Press Release
For Immediate Release
April 5, 2026
The Center for Uyghur Studies solemnly remembers the victims of the Barin Massacre and pays tribute to the Uyghurs who suffered under brutal repression in their own homeland.
The Barin Massacre, which took place on April 5, 1990, in Barin Township in East Turkistan (AKA the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), began as a peaceful protest by Uyghurs against the Chinese government’s coercive family planning policies, including forced abortions imposed on Uyghur women. This legitimate expression of grievance was met with an excessive and unjustified use of force by Chinese authorities, resulting in the killing of more than 400 Uyghurs. In the aftermath, a large number of protestors were arbitrarily detained and subjected to lengthy prison sentences through unjust legal proceedings.
This event was not an isolated act of Chinese state violence. It was one of the earliest and clearest warning signs of the widespread atrocities that would later intensify across the region. It exposed a pattern of state brutality, collective punishment, and systematic repression that the international community failed to confront with the urgency it required.
Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris said, “What began in places like Barin would expand into a far-reaching campaign of persecution against the Uyghur people, including arbitrary detention, torture, forced family separation, destruction of religious and cultural identity, and the denial of fundamental human rights and religious freedom. Barin stands as an early chapter in this ongoing tragedy.”
The Center for Uyghur Studies rejects all attempts to erase, distort, or downplay these crimes. Remembering Barin is an act of truth and a stand against silence, denial, and impunity. The suffering of the Uyghur people did not begin in recent years, nor did it occur without warning.
The Center calls on governments, international institutions, human rights organizations, and people of conscience to speak clearly and act decisively. Justice must not be delayed by political convenience, and accountability for CCP’s crimes against the Uyghur people must not be sacrificed to silence.
The Barin Massacre was an early warning of the horrors to come. The warning was clear. The suffering was real. The world must not look away again.
Copyright Center for Uyghur Studies - All Rights Reserved