April 5 Barin Massacre Press Statement
Dear members of the press:
Today, on the 34th anniversary of the massacre committed by the occupying China in the Barın city of East Turkistan, and also to protest the policies of the occupying Chinese regime that deprive the Muslims of East Turkistan from fasting due to Ramadan bans in this holy month of Ramadan, we say "We will not forget Barın, we will not give up fasting". We are at the iftar table.
34 years ago, in the month of Ramadan in 1990, the occupying Chinese army carried out a massacre in the city of Barın in East Turkistan. The people of Barın had expressed their just demands such as the abolition of China's birth control policy carried out under the name of "Family Planning", which posed a great threat to the survival of the people of the region, and to stop the illegitimate immigration and settlement of the Chinese in East Turkistan. When these demands were rejected by the Chinese regime, the people reacted and took to the streets. The occupying Chinese administration, which was frightened and alarmed by the increase in the crowd, responded by opening fire against innocent people. The people of Barın, who were subjected to this brutality, first took a defense position with primitive weapons, and sticks against the Chinese army with thousands of heavy weapons. This disproportionate war launched by China turned into a national resistance with the participation of many young people from the region. Seeing that the situation was getting more and more unfavorable, the Chinese administration sent 22454 armed soldiers, tank troops, helicopters and airplanes to the region and blockaded the region for 5 days. The Chinese army launched a massive offensive towards the city of Barın, which has a population of about 20000 people, and carried out a terrible massacre and destruction. As a result, thousands of Barin youth, innocent women, and children, especially Zeydin Yusuf, Ishak Hoshur, Memet Turdi, Memet Tursun, among the leaders of the Barin Uprising, were brutally martyred. After this massacre, China blockaded Kashgar, Artush, Aksu and Hoten provinces of East Turkistan under the pretext of security and arrested tens of thousands of Uyghur youth on charges of "rebellion" and sentenced them to death or life imprisonment. China's anger and rage grew so great that 70 bullets were removed from the body of a baby in its cradle.
Today, here, in front of the Chinese consulate, the massacre that took place on April 5, 1990 Ramadan, again on April 5, 2024 Ramadan, the punishment of the perpetrators of the massacre and especially the Barın massacre, the February 5 Gulja massacre, the July 5 Urumqi massacre. We demand that he be tried in the international court of justice for the many massacres committed in East Turkistan during the 74-year occupation, such as the İlişku massacre. We shout to the free world that a massacre and genocide is taking place in East Turkistan. Just like what is happening in Palestine today, massacre and genocide have been taking place in East Turkistan for years. The occupying Chinese regime frequently organizes fake visits to East Turkistan in order to cover up the genocide and assimilation crimes it is committing in East Turkistan. One of the obvious examples of this is that just a week ago, a delegation of representatives of political parties from Arab countries visited East Turkistan at the invitation of China and spread China's false propaganda by telling the world public opinion that "people there live in prosperity and happiness". Their visit is a betrayal against the Muslims of East Turkistan, who are forbidden to perform their religious rituals and deprived of all their religious rights, even during this holy month. As East Turkistanis, we condemn and reject all statements justifying China's genocide crime and the visits of the so-called Islamic world's fake delegations.
Today, on this blessed day of Ramadan, in front of the Consulate General of Occupying China, we cry out as the voice of 35 million Muslim people who cannot experience Ramadan in East Turkistan and protest against China's Ramadan bans in East Turkistan with our iftar table. We will not forget Barin, we will not give up fasting. We call out to the whole world, especially the Muslim community, for the occupied East Turkistan, which is characterized as a terrorist crime for fasting, praying and being Muslim.
China has aimed to assimilate the people of the region as a state policy since it occupied East Turkistan. At this point, the two factors that slowed down and prevented China's assimilation policy were the religious beliefs of the people of East Turkistan and their civilization and culture, which is completely different from China. China uses all state apparatuses to sinicize the Muslim people of East Turkistan and destroy these two fundamental elements. The oppressive policies of China, which has declared war on Islam and culture in East Turkistan for years, are most evident during Ramadan. Before the start of Ramadan, the occupying China distributes Ramadan circulars to the institutions in East Turkistan that carry out the Chinese colonialist policy in East Turkistan, controls who is fasting and who is not, and declares a state of emergency throughout East Turkistan during Ramadan. East Turkistanis are forbidden to fulfill their religious duties and Islamic traditions during this month: They are forced to eat in broad daylight during Ramadan and are banned from performing taraweeh and time prayers in mosques. Since 2016, distributing iftar meals, fasting, praying, reading and teaching the Quran, and even practicing religious beliefs and possessing religious symbols have been considered sufficient offenses for a person to be detained in a concentration camp.
Since its occupation of East Turkistan, China has been implementing policies such as physical torture, organ theft, rape, insult, racism, unlawful arrests, deprivation of freedom of religious belief, confiscation of assets, forced abortion and sterilization against the people of East Turkistan. East Turkistani influential leaders and intellectuals have been arrested and killed by the Chinese state; mosques, shrines and other historical sites have been destroyed. China used East Turkistanis as slave laborers and trampled the values of the family institution under the name of "Sister Family Project". It has separated children from their families by building children's camps and deprived parents of the right to teach their children the Uyghur language, culture, and values. In fact, it is state policy to give children whose parents have been killed or locked up in camps to Chinese as children. China's repressive policies have been recognized as crimes against humanity and genocide by the UN, the EU Parliament, and other countries.
We, as the International Union of East Turkistan Organizations:
We call on the UN, the Organization of Turkic States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League, Muslim countries, and the whole world to act together to stop the genocide in East Turkistan.
We demand from the international community to put an end to the massacres, genocide, and inhumane practices in East Turkistan, to recognize that East Turkistan is the land occupied in 1949, and to recognize the right to independence by respecting the free will of the East Turkistan people.
We ask mercy from Allah to all our martyrs who fought for the independence of East Turkistan, especially our martyrs who lost their lives in the Barın Massacre.
Hidayet Oguzhan
International Union of East Turkistan Organizations
05/04/202
