Riots and protests over burning of the Qur’an in Denmark and Sweden but few protests about China’s dreadful treatment of the Uyghurs

August 2023

Various individuals in Sweden and Denmark have sparked serious unrest and violence as a result of burning the holy book and a considerable degree of opprobrium has been heaped on both countries. The prime minister of Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador last month. News of the burnings have featured in the media for some time. The Swedish embassy in Baghdad was stormed and the country’s flag was burned in Pakistan. Although the burnings have been carried out by a small number of individuals, they have generated considerable fury among Muslims and caused a degree of concern in the Nordic countries who wish to maintain the right to free speech and protest.

Clearly it is upsetting for Muslims to see a book they cherish being treated in this way.

Uyghurs

In China the appalling treatment of the Uyghur people continues apace. There is no word to describe the actions of the Chinese since the Uyghurs are not subject to genocide. Mostly, they survive the treatment they are subject to. However, the persecution has intensified over the past few years. There is forced sterilisation, the demolition of thousands of mosques, and children taken from their parents. They have been isolated from the rest of the world and the only means of communication was shortwave radios and these too have been seized. The Qur’an is seized wherever it is found. The entire population is subject to repression and detention in so-called ‘re-education’ centres where torture and physical violence is routine. Over a million are held in these camps and access to the region is strictly controlled by the Chinese government. Thousands are arrested on spurious grounds for ‘crimes’ of being a Muslim, sending messages or texts with quotations from the Qur’an or for having more than three children.

There is an attempt – seemingly a successful attempt – to extinguish the culture of the Uyghurs in what amounts to cultural genocide. Children are not allowed to be given names such as Fatima or Aisha because they are deemed ‘too Muslim’. The region is subject to heavy surveillance making any kind of social contact almost impossible.

What has been surprising however is the relative silence from the very same countries who are angry about the book burnings and who made a huge fuss about the Satanic verses. It would be expected that in the face of the appalling treatment of mainly Muslims in Xinjian, there would be an outcry of deafening intensity. Indeed, in 2019, when mainly western countries tried to get a UN motion to allow independent observers into Xinjiang, it was countries – mostly Moslem countries – like Saudi, Algeria and Egypt who blocked it. The contrast between the response to the burning of a handful of Qur’an in Stockholm and the seizing of what may be tens of thousands of copies in Xinjiang is remarkable. It is difficult to explain it. Some suggest it is China’s increasing investment in these countries which is leading to a reluctance to make much noise. This hasn’t prevented these same countries engaging in critical activities against western countries who are also significant investors so that explanation seems unlikely.

It is astonishing that in the 21st Century we are witnessing one of the world’s biggest crimes against humanity, yet very little is made of it. Countries who might be thought to have sympathy through a shared religion with the Uyghurs, are strangely silent. A huge fuss is made of a few individuals burning the holy book but the much more systematic attempt to annihilate a kindred culture and incarcerating over a million individuals in the process, engenders little protest.

Testimony from survivors in this piece from Substack [added 21 August 2023]

Sources: Observer, Time, Washington Post, International Bureau of Investigative Journalists, CAAT, BBC

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[Readers might wish to know of a recently published book Waiting to be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide, by Tahir Hamut Izgil, published by Jonathan Cape]

Campaign Against the Arms Trade highlights UK arms sales to autocratic regimes

August 2023

In the last post discussing the possibility of the UK leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, currently being discussed in government, we commented on a lack of concern about arms sales and the activities of resource companies in destabilising countries. This led to conflict and millions suffering and being displaced, some of whom ended up at Calais much to the ire of politicians and parts of the press.

The latest issue of CAAT News (Issue 266, Summer 2023) puts some flesh on the bones of our (and other country’s) arms sales and where they are being sold. Surprisingly, sales sales by the Soviet Union and China have actually declined and in the case of Russia because of the war in Ukraine which is consuming large amounts of military materiel. Chinese sales have dropped by around a quarter according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) because of possible ‘stockpiling’. By contrast, UK sales doubled in 2022 to around £8.5bn. These facts somewhat dent the argument that if we don’t sell the arms, someone else will. Some sales are identified by Single Individual Export Licences (SIELs) where it is possible to know what and to whom weapons are being sold. The biggest recipient by value is Qatar due in the main to the sale of Typhoon aircraft. However, just over half of arms sales are by ‘open licence’ which allows for unlimited exports.

