France is taking a clear position in relation to the internment of members of the muslim minority uighur and turkic in China. A practice is "unacceptable," said Paris, Tuesday, 21 July, demanding that Beijing allow the access of independent observers, international in Xinjiang.
" France is watching with great attention the set of testimonies relayed by the press and the organizations of defense of human rights ", said the minister of foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, Wednesday, in front of the national Assembly. "This is all the information that we have, or read, what are internment camps for Uighurs, the mass detentions, disappearances, forced labour, forced sterilization, destruction of cultural heritage in uighur and, in particular, places of worship, monitoring of the population and, more generally, all the repressive system put in place in this region ", he continued.
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The perspective of' independent observer international "
" All of these practices are unacceptable. We condemn with great firmness ", stated Jean-Yves Le Drian, eliciting applause in the chamber. "In the immediate future, we request that China allow access to independent observers, international in this area and that it allows the high commissioner for human rights [the UN] to visit Xinjiang in freedom. "
In the morning, interviewed on the radio France Info, the French minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, has also referred to a practice " outrageous and unacceptable, and [that] we strongly condemn ". This question " should obviously be part of the discussion that we have with our chinese partners ", added the minister, without pronouncing on the existence of possible imports from France of masks that would be produced in centers of internment, forced into China.
Washington and London on the frontline
The United States announced Monday place eleven chinese companies on a black list, which limit their access to technology and american products, because they are involved in the persecution of the minority uygur. These eleven companies " are involved in violations of human rights related to the implementation of the campaign of repression, mass incarceration, forced labor, collection, involuntary biometric data and genetic analyses aimed at the muslim minority from the Xinjiang uygur autonomous region ", accuses the american government.
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Washington, like other western capitals, as well as organisations for the defence of human rights, accuses China of having interned in the Xinjiang region at least a million muslims. China denies this figure and says that it is the vocational training centres, intended to help people to find a job in order to keep her away from the temptation of islamist extremism. For his part, the head of british diplomacy Dominic Raab has accused Sunday the China of committing "serious violations, offensive to the rights of Man" against the minority muslim turkic-speaking.
The Uighurs are the main ethnic group in Xinjiang (in northwest China), a huge region which has common borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Regularly hit by deadly attacks, is assigned by Beijing to be separatist or islamist uighurs, it is under high police surveillance.
