Pope Francis, who made great diplomatic efforts to renew an agreement with China in October, spoke for the first time about the persecution of the Uyghur Muslim minority.
"
I often think of the persecuted peoples: the Rohingyas, the poor Uyghurs, the Yazidis - what Daesh did to them is truly cruel - or the Christians of Egypt and Pakistan killed by bombs which exploded while they prayed in the church
”, confides the sovereign pontiff in a book unveiled Monday, November 23, entitled in French
A time for change
(Flammarion).
Read also: UN: 39 countries ask China to respect the rights of Uyghurs
The Vatican has never officially spoken out on the persecution of Uyghurs, even though two Asian cardinals did so last summer.
On October 22, the Vatican and China renewed for two years a delicate agreement on the appointment of bishops.
Washington had previously called on the Pope to denounce all religious persecution in Communist China, against Catholics but also against the Uyghur minority.
The Uyghurs are the main ethnic group in Xinjiang (northwest China).
According to human rights organizations, more than a million people have been interned there in “
camps
”.
China, for its part, claims that these are "
vocational training centers
".
