GENEVA (AP) — China’s discriminatory detention of Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity, the U.N. human rights office said in a long-awaited report published on Wednesday, which cited “serious” rights violations. and the patterns of torture applied in recent years.
The report calls for “urgent attention” from the UN and the global community to rights violations in Beijing’s campaign to eliminate terrorism.
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, under pressure from both sides of the issue, brushed aside multiple Chinese calls for her office to withhold the report, which follows her own trip to Xinjiang in May . Beijing has claimed the report is part of a Western campaign to discredit China.
The report has fueled a tug-of-war over diplomatic influence with the West over the rights of the region’s native Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.
The report, which Western diplomats and UN officials said had been nearly ready for months, was released with just minutes left in Bachelet’s four-year term. It was unexpected to break significant new ground beyond the broad findings of independent advocacy groups and journalists who have documented human rights concerns in Xinjiang for years.
But the office’s report comes with the imprimatur of the United Nations and the countries, especially China, the rising power, that form it. The report largely corroborates earlier reports by advocacy groups and others, and injects UN force behind the outrage that victims and their families have expressed over China’s policies in Xinjiang for years.
“Beijing’s repeated denial of the human rights crisis in Xinjiang rings ever more hollow with this further acknowledgment of evidence of ongoing crimes against humanity and other human rights violations in the region,” said Agnes Callamard, Secretary general of Amnesty International, in a statement.
The run-up to the report’s release fueled a debate over China’s influence at the world body and represented the on-and-off diplomatic cooldown between Beijing and the West over human rights, among other sore spots.
The 48-page report says “serious human rights violations” have been committed in Xinjiang under China’s policies to fight terrorism and extremism, which singled out Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim communities, among the 2017 and 2019.
The report cites “patterns of torture” inside what Beijing called vocational centers, which were part of its well-known plan to boost economic development in the region, and points to “credible” allegations of torture or ill-treatment, including cases of violence sexual
Above all, perhaps, the report warns that the “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of these groups in Xinjiang, through measures that deprived them of “fundamental rights…may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against the humanity”.
The report was drawn in part from interviews with former detainees and others with knowledge of conditions at eight separate detention centers in the region. Its authors suggest that China did not always receive information, saying that requests for some specific sets of information “did not receive a formal response.”
The rights office said it could not confirm estimates of how many people were detained in internment camps in Xinjiang, but added that it was “reasonable to conclude that a pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention occurred” at least among in 2017 and 2019.
According to research by other rights observers and journalists, the Chinese government’s mass detention campaign in Xinjiang swept up to one million Uyghurs and other ethnic groups into a network of prisons and camps over the past five years.
Beijing has closed many of the camps, but hundreds of thousands of people continue to languish in prison on vague and secret charges.
Beyond the camps, the report also reviewed reports of sharp increases in arrests and long prison sentences in the region, saying they strongly suggested a shift towards formal incarceration as the primary means of incarceration. large-scale incarceration and deprivation of liberty, rather than the use of “vocational centers” previously promoted by Beijing.
“This is of particular concern given the vague and broad definitions of terrorism, ‘extremism’ and public security-related offenses under national criminal law,” said the report, which it says could lead to lengthy sentences, “including- there for minor crimes or for participating in conduct protected by international human rights law”.
China hit back, saying the UN rights office ignored human rights “achievements” made jointly by “people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang”.
“Based on misinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and by presumption of guilt, the so-called ‘assessment’ distorts China’s laws, rampantly slanders and defames China, and interferes in internal affairs from China,” read a letter from China. diplomatic mission in Geneva issued in response to the UN report.
Some countries, including the United States, have accused Beijing of committing genocide in Xinjiang. The UN report did not mention the genocide.
Bachelet said in recent months that she received pressure from both parties to release — or not release — the report and resisted it all, treading a fine line as she pointed to her experience with political pressure during her two terms as president of Chile.
In June, Bachelet said she would not seek a new term as rights chief and promised the report would be published before her August 31 exit date. This led to an increase in back channel campaigns, including civil society letters and civilians. and governments on both sides of the issue. Last week, he hinted that his office might miss her deadline, saying he was “trying” to release her before her departure.
Bachelet had set her sights on Xinjiang when she took office in September 2018, but Western diplomats privately expressed concern that during her tenure she did not challenge China enough when other rights monitors had cited abuses against Uighurs and others in Xinjiang.
In a statement from her office early Thursday, Bachelet said she had wanted to take “the utmost care” in dealing with the responses and input received from the Chinese government last week. These reports are usually shared with the country concerned before a final release, but usually to check the facts, not to allow verification or influence of the final report.
“I said I would release it before the end of my term and I have,” he said after the report was released minutes before his term ended.
Critics had said that not publishing the report would have been a glaring black mark on his tenure, and pressure from some countries made his job more difficult.
“To be perfectly honest, the politicization of these serious human rights problems by some states did not help,” said Bachelet, who from the beginning expressed a desire to cooperate with governments.
“He calls on the international community not to instrumentalize real and serious human rights issues for political purposes, but to work to support efforts to strengthen the protection and promotion of human rights,” he added.
His trip to the region in May was widely criticized by human rights groups, the US administration and other governments as a PR exercise for China.
Hours before the release, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the UN chief had “no involvement” in how the report was drafted or handled, citing the his commitment to Bachelet’s independence.
Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said Bachelet’s “condensing findings explain why the Chinese government fought tooth and nail to prevent the release of her Xinjiang report, which exposes abuses of China’s rights”.
Richardson urged the 47-member Human Rights Council, whose next session is in September, to investigate the allegations and hold those responsible accountable.
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Lederer reported from the United Nations. Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.