RFE: World Uyghur Congress Asks the EU to Put Pressure on Serbia

Government of Serbia, plate (Beta/Nenad Petrovic)

World Uyghur Congress representative Ryan Barry said on July 27 that the EU should pressure Serbia into changing its position on the rights of the Uyghur minority in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, if it wanted to join the European bloc.

Serbia's ties to China are certainly deepening and the EU should certainly be worried by that, he told Radio Free Europe, adding that the Serbian government did not adhere to European values.

The authorities in Belgrade in early July supported a declaration in the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, whereby the violation of human and minority rights of the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang province was defined as "a struggle against terrorism and extremism." This put Serbia opposite European and world states which strongly condemn China's campaign of repression against the Uyghurs, primarily their mass incarceration in "political re-education camps."

Barry recalled that Serbia had recently purchased facial recognition cameras from China, the technology China also used in human rights violations. He added that the Serbian government did not adhere to European values and would probably act as a dividing force, preventing EU actions over human rights violations in China. The EU must be aware of that and pressure Serbia into changing its position, he added.