At 3 p.m. local time on April 4, 2025, the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) organized a demonstration in front of the Chinese Consulate in Munich, Germany, to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Baren Massacre.
Thirty-five years ago, in Baren Township, Aktau County, Xinjiang, around 200 people held a peaceful protest against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) birth control and religious repression policies. The protest was brutally crushed by the Chinese authorities. Over 50 people were shot dead on the spot, and the rest were arrested—most of whom later died under torture in prison. Decades later, the Chinese government continues to carry out large-scale repression in Xinjiang, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, cultural and religious persecution, forced labor, sexual abuses, family separations, mass surveillance, torture, forced sterilization, and enforced disappearances. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs remain detained in concentration camps.
Members of the Ilham Tohti Initiative, the Association for the Defense of Human Rights and Religious Freedom, and Christians from The Church of Almighty God participated in the rally, united in their call to end the persecution of the Uyghur people.
