On July 5, 2009, thousands of Uighur students took to the streets of Urumchi to show their condemnation of the Chinese government’s handling of a mob attack on Uighur workers a week earlier in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, in which 18 Uighurs were killed and more than 300 were injured, and to get an answer to why the police did not show up for hours to stop the Chinese attackers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_PJTO2k0PM

Armed Chinese troops have flooded Urumchi, the capital of East Turkestan (Chinese: Xinjiang) following days of violent unrest. The situation remains incredibly tense. Chinese president Hu Jintao has vowed to "restore order" and "severely punish" Uighurs that have protested, after he returned from the G-8 Summit in Italy to oversee the intensified political and military crackdown against the Uighur people.

Events in East Turkestan mirror what happened in Chinese-occupied Tibet last year. Chinese authorities have arrested more than 1,400 Uighurs, blocked phone lines and the internet, and launched a propaganda campaign to portray the Uighurs as the sole perpetrators of the violence.

To condemn this injustice, the Uighur community in the UK is organizing a demonstration on Wednesday 15 July. We therefore request all freedom-loving people to join us in supporting the oppressed people in East Turkestan.

Organisers: The Uighur UK Association
Date: Wednesday 15 July
Time: Starts at 12pm
Venue: Gather opposite the Chinese Embassy, 49-51 Portland Place, London, W1B 1JL. (Nearest underground stations: Regents Park, Great Portland St and Oxford Circus)

Schedule:

12pm: Gather opposite the Chinese Embassy, 49-51 Portland Place, London, W1B 1JL

1pm: We march to Richmond Terrace, off of Whithall (opposite Downing Street).

3pm: A Uighur UK Association delegation will petition the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street

5pm: Finish