Human Lives Human Rights: The governor of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), Erkin Tuniyaz, is due to meet officials from the UK government, the European Union (EU) and EU member states on a visit in the coming days.
Governor of Xinjiang, Erkin Tuniyaz in his visit to Europe, will reportedly meet officials from the UK government, the EU and EU member states, and for sure will be used for propaganda purposes by the authorities in Beijing who have repeatedly attempted to hide or whitewash the ongoing grave crimes under international law and other human rights violations they have committed in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government’s massive and systematic abuses targeting Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim communities living in the region include torture, persecution and mass imprisonment, which may constitute crimes against humanity.
The rights organizations demand that questions need to be asked about the purpose of his visit. If officials choose to meet him, they cannot allow themselves to be complicit in this blatant piece of Chinese propaganda.
They must be outspoken and publicly hold the Chinese authorities to account over the crimes against humanity being committed in Xinjiang.
Dismantling the cruel system of discrimination and persecution of ethnic minorities must be the main concern of any state invited to receive Erkin Tuniyaz.
Officials must demand information about the well-being and whereabouts of the many people who have been detained or gone missing without a trace and call for the release of everybody arbitrarily detained.
It must be noted that since 2017, there has been extensive documentation of China’s crackdown against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, carried out under the guise of fighting terrorism.
In 2021, the systematic state-organized mass imprisonment, torture and persecution perpetrated by Chinese authorities amounted to crimes against humanity.
In August 2022 the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report finding that crimes against humanity may have occurred in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
It is worth to mention that over one million or more people in arbitrary detention in internment camps and prisons in Xinjiang.
