June 29, 2020
WASHINGTON,DC
Statement by the Executive Council of the East Turkistan Government in Exile
The world has once again received reports confirming that China and its Communist Party is using forced sterilization, forced abortion, and coercive family planning against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan, as part of its continuing campaign of colonization and genocide.
The report by German researcher Adrian Zenz highlights China’s forced sterilization of Uyghur and other Turkic women in East Turkistan over the past few years, especially since 2016. Zenz’s revelations are sadly consistent with decades of Chinese government practices to slowly eradicate the Uyghur and Turkic population of East Turkistan. In Zenz’s reports he highlights the fact that in 1949, at the time of Chinese occupation of East Turkistan, about 6% of East Turkistan’s population was Chinese. However, over the past 70 years, as a result of colonization and genocidal policies such as forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and executions, the Uyghur and other Turkic population growth have largely decreased.
Between 1979-2009, the Chinese government reported that they “prevented the illegal births of 3.7 million babies” in East Turkistan alone. Reports of forced abortions have been prevalent in East Turkistan since the 1980s, in recent years, China has been mandating that Uyghur and other Turkic women be sterilized in a bid to prevent the growth of East Turkistan’s population.
According to the UN Genocide Convention, “Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,” is an act of genocide. There is no doubt that China is clearly enforcing forced sterilization, forced abortions, and other family planning policies with a clear intent to eradicate the future existence of Uyghur and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan.
Over 3 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tatars and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan have been locked up in concentration camps and labor camps. Millions more have been given heavy prison sentences for made up political crimes. Over 500,000 Uyghur and other Turkic children have been forcibly separated from their families and are being indoctrinated in state run orphanages and boarding schools to become “loyal Chinese citizens.” Hundreds of thousands if not millions have been starved to death over the past 70 years of Chinese occupation of East Turkistan. Hundreds of thousands, more likely millions, have been killed as a result of Chinese nuclear tests, weapon tests, executions, and massacres of entire villages.
The World has promised “Never Again” many times after the Holocaust of over 6 million Jews and millions of others under the Nazi Germany, yet they fail to STOP genocide in the 21st century.
Thus, the East Turkistan Government in Exile urges ALL governments across the world, especially those in the Free World to formally recognize China’s atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan as a genocide. We call on the UN Security Council to raise the East Turkistan issue and work to uphold the UN Genocide Convention, and undertake humanitarian intervention if necessary.
