PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release
East Turkistan Government in Exile
+1 (202) 599-2244, Ext: 1
contact@east-turkistan.net
www.east-turkistan.net
WASHINGTON: February 17, 2021 – President Biden is dismissing the genocide against the Uyghur population in China Occupied East Turkistan, dubbing the mass internment a “different norm” — despite the State Department this month responding to “atrocities” in the camps, following reports of systemic rape and torture, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.
Many Uyghurs and other East Turkistanis in the diaspora are worried that President Biden sough to portray China as the victim and justify its genocide and other crimes against humanity when he stated that “culturally, there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow.” However, the “norms” in China, as shown in a recent BBC News exposé, include systemic torture and rape occurring in Uyghur concentration camps.
The East Turkistan Government in Exile, the democratically elected official body representing East Turkistan, what China calls “Xinjiang (the colony / new territory) and its people, condemns in the strongest terms, President Biden’s recent statements which has been perceived by our diaspora community as an attempt to justify China’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan by portraying China as a “victim.”
We urge President Biden to issue a statement clarifying his stance on China’s genocide and other crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan.
President Biden’s recent statements have been perceived by many as a statement not only seeking to justify China’s genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan but also a statement that misconstrued as giving a green light to other despotic regimes across the world to engage in genocide and other atrocities against vulnerable ethnic and religious groups as well.
If President Biden is truly faithful to his promises of upholding human rights and human dignity, then he should lead the U.S. and the international community to ACT immediately to end this ongoing genocide.
“As the President of the most powerful country in the world, which symbolizes freedom and hope, President Biden should know that nothing can be a justification for genocide,” says Prime Minister Salih Hudayar of the Government in Exile. “Hitler attempted to create a ‘Greater Reich’ through aggression, invasion of neighboring countries, and the Holocaust of millions of Jews and others. Xi Jinping is doing the same thing today and must be stopped.”
On January 19, 2021, the U.S. State Department under the Trump Administration designated China’s atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples as genocide, the designation had been reaffirmed by new Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
China’s atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan constitute genocide as defined by the 1948 UN Genocide Convention and U.S. Code Section 1091 on genocide.
