The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile on Thursday rallied in front of US Capitol to commemorate East Turkistan's Independence Day and highlighted China's human rights violation against the minorities in the region.
The government-in-exile held similar demonstrations and events in Japan, Turkey, France and Canada.
The Canadian Parliament's House of Commons also commemorated East Turkistan's National Independence Day. Prime Minister Salih Hudayar thanked the Canadian Parliament and called on Canada's Government to "formally recognize East Turkistan as an Occupied Country."
"Our towns, our religious places of worship, and even our cemeteries have been destroyed as China seeks to leave no evidence that we existed," Prime Minister Hudayar said on Thursday. "For us, there is only one solution, and that is the restoration of our country; East Turkistan's independence. For without independence, we will have no human rights."
In 1876, the Manchu Qing Dynasty invaded East Turkistan and renamed to "Xinjiang (New Territory)" in 1884. On November 12, 1933, East Turkistan's people overthrew Chinese occupation, only to be overthrown six months later on April 16, 1934.
On November 12, 1944, the Second East Turkistan Republic was established. Five years later, the Chinese invaded, once again and overthrew the East Turkistan Republic on December 22, 1949.
The Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tatar and other peoples of East Turkistan have spent the last 71 years fighting to restore their independence. For the last six years, millions of East Turkistan people, mostly of Muslim faith, have been held in concentration camps, prisons and slave labour camps.
According to survivors' accounts, they are being tortured, killed for their organs, raped, sterilised and executed.
The government-in-exile is advocating for official recognition from the world's governments and parliaments.
"We face and continue to face numerous obstacles and malicious efforts by China and its agents to coerce, infiltrate, influence and undermine the East Turkistan Government in-Exile and East Turkistan's struggle to regain our independence," Hudayar said.
"However, we have full faith that with the support of our people and our foreign friends, we will be able to overcome these obstacles and malicious efforts. Nothing can stop us from pursuing our right to exist as a free and independent country," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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