The dismal state of human rights in Qatar received a degree of publicity during the World Cup. The kafala system of employment is still in place in which migrant workers are tied to their employers. Wage theft is widespread. Women are second class citizens and those under 25 must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel, study or work in government jobs. Women fleeing violent domestic abuse are returned home by the police. Freedom of expression is curtailed. Same sex relationships are a crime.

Similar considerations apply to arms sales to Saudi Arabia another big market for UK arms. These arms have been used in the war in Yemen – currently subject to an uneasy peace – and which has contributed to the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. Just about every aspect of human rights misery has been inflicted on the country whether it’s the effects of the war and bombing, disease and starvation, activities of the Houthi rebels including the use of torture. Human rights in Saudi itself are extremely poor with 81 people executed in one day in March 2022. Women have reduced rights, torture and forced confessions are commonplace and freedom of expression is severely curtailed.

CAAT has attempted to halt our activities in aiding the Saudis but sad to report, have lost their case in the Divisional Court hearing in June. The reasoning of the judges is highly questionable and in some instances, hard to credit. The Saudis’ Coalition Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT) has frequently failed to investigate alleged incidents of violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Yemen war which has allowed the government to argue that that there was insufficient evidence to accept violations were even possible, despite evidence that there had been from a variety of NGOs.

The government also argued that to pursue allegations would offend the Saudis and expend valuable diplomatic capital. The Saudis’ failure to investigate alleged violations and their sensitivity to criticism was sufficient for the judges to dismiss the case.

Are UK’s ‘rigorous and robust policies’ a sham?

The government is often quoted as saying they have a ‘rigorous and robust’ policy of export controls. The evidence shows otherwise. The UK has grown its sales and is providing arms to a variety of unstable countries and countries run by despots of varying kinds, seemingly with no concern for the welfare and rights of the citizens of those countries. Open licences allow us to export arms to Turkey for example where the government has for years carried on a war of brutal repression against the Kurdish minority including the targeting of civilians. The US Congress is reluctant to allow sales of F-16 fighters because of Turkey’s frequent violations of Greece’s airspace, its repressive policies and president Erdoğan’s refusal to allow Sweden to join NATO. No such considerations apply to the UK which in addition to a massive SIEL of £452m, has granted an unlimited number of open licences.

It seems as though there is little connection now between morality or human rights with the desire to support and turn a blind eye to the sale of weapons to whomsoever asks for them. Appeals to the judiciary end in failure with judges only too willing to swallow government arguments of the most specious kind. The UK’s desire to allow and support arms sales is a blot on the country’s reputation.

Sources: mostly CAAT. Amnesty and HRW

We are pleased to report some good news about the death penalty

July 2023

It is not often we get to report good news about this topic but two countries, Ghana and USA provide a small piece of light to give encouragement. Usually, we are posting to send sad news about the death penalty but – for once at least – we have some good news to share.

First, and foremost, last night the death penalty was abolished in Ghana.  170 men and 6 women on death row will have their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

In the US, there are signs of hope:

• In Texas the Jury has sentenced Ronald Anthony Burgos, a former Border Patrol Agent convicted of a double murder, to life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.  Texas is the State that over the years has imposed the highest number of death sentences, but the numbers are declining – suggesting a change in attitude to its use may be taking place

• In Florida a Circuit Judge has ruled the new law allowing a majority rather than a unanimous vote for the death penalty cannot be applied retroactively.

Questions behind the club’s treble win

June 2023

The news and sports pages were full of Man City’s win in Istanbul securing them the magic treble. There were clips of the various goals, a celebratory homecoming and interviews and profiles of the various players. Fans were exultant. There were reportedly 100,000 of them to greet the team back in Manchester and considerable attention was paid to one of the players, Jack Grealish and his actions after the win. The tabloids had pages of coverage and hundreds of comments joining in the celebrations. For the owners of the club, it could not have exceeded their wildest dreams. Masses of positive coverage. There is talk of a photo of the club appearing on the cover of the next Oasis album.

