Uighur Muslims in exile call for sanctions on China at Munich conference

An organization of Uighurs living in exile has called for sanctions on China after new reports emerged of Beijing's brutal persecution of the Muslim minority.
"In the past five or six years, the Chinese government has changed course - from forced assimilation and discrimination to genocide," Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uighur Congress (UWC), said in Munich on Thursday.
"Condemnation and empty statements cannot stop genocide." Isa also called on the German government impose punitive measures directly on China.
Earlier this week, new revelations from a data leak showed the extent of persecution and mass internment in the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang. Hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and members of other Muslim minorities are interned in such camps, according to estimates.
Some 200 representatives of the UWC and political supporters are meeting in Munich for a conference that runs until Saturday.
The organization refers to investigations by the independent Uighur Tribunal in London, led by British barrister Geoffrey Nice, former chief prosecutor of Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic.
In December, the tribunal accused China of genocide against the 10 million Muslim people living in Xinjiang. There have also been allegations of torture, forced sterilization and mass surveillance.
"German companies should no longer do business in China," Isa said, mentioning VW, Bosch and Adidas.
What is happening in Xinjiang is not "ordinary human rights violations," he said. It has long been "very difficult for us to convince the world of what is happening in Xinjiang."
Now, though, the evidence is clear. "There is no excuse anymore for governments, countries and international organizations to look the other way," Isa said.
The UWC is based in Munich, home to some 1,500 Uighurs, most of whom have fled China.
The conference is taking place while UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet visits China, in a week-long trip that is the first by a UN human rights commissioner in 17 years.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also mentioned China's treatment of minorities in Xinjiang and the concerns of Uighurs during his speech on the final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"China is a global player," he said in a tweet. "We should not isolate China but also should not accept hegemony in Asia. And we must not overlook human rights violations in Xingjiang, as I stressed today."