Over 50 Irish religious leaders condemn China for persecuting Uyghurs

More than 50 Irish religious leaders have signed a statement condemning the Chinese treatment of the Uyghurs Muslims in Xinjiang province, local media reported.

According to Ireland national television and Radio broadcaster RTE, the statement said that at least a million Uyghur and other Muslims in China are incarcerated in prison camps facing starvation, torture, murder, sexual violence, slave labour and forced organ extraction.

"We make a simple call for justice, to investigate these crimes, hold those responsible to account and establish a path towards the restoration of human dignity".

They recalled how "after the Holocaust, the world said 'never again'.

"Today, we repeat those words 'never again', all over again. We stand with the Uyghurs. We also stand with Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and Christians throughout China who face the worst crackdown on freedom of religion or belief since the cultural revolution," Irish Times quoted the statement.

There was "a simple call for justice, to investigate these crimes, hold those responsible to account and establish a path towards the restoration of human dignity", the religious leaders concluded.

China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.

Beijing, on the other hand, has vehemently denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's brutal crackdown on the ethnic community, according to a report.

( With inputs from ANI )