The following statement is attributed to the Executive Office of the President of the East Turkistan Government in Exile

Today, April 5, 2025 — East Turkistan Uprising Day — marks thirty-five years since the outbreak of the 1990 East Turkistan Uprising in Baren Township, Akto County. This day stands as a pivotal moment in the ongoing national struggle of the people of East Turkistan against Chinese colonial occupation.

On April 5, 1990, East Turkistanis rose in defense of their existence, dignity, and future. This act of resistance was triggered by the Chinese occupation regime’s brutal enforcement of so-called “family planning” policies, under which over 250 Uyghur women in Baren were forcibly subjected to abortions. And our unborn children were taken from us. These were not isolated atrocities — they were part of a systematic attempt to eradicate the identity and existence of the Turkic peoples of East Turkistan.

Led by Zeydin Yusup, hundreds of East Turkistanis marched to the local Chinese colonial office to demand an end to the atrocities and to Chinese occupation itself. What began as a peaceful protest against genocidal forced abortions and colonial occupation transformed into an armed uprising in defense of their progeny, people, and homeland. In response, the Chinese state deployed over 20,000 troops, supported by helicopter gunships, aircraft, and heavy weaponry, to crush the uprising. Over the course of twelve days, more than 3,000 East Turkistanis were massacred. More than 7,600 were arrested, with many tortured, imprisoned, or executed. To this day, no independent investigation has ever been allowed.

The Baren Uprising was not an isolated incident, but a legitimate act of anti-colonial resistance against decades of Chinese occupation and systematic repression.

The East Turkistan Government in Exile affirms that the martyrs of Baren were national heroes who exercised their inherent right to resist foreign domination, as recognized under international law. We commemorate the 1990 Uprising in Baren as a defining moment in the ongoing struggle to restore East Turkistan’s rightful independence, and solemnly honor the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for our homeland. It was the continuation of a national liberation struggle that persists to this day — a struggle for the right of our people to live freely in their own land, in accordance with their faith, culture, and identity.

Since 1990, China’s war on East Turkistan has intensified, culminating in the full-scale genocide launched in 2014 — a genocide which, as of 2025, continues to this very moment. Millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples remain imprisoned in concentration camps and prisons. More than one million children have been forcibly separated from their families and placed in state-run institutions designed to erase their language, faith, and identity. Hundreds of thousands of women have been sterilized. Millions of unborn children have been forcibly aborted.

Over 16,000 mosques, cemeteries, and cultural sites have been destroyed. Millions are enslaved in forced labor camps and factories. Tens of thousands of our youth are murdered each year for their organs, harvested and sold through China’s state-run system of industrial-scale exploitation. This is not history. This is happening now.

The East Turkistan Government in Exile calls on the international community — including governments, international organizations, and civil society — to fulfill their obligations under the Genocide Convention and international law.

The world must take urgent and concrete action to end China’s ongoing campaign of colonization, genocide, and occupation in East Turkistan. We further urge all states to recognize East Turkistan as an occupied country, and to support the East Turkistani people’s inalienable right to external self-determination and the full restoration of their national independence and sovereignty.

East Turkistan is not part of China. It never was. It is a nation under foreign occupation. The uprising in Baren is a solemn reminder that our people have never — and will never — accept subjugation. We will continue our national struggle for liberation until East Turkistan regains its full independence. The Baren Uprising embodies the unyielding spirit of our nation. We honor our martyrs by continuing the struggle for a free and independent East Turkistan.

— Dr. Mamtimin Ala, President of the East Turkistan Government in Exile