So it may seem a little churlish to mention background to the win and to say something about the owners of the club who are an oppressive state. United Arab Emirates who have poured vast sums into the club – around £500m to enable them to buy the best players – are no strangers to criticisms of their human rights record. Many activists and academics are detained and their families often harassed by state officials. There are arbitrary arrests and the used of torture is widespread. Trials are unfair and victims are denied legal counsel. There is no press freedom or freedom of speech generally. There are forced disappearances and stoning and flogging are still practised. The state is near the bottom of many international measures of human rights and press freedoms. What they have is vast wealth from oil and that wealth is being used by a number of middle east states to buy their way into the sporting universe.

Other examples include the World Cup held improbably in Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s purchase of Newcastle United Football Club. Just recently, the Saudis have taken over the PGA (golf) and merged it with the smaller LIV series. The gulf states are in their various ways engaged in using sport to enhance their reputations in what is called sportswashing. They have realised that sport brings huge reputational benefits and the millions who watch or spectate sport show little interest in where the money comes from so long as their team or hero wins a trophy of some kind.

However, it does matter for a number of reasons:

• Manchester City, and the other clubs going down this high money road, have effectively become state sides. It is not Manchester City but the UAE trading as Manchester City which has become a kind of front for a repressive regime. They are merely serving a purpose for this state to launder its reputation, safe in the knowledge that the supporters simply want to revel in success. It may only have been Channel 4 which raised questions about ownership along with the financial cheating the club is alleged to have engaged in (which they deny).
• Other clubs will have little option to follow and seek funding from some country wanting to launder their reputations. Until the Ukraine invasion, Russian money from the oligarchs was the main source of wealth for example Chelsea FC and Abramovich.
• The acceptance of funding from gulf states such as UAE and others ignores the moral dimension completely. Sport sits happily at the back of most newspapers or at the end of TV news bulletins where the breathless talk is of who won what, league tables, the activities of sporting stars, who has been injured and so on. That the states hosting these events or funding clubs and competitions, are engaged in inflicting misery or death on those who disagree with them or who wish for democracy, scarcely gets a mention.
• That sportswashing helps entrench their power is also seemingly of little concern. The people of Manchester are naturally overjoyed at their club’s success (unless you are a United supporter that is). Telling them that their favourite club is a ‘front’ for a fairly despicable regime is not something they are likely to want to hear.

The use of sport to enable these regimes to gain political respectability is likely to increase as others see how successful it is. It helps facilitate arms sales and the entry of the regime leaders into polite society. Our Royal family for example, from the late Queen down, often hosted visits from the likes of Sheik Mohammed because of a shared love of horses.

Such is the significance of sport now and its use as a political cover, it maybe time for it to emerge from the back pages and for us to start asking questions about its role as a cover for anti-democratic states. Sporting success should not be the be-all and end-all.

Sources: Guardian, Private Eye, Wikipedia

June 2023

We are pleased to attach the monthly death penalty report thanks to group member Lesley for her work in compiling it. It covers a number of events in America as well as other countries such as Saudi and Iran. As ever it contains no information from China which is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined but details of which are a state secret.

June 2023

The Conservative party has made no secret of its desire to either abolish the Human Rights Act or to replace with it with a Bill of Rights, removing some of the protections within the HRA. Some members of government want to go further and withdraw us from the European Court of Human Rights largely connected with its desire to deport immigrants to Rwanda. At least three of their election manifestos have made plain their distaste for the act.

Both our local MPS – Messrs John Glen and Danny Kruger – have spoken against the act and the analysis of their voting records by They Work for You shows that they generally vote against human rights issues.

So it comes as a surprise to discover that in the current row about the release of information and WhatsApp messages etc to the Covid enquiry, the government is deploying … the Human Rights Act, the very act they want abolished.

May 2023

Members of the group took part in this event for the second time. The sun shone and there was a respectable interest in our activities. Friendly passers by signed the 40 letters of petition (on behalf of Vladimir Kara Murza)  produced by group member Tony, so that we had to get another 10 printed making 50.

Three people expressed interest in the group and gave emails.