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A long-awaited report from the United Nations alleges that the Chinese government has committed “grave human rights abuses” in detaining Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang.
The 48-page report was released just minutes into the four-year mandate of the UN’s Michelle Bachelet Commission on Human Rights, according to Western diplomats and UN officials.
Drawn from interviews with former detainees at eight separate detention centers in the region, its authors singled out the Uyghur and other Muslim communities between 2017 and 2017 to highlight terrorism and extremism. It suggests that “serious” human rights violations have taken place in Xinjiang under China’s policy of fighting ideology. 2019.
The report cited “patterns of torture” in what Beijing called vocational centers. It is part of a popular plan to boost economic development in the region, pointing to “credible” allegations of torture or ill-treatment, including instances of sexual violence. .
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Above all, the report argues that perhaps the “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of such groups in Xinjiang may constitute international crimes, particularly crimes against humanity, through moves to deprive them of their fundamental rights. There is,” he warned.
The report’s authors said they were unable to confirm estimates of the number of people detained in concentration camps. However, they said, based on the evidence, “at least the numbers retained between 2017 and 2019 are very significant, accounting for a significant proportion of the Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minority populations. He adds that it is reasonable to conclude that
The report calls for an urgent international response to allegations of torture and other rights violations in Beijing’s anti-terrorism campaign.
After her own visit to Xinjiang in May, Bachelet asked China to withhold the report from her office, claiming it was part of a Western campaign to smear China’s reputation. dismissed the repeated requests of
China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, condemned the report hours before it was released, reiterating that Beijing continues to be “resolutely opposed” to the report.
“I have not seen this report yet, but I am completely against such a report and I think it is in no one’s interest,” Zhang told reporters outside the Security Council. “We have made it very clear to the High Commissioner, and on many other occasions, that we categorically oppose such reports.”
He argued that the “so-called Xinjiang issue” was a fabrication intended to undermine China’s stability and hinder its development.
Over the past five years, China’s mass internment campaign in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region has forced an estimated one million Uyghurs and other ethnic groups into a network of prisons and camps. Beijing calls these “training centers,” but former inmates describe them as brutal detention centres.
Some countries, including the United States, have accused Beijing of committing genocide in Xinjiang.
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Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, called on the 47-member Human Rights Council, which next meets in September, to investigate the allegations and hold those responsible accountable. did.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.