WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is placing 15 individuals and 10 entities under Magnitsky sanctions for their connection to human rights abuses in several countries around the world, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announces. Those sanctioned include the former Xinjiang governor Shohrat Zakir and the current governor Erkin Tuniyaz.

“Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Uyghur student movement”.

Twenty years ago on this day, December 12, 1985, tens of thousands of Uyghur youth aligned on the snowy Urumqi streets and shouted loud against the colonial regime, seeking freedom, liberty, human rights, and democracy. The Uyghur youth expressed their desire for freedom and their brave and indomitable spirit against the colonialists.