Several NGO representatives on Saturday expressed support for the Uyghurs’ struggle to build a sovereign nation, and they called on more Taiwanese to take a stance against China’s oppression of the ethnic group.
“As human rights workers in Taiwan, the least we can do is speak out for the Uyghurs on the anniversary of the establishment of the East Turkestan Republics,” said Shih Yi-Hsiang (施逸翔), secretary-general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, at an event in Taipei to mark that milestone.
Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region have been struggling for decades to establish an independent East Turkestan. They succeeded in setting up two short-lived East Turkistan Republics, on Nov. 12, 1933 and 1944, respectively, before they were brought under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949.
At Saturday’s event outside Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, Ho Chao-tung (何朝棟), president of the Taiwan East Turkestan Association, said the Uyghurs have been deprived of even the most basic human rights ever since they lost their sovereignty during the 1949 invasion of East Turkistan by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
The CCP’s repressive rule of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang is aimed at forcing them to conform to Han Chinese culture and has fueled the Uyghurs’ distrust of the Chinese regime, Ho said.
Wu’er Kaixi (吾爾開希), an Uyghur national who was a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, said he continues to hope that democracy and freedom will one day prevail in China, because a democratic system would give the people there the right to self-determination.
If China one day embraces democracy, perhaps the subjugated East Turkestan Republic would be able to gain independence, said Wu’er Kaixi, secretary-general of Taiwan’s Parliamentary Human Rights Commission.
The commemorative event in Taipei was attended mainly by NGOs that are focused on human rights in Tibet and Hong Kong, and it also featured the hoisting of the national flag of the East Turkestan Republics and the playing of the national anthem.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel