“It’s a slap in the face that Emmanuel Macron is giving us,” say the Uighurs of France | EUROtoday

The French Uighur neighborhood expressed, Friday May 3, its “anger at the fact that Emmanuel Macron welcomes Xi Jinping” in France, whereas the Chinese president is because of land in Paris on Sunday for a state go to which is able to rejoice sixty years of bilateral diplomatic relations. Xi Jinping is “ the executioner of the Uighur people, the number one responsible for the genocide of the Uighurs”, launched sociologist Dilnur Reyhan, founder of the Uighur Institute of Europe, during a press conference in Paris.

“In this context where the genocide is still ongoing, this welcome by the French president of the executioner of the Uighur people is incomprehensible to us. (…) and encouragement for China to continue its crimes to the end”she denounced with emotion. “For the Uighur people and in particular for the French Uighurs, it is a slap in the face that our President Emmanuel Macron is giving us”she castigated.

The Uighurs, Sunni Muslims, represent the main ethnic group in Xinjiang, in northwest China, a region long hit by bloody attacks attributed to Islamists and separatists. Several Western countries, including the United States, France and the United Kingdom, have denounced “genocide” ongoing against the Uighurs. In January 2022, the French National Assembly adopted a resolution denouncing the “genocide” Uighurs by China, asking the French government to do the same.

Human rights violations

Since 2017, more than a million Uighurs or members of other ethnic groups, mainly Muslims, have been interned in “camps” of ” re-education “ where human rights violations are numerous, according to studies and Western NGOs. China presents part of this infrastructure as “vocational training centers” having made it possible, according to her, to teach a trade to the inhabitants, to keep them away from extremism and to ensure them a better life.

Dilnur Reyhan was speaking at the press briefing in Paris alongside Gulbahar Haitiwaji, who said “having lost three years of his life” in a ” camp “, “just because [qu’elle est] Uighur ». “China's sole aim is to silence the Uighurs, to make our culture, our history and our identity disappear. Surveillance, discrimination and concentration camps have become daily life for every Uighur”she denounced.

Noticing that it was “thanks to the involvement of France” that she could have been “liberated”Gulbahar Haitiwaji expressed his ” disappointment “ in front of “the welcome given to Xi Jinping by Emmanuel Macron”. “I ask the President of the Republic to raise the question of the camps with China and to firmly ask for their closure”she said.

“We also demand the release of millions of Uighurs who are in camps, prisons and forced labor factories”, urged Dilnur Reyhan. She denounced the fact that Mr. Macron “never wanted [la] receive, nor the two concentration camp survivors who live in France”. “But, on the other hand, he decided to welcome, not the victims but the executioner in a country which calls itself the country of human rights”.

The Uyghur Institute of Europe is planning a demonstration in Paris on Sunday afternoon, in the form of a play performed by members of the Uyghur community in France, to denounce the arrival of Xi Jinping.