Chai Brady
Irish people should write to their TDs and push for Ireland to stand with the Uyghur Muslim minority in China who may be facing “the worst single abuse of human rights in the world right now”, according to the bishop of the Diocese of Raphoe.
Bishop Alan McGuckian told The Irish Catholic that as more countries conclude that the Uyghurs are facing a genocide the Irish Government must speak out and demand answers.
“It’s recognised from so many different sides that the position of the Uyghurs is potentially one of genocide and it may be the worst single abuse of human rights in the world right now,” he said.
“I don’t know why exactly there’s silence from Ireland but there shouldn’t be, this is too serious. If this kind of thing was being visited upon Irish people either in Ireland or in a community in some other part of the world, we would be hoping that others would speak up.”
There have been a huge number of reports from media and human rights groups alleging systematic rape, arbitrary detention, forced sterilisation of women, forced labour and restrictions on freedom of religion of the mostly Muslim Uyghur population in the north-western region of Xinjiang.
Detained
It is believed China has detained more than a million Uyghurs over the past few years in what the state defines as ‘re-education camps’.
Bishop McGuckian said: “We said after the Holocaust ‘never again’ and we have to mean that. The Chinese say that there’s nothing unusual happening there, well if that is the case, I think there are so many people with questions that they have to be asked, to show us, to give us documentary evidence that it is not as bad as we fear because the fear is that it is unbelievably bad and the world should be asking questions and that means Ireland should be asking questions too, I don’t know why we’re not but we should.
“When we use the word genocide… that a community is running the risk of simply being wiped out, that cannot be allowed to pass unremarked and people should write to their TDs, Ireland should take a stand, it is a terrible thing. There are many situations of injustice and human rights violation in the world, many people now believe what is happening to the Uyghurs is beyond almost any other one that we see right now and it should be named and called out.”
Parliamentary motions have passed in Canada and the Netherlands recognising China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority as genocide, with other countries tabling similar motions at the time this paper went to print. Both the former and current US administrations have said they believe genocide has been committed.
Concerned
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said in the Dáil on January 28 that Ireland “remains deeply concerned” about the Uyghurs and reported abuses but said Ireland only recognises genocide when established by an international court or where there is “international consensus”.
He added that both Ireland and the EU take the issue “extremely seriously” and have been “raising our concerns” with Chinese authorities “bilaterally and in multilateral fora”.