The situation in Xinjiang is rapidly deteriorating. We, the members of ITI, deplore the fact that Xinjiang’s Communist Party secretary Chen Quanguo should use such vocabulary : “Bury the corpses of terrorists and terror gangs in the vast sea of the people’s war” when mentioning the hundreds of people who have died under the violent movement of repression which is actually taking place in Xinjiang.
We believe the arrest and sentencing of Ilham Tohti has left a huge scar in the Uyghur people’s hearts and minds. Now that the most well known Uyghur intellectual, who always asked for dialogue, prosperity and peace in East Turkestan is not free to express the ideas that could have brought about better times for the Uyghur population in their own region, there is no space left for anything but violence. We request the immediate liberation of Ilham Tohti to bring pack peace and understanding in East Turkestan, also known as Xinjiang.
Enver Can, President of ITI, Munich; Marie Holzman, President of Solidarité Chine, Paris
ILHAM TOHTI INITIATIVE 