Bavarian-Chinese Spring Festival (April 28)

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) are critical of the participation of Bavarian politicians in the Bavarian-Chinese Spring Festival. Thus, the human rights organizations called on Bavaria's Economy Minister Hubert Aiwanger (CSU) and Munich's Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) to withdraw their patronage of the Chinese propaganda event. "In view of the serious human rights crimes against the Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in Xinjiang (western China), it is absolutely unacceptable for German politicians to support events like this," stated Jasna Causevic, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. "Hundreds of thousands of members of the Uyghurs, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz are forced to work in Chinese factories – and hundreds of thousands of children have been torn from their families and put into state orphanages for indoctrination. Against this background, German politicians cannot take part in a publicity show for the Chinese state with a clear conscience." Instead, the WUC and the STP invited the two politicians to meet with survivors and relatives of the victims, as a means to inform them about the serious crimes and the general situation in Xinjiang / East Turkestan.

"More than one thousand members of the Uyghur ethnic group have found refuge in Bavaria alone," Causevic stated. "In their home country, they are not even allowed to contact relatives living abroad. If they do, they have to fear serious reprisals. Thus, many live in constant worry about whether their family members are well." It is painful and disappointing for the Uyghur diaspora in Bavaria to see how little attention local politicians pay to the dramatic situation in East Turkestan.

The human rights situation in the region has deteriorated alarmingly since 2017. "A gigantic system of internment camps and total surveillance has been installed in order to destroy the cultural heritage of the Uyghur ethnic group and other Muslim nationalities," criticized WUC President Dolkun Isa. "Forced labor, forced sterilization, rape, torture, as well as the forcible transfer of children of these communities to other communities are on the long list of human rights violations committed by the Chinese government in East Turkestan. In sum, this is clearly genocide." Also, according to a report by 50 experts on international human rights law, these human rights violations meet the five criteria of the UN Genocide Convention. The Dutch and Canadian parliaments and the U.S. government have classified the crimes as genocide as well. In the coming months, the parliaments of Belgium, Italy, and Lithuania will discuss similar motions.