Photo by Gary Raynaldo / Protesters hold rally near United Nations against human rights crisis in East Turkestan  Feb. 5, 2019

By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC TIMES

OUTSIDE UNITED NATIONS – NEW YORK –  About 50 protesters rallied near the United Nations Tuesday to call attention to “human rights abuses” that occur in East Turkestan, or the Xinijiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China. Uyghur are Turkic speaking Muslim, mainly living in  East Turkestan and other Central Asian countries. According to the rally organizers, ever since the Chinese government occupied the East Turkestan (Xinhiang by China) in 1949,  it has repeatedly violated human  rights.  And since 2017, they contend,  millions of Uyghurs and  other Turkic peoples such as Kazak, Kirgiz, Uzbek, have been locked up in concentration camps.  At Tuesday’s rally,  organizers called on the public to ask their senators or congressional representatives to sign the H.R. 649 Bill: to Condemn gross human rights violations of ethnic Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, and calling for an end to arbitrary detention, torture and harassment of those communities inside and  outside China; and Senate Bill: S.178: A bill to condemn gross human rights violations.

Photo by: Gary Raynaldo / One of speakers at rally against human rights crisis in East Turkestan (China) near United Nations Feb. 5, 2019.

The rally organizers also accused the Chinese Communist government of systematically purging ethnic Uighur intellectuals, writers, poets, university students, and athletes, in Xinjiang Autonomous Region (East Turkestan).

Video of Speaker at rally near United Nations against Chinese Communist government  human rights crisis in East Turkestan Feb. 5, 2019.

Photo by Gary Raynaldo / Anti-China Communist Government  rally New York Feb. 5, 2019

Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  Rally against human rights violations by Chinese Communist government

Supporters of the  East Turkestan movement accuse China of engaging in aggressive policing, and surveillance in the Uygurs’ homeland of Xinjiang.  Chinese officials say heavy handed policing   is necessary to eradicate a dangerous separatist movement and the growing  Islamic extremism taking root in the region. China often refers to Uyghurs as dangerous, violent, separatist militant/terrorists.