Dutch parliament: China’s treatment of Uighurs is “Genocide”

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Holland’s parliament passed a non-binding motion Thursday stating that China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority amounts to genocide, Reuters reports. Although Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party voted against the resolution, Holland’s parliament is the second after Canada’s to pass such a motion.

According to Human Rights groups and UN experts, at least one million Uighur Muslims are being imprisoned in camps in the western region of Xinjiang. There have also been reports of forced labor, torture, and sterilizations. Denying the allegations, China says the camps provide vocational training necessary to combat extremism; Beijing denies any wrongdoing, Reuters said.

“A genocide on the Uighur minority is occurring in China,” the Dutch motion reads. The resolution states that actions taken by Beijing to “prevent births” and build “punishment camps” are covered by United Nations Resolution 260, known as the genocide convention.

In a statement to Reuters, the author of the motion, lawmaker Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of the center-left D-66 Party said: “Recognising the atrocities that are taking place against the Uighurs in China for what they are, namely genocide, prevents the world from looking the other way and forces us into action.”

Although the Dutch government declined to use the word “genocide” to describe what is happening to the Uighurs, because neither the UN nor an international court has declared it so, Foreign Minister Stef Blok said in a statement that “the situation of the Uighurs is a cause of great concern,” and that Holland hopes to address the issue together with other countries.

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