NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
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Photo Credit: International Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC)
WASHINGTON: The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) has urged the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor to accept the complaint by the East Turkistan Government in Exile and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement alleging genocide by China.
The complaint, backed by more than 60 parliamentarians from 16 countries, says the Chinese government may be committing genocide and other crimes against humanity against the Uyghur and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan.
“We thank IPAC for signing the letter urging the ICC to accept our complaint against China,” said Salih Hudayar, Prime Minister for the East Turkistan Government in Exile. “We also call on countries outside of IPAC and member states of the ICC to support our case and recognize China’s atrocities as genocide against Uyghur and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan.
The East Turkistan Government in Exile and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement will be holding a news conference in Washington, DC, and live streaming on Tuesday, November 10.
WHAT: News Conference
WHO: East Turkistan Government in Exile, East Turkistan National Awakening Movement
WHEN: Tuesday, November 10 from 10 – 11 AM
WHERE: 1325 G St NW, Suite 500 Conference Room, Washington DC 20005, and live streaming at https://www.facebook.com/ETAwakening and Twitter @ETAwakening
Available for interviews are Prime Minister Salih Hudayar of the East Turkistan Government in Exile and internment camp survivor Zumret Dawut.
ICC Complaint receives global support
The IPAC has received broad cross-party support in several countries, including the former UK Conservative party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the Australian Labour senator Kimberley Kitching and Margarete Bause of the German Green party.
The letter states: “The ICC has a unique ability to adjudicate on alleged genocide and crimes against humanity internationally. We call on the ICC to play its part in ensuring that the perpetrators of the most egregious human rights abuses are held accountable and prevented from acting with impunity.”
The Labour peer Lady Helena Kennedy QC, the IPAC co-chair and director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, said: “Mounting evidence points to the most horrific abuses against Uighurs and other minorities in the Xinjiang region. The international criminal court must fully examine the allegations brought before it and, if warranted, make every effort to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Rodney Dixon, the barrister, leading on the detailed legalities of the claim, said: “The support for our complaint shown by the IPAC parliamentarians is very significant. The prosecutor should feel encouraged that so many parliamentarians from other ICC member states believe she should open an investigation into the Chinese government officials for the atrocities being committed against the Uighur and other Turkic people.
“For too long, nothing of substance has been done to bring justice to those who are suffering on a daily basis at the hands of the Chinese government. This is a breakthrough and momentous opportunity which we urge the ICC prosecutor to pursue without delay. This chance should not be squandered.”
Background
In July, a team of London-based lawyers representing the East Turkistan Government in Exile and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement filed the ICC complaint against Beijing for pursuing the repatriation of thousands of Uyghurs through unlawful arrests in or deportation from Cambodia and Tajikistan.
The lawyers’ 80-page filing includes a list of more than 30 Chinese officials they said were responsible for the campaign, including Xi Jinping, the Communist Party leader.
Over recent years, Mr. Xi’s policies have put Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan under a pervasive net of surveillance, detention, social re-engineering, organ harvesting, and forced sterilization.
Over three million ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples have been held in internment camps in the region, drawing growing global condemnation. In May of 2018, Randall Schriver of the United States Department of Defense repeatedly said, “likely closer to three million citizens” were imprisoned in these camps.
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