Save Uyghur Campaign Applauds the Lithuanian Government’s Declaration of Genocide

Save Uyghur Campaign applaudes the Lithuanian government’s declaration of China’s treatment on Uyghurs as a genocide. Lithuania marks as the fifth country to pressure China to stop the ongoing genocide in East Turkestan after the US, UK, Canada and Netherland by its Uyghur genocide declaration. The Lithuanian government voted in favor of the U.N. investigation of extermination camps in East Turkestan and asked the European commission to reconsider their relationship with Chinese government. Hereby, we express our gratitude to the members of Lithuanian parliament who contributed to the passing of non-binding resolution on Uyghur genocide determination, and especially to Dvile Sakalience who stated , “We support democracy, as we will never forget the cruel lesson of living under occupation by a Communist regime for 50 years” yesterday during the voting. 

Our Save Uyghur campaign team lead, Serwi Huseyin expressed her excitement for this historical motion of Lithuanian government, and said, “Uyghurs and other ethnic Turkic speaking nations in East Turkestan have been suffering under the communist regime since its occupation in 1949. Starting from 2016 China’s crackdown on Uyghurs reached its peak, and now, up to 5 million Uyghurs and other ethnic Turkic nations are held inside China’s extermination camps. Uyghurs are dispersed from their roots in East Turkestan and relocated across China under China’s forced migration projects and working as slave laborers in China’s forced labor chains. Uyghurs are the largest victims of communism in this century and Lithuania took the right motion to stand by the side of Uyghurs as a country who also suffered under the communist regime for more than a half century. I think Lithuanian government’s courageous action will inspire other countries to take similar actions to hold China accountable for its ethnic cleansing campaign committed against Uyghurs.”

While we cheer for this courageous step of Lithuanian government on making the right choice on Uyghur issue, we urge Lithuanian government to sanction top Chinese officials who are responsible for this ongoing genocide and take solid measures on economic and deplomatic relations with China following the Uyghur genocide determination. We believe this action taken by Lithuanian government establishes an example for other countries around the globe to take a stand against Chinese government who is committing a crime against humanity and show solidarity for Uyghurs and other turkic speaking nations whose lives and rights are grossly violated in occupied East Turkestan.