Parliamentary debate on 'China's repression of Tibetan and Uyghurs' organised in Netherlands

The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) recently organised a parliamentary debate in the Netherlands titled "China's repression of the Tibetan and Uyghurs".

The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) recently orgsed a parliamentary debate in the Netherlands titled "China's repression of the Tibetan and Uyghurs".

The parliamentary debate titled "China's repression of the Tibetan and Uyghurs", which took place on Wednesday, vehemently censored the oppression of the Tibetan and the Uyghur community members by the Chinese communist regime and expressed grave concern underscoring the urgent need for forming a united European Action Plan to address the issue aiming at stopping what some of them termed 'Genocide'.

The debate was addressed by the Dutch Parliament members of the leading political parties including, Martijn van Helvert (CDA), Kirsten van den Hul (PvdA), Tom van den Nieuwenhuijzen (GroenLinks), Sara Murawski of Socialist Party (SP), Salima Belhaj (D66), and Roelien Kamminga (VVD).

Director of International Campaign for Tibet Tsering Jampa, who is based in the Netherlands for many years, also spoke in the debate and narrated the atrocities that her countrymen are facing now during the Chinese regime.

Kamminga said, "For years we have been watching what is going on not only in Tibet but also with Uyghurs. We want to address these issues with Europe. With grave concern, we have watched what is going on with Uyghurs and Tibetan."

Murawski said, "I worked long with Harry van Bommel of Groen Links on Tibet and Uyghurs. I am happy that things are coming out from China on the atrocities and the Netherlands is playing an active role."

"We are trying to find out if individual sanctions can be imposed," said Belhaj.

van den Hul said, "Human rights should never be overlooked because of the business interests. The textile products that come to the Netherlands, there is a big chance that Uyghur's forced labour is involved in the production. Zara and bigger chains are involved. That's why we with Christian Union, GroensLinks, SP today submitted an Initiative Law (Initiative wet) that demands to take social responsibility into consideration by the trading houses, plus we have arranged a hearing with GroenLinks where we invited the compes to hear their stories."

Van den Nieuwenhuijzen termed the oppression of the Uyghurs in China as genocide, systematic torture and forced labour.

The Dutch Parliamentarians said, "The Netherlands government is concerned about the reports that are coming out about the repression of the Uyghurs, but the Netherlands alone cannot do anything. Together with Europe, we should put pressure on China to stop the repression. If the Netherlands alone stops imports or puts economic sanctions, it will not work. If we ban the import, China will go to another country."

The Parliamentarians called to impose sanctions on individuals, especially on those Chinese who are involved in the suppression of the Uyghur and Tibetan people.

They also mentioned the intimidation that China is doing in the Netherlands and said, "China is threatening even in the Netherlands those who are raising their voices against China. Different Chinese orgsations based in the Netherlands with allegiance to China are distributing pamphlets in the Chinese language warning about the consequences if anyone is found engaged in an anti-China campaign. This, they said, cannot be tolerated in the Netherlands."

Martijn van Helvert slammed Prime Minister Mark Rutte for thanking China for supplying masks but did not thank Taiwan in the same manner, while Taiwan also supplied a huge quantity of masks to the Netherlands.

( With inputs from ANI )