Spearheaded by the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE), a Washington, DC-based parliamentary government in exile, this coalition represents Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other native peoples of East Turkistan. In a historic and unified effort, 61 organisations across the global East Turkistani and Uyghur diaspora have come together to address the United States Congress with an urgent plea to recognize their homeland, East Turkistan, where their peoples are suffering an ongoing genocidal occupation under China, East Turkistan National Movement said in a press release. Spearheaded by the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE), a Washington, DC-based parliamentary government in exile, this coalition represents Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other native peoples of East Turkistan. They applaud the passage with broad bipartisan support of the Uyghur Policy Act through the House of Representatives, and urge the Senate to follow suit. Such actions demonstrate the continued leadership of the United States in supporting the peoples of East Turkistan, and they call on Congressional leaders to build on that leadership with sustained and increasing actions, the release also said. Just as the United States pioneered support for the people of Tibet, just as the United States stands firm with the people of Taiwan, they ask the United States to stand with the peoples of East Turkistan and resist the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) nationalism, expansionism, and human rights atrocities. They are calling on the US to recognise their homeland, East Turkistan, as an occupied country, highlighting the significant historical context that on October 12, 1949, the PRC's People's Liberation Army invaded East Turkistan and overthrew the independent East Turkistan Republic on December 22, 1949. In October 1955, the People's Republic of China designated much of East Turkistan as the "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region." "Xinjiang" means "the colony" or "new territory" in the Mandarin language. The open letter to Congress outlines the grave situation in East Turkistan under the People's Republic of China's occupation, highlighting ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity, and the systematic attempt to erase the identity and existence of the East Turkistani people. The letter acknowledges the US Congress's support thus far but stresses that more decisive action is needed to address the root cause of these atrocities: the colonization and occupation of East Turkistan by China. The United Nations' Human Rights Council's recent Universal Periodic Review of China demonstrated the divide between countries willing to call out human rights atrocities and countries coerced into complicity with those atrocities. The gravest of these atrocities occur daily in East Turkistan, and throughout China and Central Asia with the forced displacement and genocide of the native peoples of East Turkistan. The ETGE has documented these atrocities in four separate filings with the International Criminal Court, it added. Mamtimin Ala, President of the ETGE, emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating, "The recognition of East Turkistan as an occupied country by the U.S. Congress would be a significant step towards restoring the rights and freedoms of our people. It is not just a matter of political recognition but a moral imperative to stand against ongoing genocide at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party led Chinese state and affirm the right to external self-determination for the oppressed peoples of East Turkistan." Salih Hudayar, Foreign Minister of the ETGE, added, "The United States has always been a beacon of freedom and justice on the global stage. By recognizing East Turkistan's status as an occupied nation and upgrading legislative actions, the US can lead the international community in a meaningful stand against China's relentless campaign of erasure and oppression." This collective call to action underscores the critical need for the U.S. and the international community to confront the reality of China's colonization, genocide, and occupation of East Turkistan. The signatories express their readiness to provide further information and assistance to advance the cause of justice, human rights, and dignity for East Turkistan. The East Turkistan Government in Exile urges the US Congress to heed this call and take a stand for freedom, justice, and the right to external self-determination for the people of East Turkistan.  Source: ANI

  Emergence of new “religiophobia”, especially against Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs, is a matter of serious concern and needs to be recognised, just like Christianophobia, Islamophobia and anti-semitism, to bring a balance in discussions on such issues, India said at the United Nations on Tuesday.   Speaking at the International Counter Terrorism Conference by Global Counter Terrorism Council on January 18, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations T S Tirumurti said, “In the past two years, several Member States, driven by their political, religious and other motivations, have been trying to label terrorism into categories such as racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism, violent nationalism, right wing extremism, etc.”   Referring to “emerging threats”, he said it is “essentially a move to categorise terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism, based on the motivations behind such acts”.   Calling it a “dangerous” tendency, Tirumurti said this “goes against some of the accepted principles agreed to by all UN Member States in the recently adopted Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which clearly states that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations should be condemned and there cannot be any justification for any act of terrorism, whatsoever”.   Such actions, he said, “will take us back to the pre 9/11 era of labeling terrorists” as “my terrorists” and “your terrorists” and will “erase the collective gains we have made over the last two decades”.   In democracies, Tirumurti said, “right-wing and left-wing are part of the polity primarily because they come to power through the ballot reflecting the majority will of the people and also since democracy by definition contains a broad spectrum of ideologies and beliefs. We, therefore, need to be wary of providing a variety of classifications, which may militate against the concept of democracy itself”.   Such labels are being given “to so-called threats which are limited to certain national or regional contexts,” he said, adding that “extrapolation of such national or regional narratives into a global narrative is misleading and erroneous”.   “Such trends are neither global nor have any agreed global definition,” said Tirumurti, who took over as the Chair of UN’s 15-member counter-terrorism committee for 2022 beginning this month.   On religious phobias, Tirumurti said the UN has “highlighted some of them over the years, namely, those based on Islamophobia, Christianophobia and antisemitism – the three Abrahamic religions”, which are also mentioned in the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.   He said “new phobias, hatred or bias against other major religions of the world need to also be fully recognised”.   The emergence of contemporary forms of religiophobia, he said, “especially anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist and anti-Sikh phobias is a matter of serious concern and needs attention of the UN and all Member States to address this threat”. Only then “can we bring greater balance into our discussion on such topics”, he said.   In the last two decades, Tirumurti said, there has been considerable progress in combating terrorism but “we are recently witnessing a resurgence of terrorist activities both in their range and diversity as well as geographical space”.   Regarding the situation in Afghanistan, Tirumurti cautioned that the developments there are being closely watched in Africa by terrorist and radical groups.   Source: The Indian Express

Canada on Tuesday said that it has no plans to accept the Taliban as the new government of Afghanistan as the terror group entered the presidential palace on Sunday and seized the Afghan capital declaring its victory over the Afghanistan government. "They have taken over and replaced a duly elected democratic government by force. We have no plans to recognise the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. They are a recognised terrorist organization under Canadian law. Our focus right now is on getting people out of Afghanistan and the Taliban need to ensure free access to people to get to the airport," Canada's CTV Network quoted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as saying on Tuesday. Mr. Trudeau mentioned that, 20 years back when the terror group had gained control over Afghanistan at that time also Ottawa didn't recognise the Taliban as the country's government, CTV Network reported. Soon after President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday, the Taliban entered Kabul and gained control over the presidential palace. The terror group also declared its victory over the Afghan government. The Taliban leaders are discussing future government plans in Doha and are in touch with the international community and intra-Afghan parties to make government in Afghanistan. Over Afghanistan's situation, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday called for an immediate cessation of all hostilities and the establishment of a new government that is united, inclusive and representative. In a press statement, UNSC President TS Tirumurti said that the members of the Security Council called for an immediate end to the violence in Afghanistan, the restoration of security, civil and constitutional order. (ANI) (Imrul Hasan)