Below is what I wish the Indian and British Ambassadors to the UN had said this week. They didn’t. But I believe they do believe in the sentiment.
Mr President, India and UK consider the actions of the Government of China in killing Uighur to be an act of war upon humanity and as a member of the family of nations, India and the UK shall act to defend the citizens of China and considers itself as of now formally in a state of full sanctions upon the nation of China.
You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to us that all our long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet we cannot believe that there is anything more or anything different I could have done and that would have been more successful.
Up to the very last it would have been quite possible to have arranged a peaceful and honourable settlement between China and its people, but Xi would not have it.
He had evidently made up his mind to attack whatever happened; and although he now says he has there are no issues, that is not a true statement.
The facts were never shown; and although they were announced in a broadcast, Xi ordered his troops to cross the villages and hold captive Muslims for ‘retraining’.
His actions show convincingly that there is no chance of expecting that this man will ever give up his practice of using force to gain his will. He can only be stopped by force.
We are today, in fulfilment of our obligations, going to the aid of China’s citizens, who are so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack on her people. We have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace. The situation in which no word given to China’s ruling Communist Party could be trusted and no people or country could feel themselves safe has become intolerable.
And now that we have resolved to finish it, I know that you will play your part with calmness and courage.
At such a moment as this the assurances of support that we have received from the Commonwealth are a source of profound encouragement to us.
Our Governments have made plans under which it will be possible to carry on the work of the nation in the days of stress and strain that may be ahead. But these plans need your help.
Now may God bless you all. May He defend the right. It is the evil things that we shall be fighting against – brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution – and against them I am certain that the right will prevail."
Actually, the UK and Indian Ambassadors to the UN did not say the above. No, the British PM said it. He said it in 1939 when Britain declared war on Germany for acts of genocide.
