UN report confirms human rights violations in China

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) welcomes the new UN report on human rights violations in the Chinese province of Xinjiang / East Turkestan – and demands consequences in Germany as well. “The UN report confirms long-standing allegations against the Chinese authorities. Now, German companies that are active in the region have no excuse any more: They should leave Xinjiang,” stated Hanno Schedler, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. “Now, the German Federal Government should strike a clear note, make these crimes a priority at the upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council, and push for further investigations.” 

The report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights comes late: “Many victims and people who used to work in the camps have confirmed the crimes. Considering the many serious encroachments by the Chinese government, the United Nations should have issued a clear statement years ago,” Schedler added. The Chinese government is systematically trying to reduce the Muslim population of the region – by destroying mosques and cemeteries, by locking up masses of Uyghurs and Kazakhs, imposing absurdly long prison sentences, torturing, breaking up families, by indoctrinating children in stately orphanages, and by forcibly sterilizing Uyghur and Kazakh women. The aim is to ensure that, in the future, there will only be people who are in line with the Communist Party – people who have no knowledge about their original culture and language.

A joint protest by the STP and the Uyghur World Congress in Wolfsburg was scheduled for September 1 – starting at 2 pm – with the aim of demanding a closure of the VW factory in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. “Oliver Blume, the new Volkswagen boss (as of today) must finally close the factory. His predecessor Herbert Diess had always downplayed or denied the crimes of the Chinese government. This is not possible any more. Volkswagen must act!” Schedler demanded. In the course of the human rights action, the organizers will also hand over an open letter by 98 organizations that support these demands.