The UN Racial Discrimination Committee (CERD) recently stated in a hearing that it has received \u00abnumerous and credible\u00bb reports that one million Uighurs and other Muslims and minority groups are held in detention camps in the Xinjiang Province of China.<\/p>\n
This week a high ranking delegation from the Parliament\u2019s Foreign and Defense Committee travel to China. On the way to China they bring along a prayer from Adiljan Abdurihim of the Norwegian Uighur Committee:<\/p>\n
\u2013 Both public and diplomatic pressure can be an effective way of demanding changes from China. Therefore, we ask both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to make a clear stand on the situation in Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang), in line with the core values of Norwegian foreign policy, he says to NTB.<\/p>\n
Abdurihim shows that human rights and democracy are always highlighted as key values and goals for Norwegian foreign policy.<\/p>\n
For historical and political reasons, the Uighurs themselves refer to Xinjiang Province as Eastern Turkestan, something that does not go well with Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n
Abdurihim points out that the Uighurs for decades has been subject to abuse and pressure against their culture, language and religion in China. He thinks Norway is wrong in adopting a \u00abneutral position\u00bb in questions about people\u2019s rights in China.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It\u2019s wrong to assume a neutral position. In terms of human rights in China, Beijing is still concerned about its international status. It is very important that the Norwegian authorities raise concerns about over one million Uighurs held in political indoctrination camps, for no legal reason, he says.<\/p>\n
Labour leader Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re, the parliamentarians Hans Andreas Limi (Progress Party) and Trond Helleland (Conservatives) together with Socialist leader Audun Lysbakken participate on the committee trip.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian Uighur Committee challenges the Foreign Affairs Committee, which is in China from September 3rd through 6th, to ask the following questions during the visit:<\/p>\n
\u2013 Norway must also lift the case to prominent Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti, who has been wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment for trying to build dialogue or a bridge between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese, says Abdurihim.<\/p>\n
CERD member Gay McDougall from the United States showed during the UN hearing that China has transformed the province into \u00absomething similar to a massive detention camp\u00bb. China denies those charges.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The claim that 1 million Uighurs are detained in re-education centres, is completely false, says the Chinese delegate Hu Lianhe.<\/p>\n
In connection with a congressional hearing in the United States about Xinjiang, Republican Marco Rubio described the situation in the province as \u00abone of the cruellest things happening in the world today\u00bb.<\/p>\n