East Turkistan Government-in-Exile urges ICC to recognise China's atrocities against Uyghurs

Washington DC [US], November 11 (ANI): The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to support a complaint against China and recognise atrocities committed by Beijing against Turkic people in Occupied East Turkistan as "genocide".
Prime Minister Salih Hudayar, in a statement, said, "We urge all governments, especially member states of the ICC, to support our case against China and also to recognise China's atrocities against Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan as genocide."
According to the official statement, 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.
Hudayar also spoke about the Canadian Parliament's Subcommittee on International Human Rights and International Development, which in October designated the Chinese Government's atrocities against Uyghur and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan as "genocide" as defined under the UN Genocide Convention.
"We thank the Canadian Parliament and urge the Canadian Government to follow through with the subcommittee's recommendations," Hudayar said.
He also expressed his gratitude, to a team of US Senators who introduced a resolution in the country's Senate to recognise Bejing's "genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples."
Hudayar further thanked the US Government's decision of removing the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from the terror list, which Beijing used for years to justify the genocide of Uyghurs in China.
"We thank the US Government, especially Secretary Pompeo, for highlighting the plight of East Turkistan and its people," Hudayar said.
Further talking about the atrocities committed by China, PM of East Turkistan Government in Exile, said, "Aside from locking up millions of people in concentration camps, prisons and using them as slave labour or killing them for their organs, we suspect China might be engaging in or planning to engage in biological warfare against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples."
"In 2017, the PLA's Biowarfare Strategy textbook hinted at using 'ethnic-specific genetic attacks' against China's enemies. In 2018, Chinese state media Xinhua reported that between 2016-2017 some 36 million people between the ages of 12 and 65 had their DNA, voiceprints, and retina scans collected across East Turkistan," Hudayar added.
He further said that China is downplaying the actual population of East Turkistan and its people.
"In 1947, the Government of East Turkistan Republic had submitted documents to the U.S. State Department, which estimated the population of East Turkistan's Turkic people at being 7 million at the time. Today, China claims Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples number only 13.5 million, with some 12 million Uyghurs. Based on historical data and population growth rate calculations, we estimate the population of Uyghur and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan number from 35 to 40 million," he said.
"We call on governments and organisations to do further research to figure the actual population of East Turkistan and its people," Hudayar added.
He also condemned Muslim leaders like Pakistan's Imran Khan and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan for their silence on the human rights issue in the East Turkistan region.
"We also thank the western various countries and parliaments across the world for speaking up on our issue. We condemn the Muslim world's silence, especially Muslim leaders like Pakistan's Imran Khan and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Muslim world needs to break their silence and come to the aid of the most oppressed Muslims in the world, the Muslims of East Turkistan," Hudayar said. (ANI)