrested in Ghulja and around 20,000 throughout East Turkistan. As a result of the ban on the treatment of the wounded in hospitals, dozens of people died from blood loss, and many of those arrested were executed. Amnesty International reported that more than 200 Uyghurs were sentenced to death in show trials and 90 Uyghurs were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Although 27 years have passed since the Ghulja massacre, the pain is still fresh in our hearts. Our pain will not end until the Chinese state, which is the perpetrator of this painful massacre, is tried in the İnternational Criminal Court. The February 5 massacre is just an example, and occupying China has carried out many massacres in East Turkistan since then. Occupying China established concentration camps reminiscent of Nazi practices in East Turkistan and arrested more than 3 million people and subjected them to inhumane practices such as brainwashing, physical torture and forced labor.
In addition to the genocidal policies carried out in East Turkistan, occupying China also carries out policies such as various physical tortures, organ theft, rape, insults, racism, unlawful arrests, deprivation of religious freedom, confiscation of assets, forced abortion and sterilization against the people of East Turkistan. Opinion leaders and intellectuals from East Turkistan were arrested and killed by the Chinese state, and mosques, tombs and other historical sites were destroyed. China has used East Turkistan people as slave laborers and has trampled on the values of the family institution under the name of the "Pair Up and Become Family” and has separated children from their families by building children's camps and taken away the right of parents to teach the Uyghur language, culture, and values to their own children. In fact, it was a state policy to give children whose parents were killed or locked up in camps to the Chinese.
As a result of this policy of China, the parliaments of more than 10 countries accused China of committing genocide in East Turkistan. Practices such as forced labor, slave labor, ban on religious worship, arbitrary arrests, sterilization, and forced abortion have been registered by the 2022 report of the UN Human Rights Council, and it has been declared that China has clearly committed crimes against humanity in the region.
Since the first day it occupied East Turkistan, the Chinese regime has been continuing its systematic exploitation policies in the region and distinguishing between local people and immigrant Chinese. These policies are clearly observed in every aspect of life, from government institutions to education, from administration to daily life. A concrete example of occupying China's discriminatory policies is seen in the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Uçturfan district of Aksu province of East Turkistan on January 23, 2024.
Despite the magnitude of the disaster and destruction, the occupying Chinese regime did not send a comprehensive aid team to the region, only sending a team of hundreds of people and did not pay enough attention to search and rescue activities. It concealed the number of people injured and killed in the earthquake in the first days, and in the following days, it reported that only 3 people died and 5 people were injured. However, according to later information, it was revealed that a boarding school in Yamansu town, the epicenter of the earthquake, was destroyed, students were injured and around 12 thousand people were displaced.
At the meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council on January 23, where it examined China's human rights situation for the 4th time, it is absolutely unacceptable that some countries praised China's genocide policies and turned a blind eye to the violations despite the ongoing systematic genocide in East Turkistan. China is manipulating the international community and political actors to weaken the just struggle of the East Turkistan cause and avoid interrogations regarding the crime of genocide.
In addition, it carries out intense disinformation activities to create information pollution about East Turkistan in the international public. Pro-China foreign journalists, YouTubers, influencers, and some foreign country diplomats produce genocide-denying contents and create fake agendas on social media for China. China is also trying to present its policy as successful by comparing the genocide committed by the Israeli regime in Gaza with East Turkistan. By using such manipulations, occupying China encourages Muslim countries to deny China's genocide against the people of East Turkistan. Such behavior represents a despicable attitude towards human dignity. For these countries to adopt the official discourse of the Chinese state and support the crime of genocide, considering their economic relations and political interests, is to be complicit in the genocide.
All East Turkistan people and organizations condemn the attitude of these countries against the ongoing genocide in East Turkistan and call on them to protect human dignity and common values. We call on the international community to take action to reject such despicable behavior and stop genocide.
We, as the International Union of East Turkistan Organizations:
· We call on the UN, the UN Human Rights Council, and the countries subject to the UN genocide prevention convention to fulfill their institutional and convention missions to stop the genocide in East Turkistan.
· We call on countries to take a clear and strong stance against the East Turkistan Genocide, human rights violations, and oppression, punish China and support the people of East Turkistan.
· We call on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the countries that claim to be Muslim to fulfill what Islam and Islam command, and to take sides with their Muslim brothers in East Turkistan.
· We call on the organization of cognate and co-religionist Turkic states and the Turkic Republics to handle the situation in East Turkistan in accordance with legal and moral values and emphasize that they should fulfill their responsibilities towards the people of East Turkistan and put pressure on China to stop the genocide.
With Respect:
Hidayet Oghuzhan
President
International Union of East Turkistan Organizations
4.2.2024
