INVESTIGATE PLIGHT OF UYGHUR IN COTTON FIELDS
We standby the testimonies of Uyghur being an oppressed minoritiy in Xinjiang.
China ‘s continuous claims that the Uyghur population are undergoing a vocational training in camps cannot be accepted against contradictory evidences of forced detention and torture.
Reports of forced labour of Uyghurs in cotton fields should be investigated. The serious allegations by various reports can only be dealth with if China allows a free investigation by an independent body.
If the investigation is found to be true, the international community must act to stop the oppression. Restriction of importing cotton from Xinjiang should be considered if China continue to continuing its violation of human rights of Uyghurs.
The report must be verified to ascertain the truth. The claim that more than half a million people from ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang have been coerced into picking cotton , needs to be proven through an independent study.
The Center for Global Policy report of a significant evidence that the cotton harvest is “tainted” by human rights abuses, including suspected forced labour of Uighur and other Turkic Muslim minority people , is serious and needs to be taken into concern by the international community.
We regret that the international criminal court has declined to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity and genocide in Xinjiang.
China cannot continue on a denial position to reject the reports of human rights oppression.
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) – a paramilitary production entity which produces a third of Xinjiang’s cotton – is alledged to have human rights concerns.
We take serious concern on the report – written by Adrian Zenz, an independent researcher specialising in Xinjiang and Tibet – who alleged of coercive “labour transfer programs” involving hundreds of thousands of Uyghur and other minorities as workers to pick cotton.
We regret there is a discouraging of “illegal religious activities” by the China authorities. The suppression of religious practices is a violation of human rights.
We condemn any measures to deny Uyghur Muslims of exercising their rights to conduct their religious obligations.
China’s denial of mistreatment of the minority populations – including the mass internment of people in re-education camps, enforced sterilisation of women, technological and human surveillance – must be compared with evidences by testimonies.
The alledged vocational training centres necessary to combat “religious extremism” cannot be accepted.
The exiled Uyghurs who delivered a dossier of evidence to the ICC asking it to investigate crimes against humanity and genocide in Xinjiang should be reconsidered.
Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid
President MAPIM
