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Rabat – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has backed international football player Mesut Ozil for his statements against China’s harsh treatment of Uighur Muslims.
Pompeo posted a tweet strongly condemning China’s state television channel CCTV for removing an Arsenal-Manchester City match due to Ozil’s criticism.
Last week, the Arsenal football player used social media to speak out about the situation of Uighur Muslims suffering in detention.
In addition to China, Ozil also condemned Muslims for staying quiet on the ill-treatment of Uighur Muslims.
Pompeo added onto Ozil’s statement and has condemned CCTV for not broadcasting the match. Even after the English football club distanced itself from Ozil’s statement and said that it is always “apolitical as an organization,” CCTV declined to broadcast the match.
Pompeo said the truth about the human rights violations against the Uighur Muslims “will prevail” eventually.
“China’s Communist Party propaganda outlets can censor @MesutOzil1088 and @Arsenal’s games all season long, but the truth will prevail,” Pompeo wrote on December 17.
He also described China’s treatment of its Muslim citizens as “gross human rights violations.”
China’s Communist Party propaganda outlets can censor @MesutOzil1088 and @Arsenal’s games all season long, but the truth will prevail. The CCP can’t hide its gross #HumanRights violations perpetrated against Uighurs and other religious faiths from the world.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) December 17, 2019
“The CCP can’t hide its gross #HumanRights violations perpetrated against Uighurs and other religious faiths from the world,” he added.
The US State Department renewed its designation of China as a “country of particular concern” for engaging in “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom” on Wednesday, December 18.
Rights NGOs have been condemning China for its systematic rounding up of Uighurs and placing them in detention camps, which China denies.
Human Rights Watch described the actions taken against the Uighur Muslims as “rampant abuses” that “violate fundamental rights to freedom of expression, religion, and privacy, and protections from torture and unfair trials.”
China, however, calls the detention camps “voluntary” and says they are re-education centers to combat extremism.
Earlier this year, leaked Chinese documents revealed a memo from 2017 giving instructions on how to run the camps.
In the memo, the chief deputy of the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang, Zhu Hailun, said camp staff must “strictly manage and control student activities to prevent escapes during class, eating periods, toilet breaks, bath time, medical treatment, family visits, etc.”
