Now home to the largest Uyghur emigree population outside of Central Asia, Turkey has become a focus for Chinese espionage…reports Asian Lite News
More than six years into China’s campaign to eradicate independent Uyghur society at home, the Chinese authorities are going to great length to keep tabs on ordinary Uyghurs abroad, media reported.
The roughly 50,000 Uyghurs in Turkey face unique risks. The country has welcomed waves of Uyghur refugees since the 1950s, under policies supporting ethnic groups with cultural and linguistic ties to Turkey. Now home to the largest Uyghur emigree population outside of Central Asia, Turkey has become a focus for Chinese espionage, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.
Chinese officials “consider those in exile, just by being abroad, people who they need to keep a very close eye on,” said Maya Wang, associate director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division.
“The purpose is to tighten control and surveillance and repression of everyone who is from that community, generating a sense of fear, and therefore compliance and loyalty, to the Chinese government, even when you are thousands of kilometers away from Beijing,” she said, RFA reported.
Turkey flag
Several Uyghur expatriates, all over the world, told RFA of recent Chinese attempts to intimidate them into becoming informants. They had all downloaded WeChat or Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok, in order to keep in touch with relatives back home.
Officials had then manipulated those digital ties to try to coerce them into spying on their communities abroad. Many of these Uyghurs declined to go on the record, fearing for the safety of relatives still in China.
Coercing Uyghurs to gather information on each other undermines trust and can dampen social and cultural gatherings, preventing Uyghur refugees from rebuilding their communities abroad, RFA reported.
“Uyghurs can become suspicious of one another and such an erosion of trust takes a toll on the community and frays its social fabric,” Natalie Hall, non-resident fellow at the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, wrote in an email interview.
In a 2021 report, the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the Oxus Society documented 5,530 instances of warnings, threats, and arrest requests directed at Uyghurs abroad, in 22 different countries, over the course of 19 years, RFA reported.
Demonstrations held in Istanbul over Chinese atrocities against Uyghurs…reports Asian Lite News
As China’s intense crackdown on Uyghur community continues in Xinjiang, a large number of people take to street in various countries to Commemorate the Ghulja Massacre. In Istanbul, activists gathered in huge numbers and held demonstrations against China’s atrocities towards Uyghur Muslims.
The International Union of Eastern Turkistan NGO Organizations organised the protest demonstration on Sunday. The organization held a massive anti-China protest demonstration followed by a press conference at Saryer, in front of China embassy in Istanbul.
Saryer is the northernmost district of Istanbul, Turkey, situated on the European side of the country.
President of the International Union of Eastern Turkistan NGO Organizations, Hidaytullah Oguzkhan, during his speech, said, “The blood of martyrs will not go waste and asked Muslim Umma (community), especially OIC country members to take note of china’s atrocities in East Turkistan and declare the act as genocide of Uyghur Muslims.”
During the speech, protestors raised anti- china slogans and paid homage to those killed in the Ghulja massacre.
Deputy chairman of the organization in his speech in the English language also reiterated the government of Turkey and other OIC countries to shun the dual standard policy and expose China’s Uyghur Muslim genocide on all international platforms.
Transportation was also made available for the people of Safakoi, Zeitinburnu, Basakh city and Salim Pasha.
Meanwhile, a series of protests were held across Bangladesh to mark the anniversary of the Ghulja Massacre, the local media reported, adding that activists highlighted Chinese atrocities and ongoing genocide against minorities, predominantly Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province.
It was the 26th anniversary of the Ghulja Massacre that took place in 1997 when Chinese forces allegedly killed and imprisoned thousands of innocent Uyghurs while they were participating in a peaceful demonstration in Ghulja in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) demanding religious and cultural freedom and equal rights.
Various NGOs and civil societies, Ulemas, and other organisations observed the 26th Anniversary of the Ghulja Massacre to support the legitimate demand of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities being suppressed by China through various events.
Protesters expressed solidarity with the Uyghur Muslims and condemned China for adopting its double standard on minority issues and committing genocide on innocent Uyghurs. Protestors were carrying banners and posters highlighting Chinese atrocities on Uyghurs. (ANI)
Uyghur organizations from 20 countries have asked global leaders to take action to end the Chinese government’s human rights atrocities…reports Asian Lite News
Some 55 Uyghur organizations have called on world leaders to recognize December 9 as Uyghur Genocide Recognition Day, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA).
