Campaign for Uyghurs marks 29th anniversary of Ghulja Massacre, renews call for accountability

According to the CFU release, the incident is remembered as a defining moment that foreshadowed the widespread repression and alleged genocide currently facing Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities under Chinese rule.

As stated in the release, in the months leading up to February 5, 1997, Chinese authorities imposed a ban on meshrep, traditional Uyghur social and cultural gatherings that played a central role in fostering community cohesion and preserving cultural identity. The ban, CFU said, triggered widespread anger among Uyghur youth.

On February 5, 1997, thousands gathered in Ghulja to protest peacefully against what the organisation termed Chinese aggression and restrictions on Uyghur cultural practices.

The CFU release alleges that Chinese security forces responded to the demonstrations with violent force, resulting in the killing of hundreds of protesters and injuries to many others. In the aftermath of the crackdown, nearly 4,000 Uyghurs were reportedly arrested.

CFU further claimed that many detainees were subjected to torture, killed in custody, and that around 200 individuals were publicly executed following the incident.

Rushan Abbas, Founder and Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs, was quoted in the release as saying that the Ghulja Massacre represented a critical warning sign that the international community failed to heed.

She stated that global silence at the time emboldened the Chinese Communist Party to expand its policies into what CFU describes as systematic atrocities, including mass detention and imprisonment, extrajudicial sentencing, forced sterilisations, family separations, state-imposed forced labour, and the erasure of Uyghur culture and identity.

The release further asserted that the absence of accountability over the past decades has reinforced Beijing's belief that it can continue such actions without consequences. Abbas warned that this lack of international response not only affects Uyghurs but also poses a broader threat to global human rights and democratic values.

Marking the anniversary, CFU said it honours the memory of those who lost their lives during the Ghulja Massacre and reaffirmed its commitment to seeking justice for Uyghurs facing persecution.

The organisation urged governments around the world to move beyond symbolic statements and take concrete action, including enforcing existing sanctions, passing legislation to address forced labour and transnational repression, and resisting what it described as China's use of economic coercion to suppress criticism. (ANI)