Washington DC [US], May 28 : The East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) vehemently denounces Mr. Francesco Frangialli, the Honorary Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), for his participation in the launch of China's "Nihao! China" 2025 tourism promotion campaign, which took place on May 24 in Turpan, East Turkistan.
As stated in an ETGE release, Frangialli gave a keynote address during the state-sponsored event, which aims to draw international tourism to UNESCO sites in China and Occupied East Turkistan, where the Chinese authorities are actively engaging in acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The ETGE perceives this participation as an extremely irresponsible and perilous act of complicity from a figure affiliated with the UN. His involvement lends an illusion of international legitimacy to a Chinese initiative that seeks not only to obscure its ongoing atrocities but also to rebrand occupied East Turkistan as a tourist destination while the indigenous Uyghur and other Turkic populations face mass internments, forced sterilizations, coerced labor, and the systematic destruction of their cultural and religious identities.
Mamtimin Ala, President of the East Turkistan Government in Exile, remarked, "The attendance of a United Nations representative at a Chinese propaganda event amidst an ongoing genocide is not just offensive; it is a betrayal. It illustrates the alarming readiness of the United Nations to overlook its findings and to prioritize diplomatic appearances over human lives," as cited in the release.
China's initiative in East Turkistan has resulted in the detention of millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in camps resembling concentration facilities, the obliteration of thousands of mosques and cultural landmarks, and the extensive use of coerced labor linked to global supply chains.
Over a million Uyghur and other Turkic children have been separated from their families and subjected to ideological indoctrination, while hundreds of thousands of Uyghur and other Turkic women have undergone sterilization as part of China's ongoing genocidal campaign in East Turkistan. In August 2022, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concluded in an official report that these actions could potentially constitute crimes against humanity, according to the ETGE release.
The entirety of the United Nations, including its General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council, and Secretary-General, has yet to take any substantial steps to hold the Chinese government accountable, as stated in the ETGE release.
The East Turkistan Government in Exile insists that the UN World Tourism Organisation promptly issue a public apology and dissociate itself from Frangialli's involvement. It also urges the United Nations system to fulfill its mandate, officially acknowledge the genocide occurring in East Turkistan, and take immediate measures to secure justice for the victims, including appealing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to initiate an immediate inquiry and hold Chinese leaders accountable for the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity.
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