Urumchi Massacre 11th Anniversary Protest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Philips Square, Montreal, July 05, 2020 -- International Support for Uyghurs (ISU) is organizing a protest to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the July 5th, 2009 Urumchi peaceful demonstrations that were turned into a violent massacre by Chinese government forces. In the onslaught, hundreds were killed and many more injured in clashes with police and military forces. Afterwards, many Uyghurs were disappeared by Chinese officials for their participation in the protests. Human Rights Watch documented some of these cases even including teenagers as young as 14 years old. Several of the detained Uyghurs were given death sentences, and some were executed.

The Chinese communist regime has a long history of human rights violations which has escalated since 2016 with the use of concentration camps containing 1-3M ethnic Uyghurs, child separation, and forced sterilization among a long list of atrocities amounting to Genocide. 

The protest will also rally around the detention of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen, who has been detained in China for his human rights activities since March 27th, 2006. The day of the protest will mark 5215 days since his arrest. In Toronto, Celil’s wife and 4 children, now grown up, hope for his return and to be re-united sooner than later. The Canadian government has yet to secure his release. 

As Uyghur Canadians, we also stand in solidarity with Hong Kong and Tibet who have also suffered deeply at the hands of the Chinese communist party. We call on the Canadian government to take stronger approach against China’s list of ever-growing human rights violations.