The Uyghur woman fighting to keep her culture alive
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https://emp.bbc.co.uk/emp/SMPj/2.44.3/iframe.htmlThe Uyghur woman fighting to keep her culture aliveClose
Mukaddes Yadigar is a Uyghur entrepreneur who has been living in the UK since 2011.
In London, she has two restaurants devoted to Uyghur cuisine. Every month, she holds events there to celebrate the food, music and dances of her people – to ensure the preservation of their culture.
The Uyghur are a Muslim minority who hail predominantly from the region of Xinjiang, in China.
Human rights organisations accuse the Chinese government of detaining over 1 million Uyghur Muslims and restricting their religious practices. And local activists say China is trying to erase their culture.
Produced by Regina Lam and Fahima Abdulrahman
Filmed and edited by Fahima
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Times November 15th
Government refuses to call Chinese campaign ‘genocide’
Catherine Philp, Diplomatic Correspondent
Monday November 15 2021, 12.01am, The Times
Despite parliament’s unanimous vote recognising Beijing’s human rights violations against the Uighurs, the British government has not concurred
MPs have condemned the government’s refusal to call China’s persecution of the Uighurs a genocide and renewed calls for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in protest at Beijing’s actions.
Responding to a report from the foreign affairs committee, the government said it would not “make determinations in relation to genocide” despite parliament’s unanimous vote recognising Beijing’s campaign against the Uighurs as such.
The Biden administration in Washington came into office declaring that Beijing’s persecution of the Uighurs amounted to genocide, with parliaments in Canada, the Netherlands and the UK following suit.
Under international law, the crime of genocide is defined by the attempt to eradicate in part or in whole a religious or ethnic group, including attempts to erase their culture or control their birth rate. Beijing has imprisoned as many as two million Uighurs in what it calls “re-education camps” designed to combat extremism. Human rights groups have documented a campaign of mass sterilisation of Uighur women in an attempt to limit population growth. Uighur detainees have also been enslaved to pick cotton in Xinjiang and work in factories supplying goods for export, prompting western sanctions on companies using their labour.
Parliament voted in April to recognise Beijing’s campaign as genocide. Tom Tugendhat, Tory chairman of the committee, called it disappointing that ministers had failed to acknowledge that “a genocide, perpetrated by the Chinese government, was taking place”. He added: “The scale and severity of the human rights abuses represents an international crisis.”
He also criticised the refusal to impose a ban on cotton imports from Xinjiang or place sanctions on all companies that operate there. Current British sanctions are limited to cases in which the use of forced labour can be clearly established.
The committee also renewed its call for a diplomatic and ministerial boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, which would mean that while athletes were free to participate, Britain would not send any officials.
Tugendhat said a boycott would “send a clear and powerful message: that the UK will not stand idly by in the face of genocide and crimes against humanity. The decision to look the other way will weigh heavy on our conscience, and ‘never again’ will become another empty phrase.”
Ministers did accept a recommendation to raise concerns with Unesco, the UN’s cultural agency, over the destruction of Uighur cultural sites, including graves, in Xinjiang. It turned down a request for a special fast-track asylum scheme for Chinese Uighurs.
House of Lords Debate November 25th
Thursday 25 November 2021
Lord Alton of Liverpool to move that this House takes note of the reported remarks of the Foreign Secretary that a genocide is underway against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, China (balloted debate).
