- Title: Uyghurs welcome British-based tribunal decision on China
- Date: 10th December 2021
- Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (DECEMBER 9, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WOMEN HOLDING PHOTOS OF THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS DURING A GATHERING TO MARK INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
- Embargoed: 24th December 2021 10:57
- Keywords: China Uyghurs. British based tribunal Xinjiang
- Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
- City: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Fundamental Rights/Civil Liberties,Europe,Middle East,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002F7GHSUF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Uygurs living in Istanbul have welcomed a finding by an unofficial tribunal of lawyers and campaigners which accused Chinese President Xi Jinping over the treatment of Uyghurs and members of other minorities in the Xinjiang region.
The tribunal, which is headed by British lawyer Geoffrey Nice but has no powers of sanction or enforcement, accused Xi of what it said was genocide, crimes against humanity and torture.
China dismissed the tribunal as a "farce" being used by its enemies to spread lies.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), which represents the interests of the mostly Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang and around the world, asked Nice in 2020 to set up an independent tribunal to investigate accusations of abuse in Xinjiang.
"We can say that this is one of the biggest phases of the case of East Turkestan. We would like to thank to everyone who contributed to this phase," President of World Uyghur Congress in Turkey Abdulrashid Abdulhamid said on Friday (December 10) in Istanbul.
About 50,000 Uyghurs are believed to live in Turkey, where they share ethnic, religious and linguistic ties with Turks and form the largest Uyghur diaspora outside of Central Asia.
On Thursday evening (December 9), they organized an event ahead of International Human Rights Day and voiced their concerns for their families jailed in Xinjiang.
"I just expect Chinese government to stop the genocide and the international arena do some act," said lawyer Jevlan Shimmemet, whose said his mother is in jail in Xinjang.
"I only want my parents to be alive," Uyghur student Abdulkadir Abdulkerim said, adding he hopes to be reunited with his family one day.
Some foreign lawmakers and parliaments, as well as the U.S. secretaries of state in both the Biden and Trump administrations, have labeled the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide, which China vehemently denies.
U.N. experts and rights groups estimate more than a million people, mainly Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in Xinjiang.
China initially denied the camps existed but later said they were vocational centers and designed to combat extremism. In late 2019, China said all people in the camps had "graduated."
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