Declaration of Presidium of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar People On the situation in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China and the situation of the Uighur people
Simferopol, 13 Jul 2009 – In the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China was declared as the state of emergency and more troops were brought there, due to the massive protest actions that were held by Uighur population for the protection of their rights, which were brutally suppressed by the authorities with the use of weapons.
Thousands of innocent civilians became victims of clashes with troops and provocations that led to ethnical pogroms.
Further reports reveal that expansion of repression against the Muslim population in Urumqi and other parts of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is strengthening. The authorities forcibly closed down the mosques, mass arrests of civilians are in progress.
In order to avoid huge humanitarian catastrophe, the World Uyghur Congress appealed to the European Union to urgently deploy observers in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Congress also urged the world community to condemn the “inhuman crimes the Chinese government.”
Current events are the result of long-term discrimination policy against the indigenous people of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. Policy is characterized as purposeful Chinization by artificial change of demographical and ethnical composition of population in the Autonomy.
Thus, since 1950 and till today, state policy of mass resettlement of ethnic Chinese in the autonomous region, and at the same time, export of Uighur girls and boys in the hinterland of China is taking place. In order to expedite the assimilation of Uigurs, primary education for their children is being given only in Chinese, but in recent years, according to the policy of “Family Planning”, every family is allowed to have no more than one child.
In a situation that threatens the future fate of the original Uighur people, the Presidium of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar People encourages the Government of People’s Republic of China and all parties involved in the conflict to desist from using force and begin to resolve the conflict through dialogue and agreements based on international instruments on the right of peoples to self-determination.
Adopted at a meeting of Presidium of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar People
Simferopol, July 13, 2009