East Turkistan body urges US to end trade deal with China

A US based international organisation striving for the restoration of East Turkistan's independence has urged the Trump administration to end its trade deal with China and take action to stop genocide of the Uyghur and other Turkic people in the communist nation.

In a statement, East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (ETNAM) has alleged that for decades China has been engaging in a brutal campaign of colonisation and genocide in the occupied East Turkistan.

In recent years, over three million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tatars and other Turkic people in East Turkistan have been sent to concentration camps, prisons, and labour camps, ETNAM said.

The statement came as members of ETNAM held a peaceful protest demonstration in front of the White House on Thursday.

Last month, the ETNAM and the East Turkistan Government in Exile filed a formal complaint urging the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute Chinese officials for genocide and other crimes against humanity.

“We call on governments across the world to support this effort. We call on member states of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) like Australia, Canada, France, India, Japan, US, UK and others to file a parallel complaint to the ICJ and work to hold China accountable,” the ETNAM said.

Over a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim ethnic minorities in the region have been interned in "political reeducation" camps and the entire families of Uyghur advocates for human rights in China have disappeared, including many US citizens.

However, China has denied the allegations of human rights violations and persecution of Muslim minority groups.

ETNAM has urged the US government to end its trade deal with China.

"We urge the US government to officially recognise the atrocities as a genocide while also recognising East Turkistan as an occupied country. The US and other countries in the free world must take action through sanctions and other means, to stop China's genocide in occupied East Turkistan and we ask you to join our call,” it said.

The US and China in the beginning of the year signed Phase-1 of a trade deal, ending a bitter two-year tariff war that had rattled the global economy.