Uyghur Associations Worldwide To Observe Black Day, Sat. Aug. 29th

Uyghur Associations Worldwide will tomorrow observe ‘Black Day’, with silent protests in response to Chen Quanguo celebrating his 4th anniversary as the Communist Party Secretary of Xinjiang – a period overshadowed by four years of brutality and torture for the East Turkestan people.

In events planned, addresses will be given by Uyghur representatives in New York  (Hon. PM Salih Hudayar), and Adelaide in Australia  (Hon. Adam Turan) with the overall protest being led by the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (ETNAM), according to a worldwide press release sent to The Taiwan Times.

The movement is being supported by the Central Tibetan Administration (Tibetan Government in Exile) & Falun Dafa Association (Falun Gong) in what will be seen as “a protest against global inaction & indifference against ongoing ‘crimes against humanity.'”

The day will feature a demand for Chen Quanguo to step down and eventually to be put on trial for his role in ‘crimes against humanity’ as “the architect of the mass genocide aimed at Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other Turkic people in the East Turkestan region.” according to the press release.

“Chen Quanguo is guilty of the following crimes committed against the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic people which should be investigated (for his role in) massacres, mass internment camps, torture, disappearances, forced birth control and sterilisation, the forcible transfer of children from their families to Chinese state orphanages and boarding schools, and measures aimed at eliminating the use of the Uyghur and other Turkic language in schools” the release states, adding “enhanced surveillance of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples significantly beyond that experienced by Han Chinese.”

Chen’s reign has also seen Tibet endure “killings, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, rapes, and torture of the Tibetan people.” the press release added. 

The day’s events will also be live-streamed on the social media pages of the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement: (Twitter) https://twitter.com/ETAwakening and (Facebook) https://www.facebook.com/ETAwakening/ East Turkistan Government in Exile (English).

East Turkistan was an independent nation at various points in history. The most recent time the nation enjoyed independence was from 1944 – 1949 when it was known as the East Turkistan Republic.

Communist China “invaded East Turkistan in late 1949, however with the support of the Soviet Union and in the years since, the resource-rich region and formed a key part of the new Chinese Belt and Road trade route.”

The Chinese Government has explicitly stated that one of their key National Defence aims it to prevent “the creation of East Turkistan”.