The UN evokes crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, Beijing denounces a political tool against China
Sylvie Claire / September 1, 2022
The United Nations has referred to possible crimes against humanity, reported credible evidence of torture and sexual violence against the Uighur minority and called on the international community to act, in its long-awaited report on the Chinese region of Xinjiang published Wednesday. Beijing is criticizing the report as a political tool against China.
The extent of the arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of the Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim groups (...) may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity, the report, which is just under 50 pages long, states in its conclusions. Michelle Bachelet, whose last day at the head of the Office of the High Commissioner was after a four-year mandate, kept her promise in extremis by publishing the document shortly before midnight in Geneva.
While it does not appear to contain any revelations about what was already known about the situation in Xinjiang, the document does provide the UN's seal of approval on long-standing accusations against the Chinese authorities. Its publication had been the subject of intense pressure from those who wanted to make it public, notably from the United States and major human rights NGOs, and, conversely, to prevent it from seeing the light of day on the part of Beijing, which considers the report to be a farce orchestrated by the West, led by Washington.
In this document, the UN called on the international community to act urgently in the face of accusations of torture and sexual violence in Xinjiang, which the organization considers credible.
Allegations of recurrent practices of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and poor detention conditions, are credible, as are individual allegations of sexual and gender-based violence, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote in the report.
The report lays bare China's massive human rights violations, said Sophie Richardson, China director of the NGO Human Rights Watch. The UN Human Rights Council should use this report to launch a full investigation into the Chinese government's crimes against humanity, she said. Amnesty International also demands that the Council set up an independent international mechanism to investigate these crimes in Xinjiang.
Reactions among foreign-based Uyghur organizations are mixed. Some welcome the report but others wish it had gone further in its condemnation of Beijing. This is a game changer for the Uyghur cause internationally, said Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, a minority advocacy group. Despite the Chinese government's strong denials, the UN has just officially recognized that horrific crimes are being committed.
But Salih Hudayar, a Uyghur based in the United States where he campaigns for Xinjiang's independence, told AFP that the report is unfortunately not as strong as we had hoped.
China is furious. The document is based on misinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and gratuitously defames and slanders China and interferes in China's internal affairs, the Chinese embassy to the UN in Geneva wrote in the commentary attached to the report.
A quick search of the UN text does not reveal the word genocide. This is an accusation that has been made against Beijing by the American government, but also by the French National Assembly and the representations of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada.
Xinjiang and other provinces of China have been hit for several decades, and particularly from 2009 to 2014, by attacks attributed to Islamists or Uyghur separatists. For several years, the region has been under intense surveillance: omnipresent cameras, security gates in buildings, highly visible armed forces in the streets, restrictions on the issuance of passports …
Western studies, based on interpretations of official documents, testimonies of alleged victims and statistical extrapolations, accuse Beijing of having interned at least one million people, mostly Uyghurs, in camps, of carrying out forced sterilizations and abortions, and of imposing forced labour.
The UN does not corroborate this figure but notes that a significant proportion of Uighurs and Muslim minorities have been interned. China denies these accusations and claims that the camps are in fact vocational training centers intended to keep the inhabitants away from religious extremism, and that they have now been closed.