Press Release – Uyghur Solidarity Aotearoa NZ The New Zealand Labour Party has prevented Parliament from debating whether a genocide is taking place in East Turkestan/Xinjiang province of China. “Potential export earnings are plainly more important to the Labour Party than human life,” says …The New Zealand Labour Party has prevented Parliament from debating whether a genocide is taking place in East Turkestan/Xinjiang province of China.
“Potential export earnings are plainly more important to the Labour Party than human life,” says Sam Vincent, spokesperson for Uyghur Solidarity Aotearoa NZ.
Parliament was due this week to discuss a motion brought by ACT Party deputy leader Brooke van Velden, to declare the atrocities being perpetrated against the Uyghur people, as a genocide. Labour only agreed to allow the discussion if the term genocide was dropped.
If Parliament were to declare the treatment of Uyghur Muslims as genocide it would no doubt hurt New Zealand s trade relationship with China, the Trade Minister says.
A member of the Uyghur community holds a placard as he joins a demonstration to call on the British parliament to vote to recognise alleged persecution of the Uyghur people as genocide and crimes against humanity in London on April 22, 2021.
Photo: AFP / Justin Tallis
China has been under international pressure over its treatment of Uyghurs, an ethnic minority native to an area in China s northwest, which the UK and US have declared a genocide.
When ACT s Brooke Van Velden last week announced she would file a motion, she said it would be worded similarly to one passed last month in the British Parliament, asking representatives whether the atrocities in Xinjiang were acts of genocide .
However, Van Velden now says the word genocide has been removed at Labour s request. I have worked with all parties across Parliament to ensure we came up with a consensus on the motion so that this important debate could go ahead, she said. Labour wanted to soften the language and remove the word genocide . It s a sad state of affairs that we need to soften our language to debate the hard issues. We have been willing to make this compromise in order for a debate to take place at all.