Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

2-minute read
08 April 2023 | 15:49 CAT

Photo credit: Campaign For Uyhurgs

Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) honours the memory of the brave protesters mercilessly slaughtered by the Chinese regime in Baren, a township in East Turkistan’s Akto county, near Kashgar. This atrocity, which claimed the lives of thousands on April 5th, 1990, marks its 33rd anniversary this year. CFU pays tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice while standing up for the freedom and justice that Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples have been deprived of for decades under the oppressive and brutal rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

Program Director for Campaign for Uyghurs, an Uyghur born in exile, an activist, and an advocate of Uyghur rights, Arslan Hidayat, speaks to Radio Islam International on the history of the Baren massacre.

According to Hidayat, the Baren massacre/revolution occurred 41 years after the Chinese occupation and colonisation. Ten years of the ‘one child policy’ had seen millions of Uyghur babies aborted as the idea of the Chinese regime was population control.

However, Hidayat said, thousands of Chinese migrants from inner China were brought into East Turkistan to colonise the region further. The people of the province initially staged a protest in front of the local Chinese government, which brutally quelled the uprising by the Uyghurs. Several Uyghurs were killed in the government operation.

Meanwhile, several protest marches were taken out, and programmes were organised in Bangladesh on Wednesday.

Bangladesh Khilafat Andolan organised a ‘Dua Mehfil’ in Dhaka about killing ethnic Uyghur Muslims in China and its prominent leader Zadin Yusuf in 1990. The speakers condemned the atrocities against the Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. A protest march was held after the event to highlight the situation of Uyghurs in China.

The Islamic Progotoshil Janta Front, Bangladesh Mohajir Welfare and Development Committee and Open Dialogue Bangladesh also organised programmes and events at various places in Dhaka to highlight the atrocities against the Uyghurs in China.

Listen to the full interview with host Annisa Essack on Radio Islam’s podcast.