Abim calls on all parties to back Uyghur tribunal in the UK

 

The Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim) has called on all parties to support the UK's Uyghur Tribunal in its efforts to investigate human rights abuses against the ethnic group in China’s Xinjiang province.

“Abim stresses that all parties, along with the international community, should support this effort as one of the measures to reveal the truth that has long been concealed and denied by the government of the People's Republic of China,” said Abim president Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz in a statement today.

Faisal said the group welcomes efforts to set up the tribunal which is chaired by Geoffrey Nice, a Queen’s Counsel who has led prosecutions against former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević for war crimes during the Bosnian war.

The tribunal, which held its first hearings from June 4 to 7, will hold its second hearings from Sept 10 to 13 where witnesses will present live evidence of the alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang.

Uyghurs are a Muslim ethnic minority in China who mainly reside in the western Xinjiang province of the country.

The group currently faces alleged persecution and human rights violation by the Chinese government in the aftermath of a riot in the region’s capital Ürümqi back in July 2009.

The Chinese government has consistently denied the existence of persecution against the minority group even after evidence and witness accounts were reported by international media.

The Xinjiang regional government has also dismissed the UK tribunal as a farce.

Faisal (above) said it is a collective responsibility by Abim as well as the international community to defend human rights.

“Abim would like to emphasise that the struggle to defend the human rights of the Uyghur ethnic group is consistent with the humanitarian agenda that Abim has highlighted on the international stage.

“It is therefore our responsibility, as well as that of the international community, to jointly defend the rights and dignity of any human being from any oppression and violation,” he said.

Faisal added that Abim’s call for backing the tribunal should not be seen as a political agenda or interpreted as being anti-China or pro-West.

“Instead, it is a shared fight on the part of the international community to defend human rights, regardless of race or religion,” he said.

The Malaysian government has expressed support for the Uyghurs ever since news of alleged human rights violations against the Muslim minority group in Xinjiang spread across the world.

Last year, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof reiterated Putrajaya’s stance against extraditing any Uyghurs to China. - Mkini