Geneva, 8 August 2003.

Mr. Enver Can, President of the East Turkestan National Congress and member of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party, speaking on its behalf at the 55th Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights denounced the systematic violation of the civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights of his people living in the colonial province Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Mr. Can emphasized how the struggle or the ascertainment of his people’s rights had found in non-violence a hope for the internationalization of their dire living conditions and in the TRP an organization equipped to assist them in this regard.

These rights, all guaranteed under the Chinese Constitution are fare from being respected in the everyday life of the Uyghurs. The destruction and the rewriting of Uyghur history is a pretext for a complete elimination of their cultural, social and economic identity.

As Muslims, the Uyghurs don't have any right to their religious activity since the authorities consider them illegal. Further proof of this cultural genocide is the negation of the Uyghur language as the official language of the autonomous region, the burning of historical books in 2002 and the destruction of the ancient architecture in the city of Kashgar.

Therefore, the Transnational Radical Party urges the Sub-Commission to use its expertise to reach out to UNESCO to immediately stop the destruction of the cultural heritage of Kashgar as well as to send a formal delegation to the city.

Lastly, the TRP invited the UN body to put pressure on the Chinese authorities to repeal the decision of abolishing the Uyghur language in the educational system and to appoint a special rapporteur for East Turkestan in order to document the violations of cultural, social and educational rights of the Uyghur people.

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