France Slams 'Institutional Repression' of China's Uighurs

World

February 24th, 12:37pm

Asharq Al-Awsat

FILE PHOTO: French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian attends a working session during the Foreign ministers of G7 nations meeting in Dinard, France, April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Wednesday denounced what he called the "institutionalized repression" of China's Uighur Muslim minority. Speaking by video link at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Le Drian said that witness accounts and documents from the Chinese region of Xinjiang pointed to "unjustifiable practices towards Uighurs, and a system of large-scale surveillance and institutionalized repression." Rights groups believe that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslim minorities are incarcerated in camps in the western region of Xinjiang. Le Drian cited Xinjiang among several examples of "considerable regressions for human rights" in 2020. Le Drian also expressed "great concern" about the fate of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was jailed in 2018 after defending a woman arrested for protesting against the requirement for Iranian women to wear the hijab.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2825386/france-slams-institutional-repression-chinas-uighurs