The following statement is attributable to the ETGE’s President Ghulam Osman Yaghma
EDMONTON, Canada -Feb 5, 2020
Today is February 5th, on this day massacres had occurred, we commemorate this day as a tragic day. On this day a tragedy occurred as the Chinese occupiers repeated their policy of brutal suppression in response to the thousands of men who took to the streets to peacefully protest the arrests of women who were peacefully practicing their religion.
The accustomed relationship between the Chinese invaders along with their government and the people of occupied East Turkistan was as such: we had intentions of friendship and harmony, the Chinese showed animosity both openly and concealed; we were to peaceful put forth our requests, whereas the Chinese used state terrorism in response, such has this relationship developed.
Today as our people commemorate the brutal Ghulja massacre, this question came to my mind: Today, we commemorate February 5th as a day of tragedy, now tell me what day of ours has passed without a tragedy?
Today, it has been 3 years since the camps have been subjected our people to fascistic torture and psychological re-engineering in the real sense. These camps have been described as Nazi-like camps. However, if we compare the historical information with the testimonies of live witnesses of China’s concentration camps, we can see that the Chinese have already surpassed the Nazis on many levels. With the already known evidence, we can say today that every day is a February 5th for the people of East Turkistan; in fact, the number of our people that are being killed on a daily basis is multiples of those who were killed on February 5, 1997. Today, the level of oppression that is present in our Homeland maybe makes our people miss the previous February 5ths as if it was an era where there were not as much restrictions, an era when we had peace, an era that where we had holidays.
Today, in the west social development has surpassed calling just for human rights to calling for the rights of animals. In terms of Science and technology, it is an era of cyber electronics, whereas the people of East Turkistan are living under the ignorance of the middle ages. Today the Chinese are engaging in a form of oppression that primitive human beings thousands of years ago couldn’t have even imagined. To achieve its evil goal of global supremacy, the Chinese are developing and testing biological weapons on our people and engaging in genocide with the aim of wiping out other ethnicities.
Just like Garcia Marquez stated, “the reality in Latina America cannot be fabricated by anyone, not even the greatest fantasy writers,” the situation in East Turkistan today is at that level, to where it is becoming impossible to get people in the outside world to believe this reality. In other words, the oppression in our Homeland far surpasses the most extreme dystopian fantasies that writers can make up, unfortunately this dark reality is a part our people’s daily life.
Although today, every average day surpasses the oppression and tragedy faced on February 5th, does that mean we shouldn’t commemorate February 5th? No, it is never like that! If we ourselves erase this day from our memory, especially on a day where our people have been caught in the web of interest-based relations and forgotten by the world, will our faces not be darkened in front of the spirit of our martyrs? We will remember, we will commemorate. Just like that, we will try to remind the world that is silently watching this tragedy and these crimes against humanity unfold.
Oh people of the world, oh protectors of democracy in so-called western world, the Chinese today are doing to us (the people of East Turkistan) the very same things (but to a much greater scale), the things which you had done to the Native Americans and others, the things which you are ashamed of and have apologized for. If you continue to remain silent to these atrocities today, then tomorrow your humanity will condemn you, you will be tormented by your conscious.
On this tragic day, I call on those in the western world who have not traded their sense of justice for interests and all those kind hearted people across the world who show sympathy to East Turkistan and its people to call on the world to no longer watch East Turkistan’s tragedy, its pain, its suffering and shout “Stand up Against Oppression!”
