CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2024, 12:00 PM
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
+1 650-703-4523
As the People’s Republic of China (PRC) observes its National Day, Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) highlights the ongoing oppression that developed into an active genocide faced by the Uyghur people in East Turkistan since the regime’s occupation of the region. This day, which China celebrates as national pride, marked the turning point in Uyghur history to a dark chapter of human rights abuses.
Since the Chinese regime’s occupation of East Turkistan, the persecution and assimilation of Uyghurs have steadily increased. Throughout history, the Uyghur population has been labeled as “nationalists,” “counter-revolutionaries,” “separatists,” “religious extremists,” and “terrorists” as a means to punish their ethnic and religious identity. Today, the full-fledged genocide perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party subjects Uyghur and other Turkic communities to arbitrary imprisonment, mass surveillance, state-imposed forced labor, forced abortions, forced sterilizations, coerced marriages with Han Chinese, and organ harvesting, among other crimes against humanity.
“For the Uyghur diaspora, China’s National Day is a reminder of our continued struggle for justice, freedom, and democracy,” said Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs. “Today marks 75 years of suffering endured by the Uyghur people under China’s occupation of East Turkistan. It also highlights decades of inaction by global leaders in the face of countless massacres and the genocide we are witnessing today. If we allow Beijing to continue to evade accountability for its crimes, the fate of the Uyghur people would serve as a preview of what lies ahead for the rest of the world.”
CFU calls on the global community to reject China’s propaganda narrative and draw attention to the plight of the Uyghur people today. We call on everyone to participate in peaceful protests outside Chinese embassies around the world to raise awareness and demand accountability for the millions of innocent people in East Turkistan who have been forcibly disappeared into prisons, subjected to forced labor, and have suffered physical, mental, and sexual abuse.