On December 9, 2021, an independent UK-based Uyghur Tribunal announced its findings that China committed genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in its Xinjiang region. Uyghur organizations from 20 countries have asked global leaders to take action to end the Chinese government’s human rights atrocities against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs.
“On December 9, 2021, after 18 months of investigations, and reading through hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and holding hearings from witnesses, the Uyghur Tribunal declared China’s crimes in East Turkestan as genocide,” RFA quoted president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), Dolkun Isa as saying.
“By declaring this day as Uyghur Genocide Recognition Day, we want to draw the international community’s attention to this ongoing genocide. By commemorating the day, we want to mobilize countries, peoples and international organizations to stop the genocide,” he said.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in late August, issued a report that documented the abuses, including arbitrary arrests, forced abortions, torture and violations of religious freedom.
The report said the atrocities against Uyghurs “may constitute international crimes, particularly crimes against humanity”.
China and its allies in the U.N. Human Rights Council in October, however, rejected the United States proposal to hold a debate on the findings of the report, reported RFA.
Uyghur groups called this China’s disregard for the U.N. human rights system and called governments to take the necessary action, impose targeted sanctions, introduce forced labour laws and increase their support for Uyghur refugees.
Recently, to condemn the Chinese government’s rights abuses, various ethnic groups including members of the Tibetan and Uyghur community protested in cities on the West Coast of the United States.
Protests were also held on Human Rights Day on December 10 in Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. Braving inclement weather including heavy rainfall and high winds, scores of people protested in front of the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco.
Protests were held on the iconic interstate highway I-5 in Seattle and in Downtown Portland. This is the first time that anti-China protests have been held in Seattle and Portland.
According to a recent investigation by The Australian Financial Review, the Chinese ruling party is spending as much as USD 620,000 to create propaganda and counter global efforts to expose human rights abuses against the Uyghur people.
The Australian-based publication revealed that the Chinese video-sharing app Douyin is one of the companies that has received government financing. (ANI)
This comes in the backdrop of a recent UN report said that the violations have taken place in the country under the garb of targeting “terrorists”…reports Asian Lite News
As many as 50 members of the United Nations issued a joint statement condemning the Chinese government’s oppression of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in Xinjiang province
“We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the People’s Republic of China, especially the ongoing human rights violations of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang,” read the joint statement of 50 countries in the UN General Assembly Third Committee on the human rights situation in Xinjiang, China.
This comes in the backdrop of a recent UN report said that the violations have taken place in the country under the garb of targeting “terrorists” among the Uyghur minority with a counter-extremism strategy that involves the use of so-called Vocational Educational and Training Centres (VETCs), or re-education camps.
A strongly-worded assessment by the UN rights office said that the extent of arbitrary detentions against Uyghur and others, in the context of “restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights, enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
The UN members state that the release of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) assessment of human rights concerns in Xinjiang corroborates these concerns in an impartial and objective manner.
They say that the UN assessment finds that the scale of the arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang “may constitute international crimes, in particular, crimes against humanity”.
In view of the gravity of the OHCHR assessment, UN member states said they are concerned that China has so far refused to discuss its findings and urged the Chinese government to uphold its international human rights obligations and to fully implement the recommendations of the OHCHR assessment.
“This includes taking prompt steps to release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in Xinjiang, and to urgently clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing family members and facilitate safe contact and reunion,” the letter read.
The UN member states stressed that addressing human rights violations, engaging in meaningful dialogue, and working together as partners are foundational to creating more inclusive societies where all can fully enjoy their human rights. “We encourage all to adopt this approach,” they said. (ANI)
Despite China trying to hide, suppress or play down what happening in Xinjiang, the political pressure, activism and struggle of Uyghurs will keep the issue alive…reports Asian Lite News
After China’s participation in Queen Elizabeth II funeral was opposed over the suppression of Xinjiang’s Muslim Uyghurs, the spotlight on Beijing’s brutal suppression attracted global attention.
A group of UK lawmakers objected to the invitation to Chinese government leaders to attend the state funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II, reported Tibet Press.
A week ago, United Nations Human Rights Office (UNHCR) released a report on the Xinjiang region, reporting widespread repression of minority Turkic Muslims by the Beijing government. The report concluded that “serious human rights violations have been committed” in Xinjiang.
Despite China trying to hide, suppress or play down what happening in Xinjiang, the political pressure, activism and struggle of Uyghurs will keep the issue alive, reported Tibet Press.
Protests in support of Uyghur Muslims are held by human rights activists across the world regularly. Even Uyghurs living outside China are trying to keep the flame alive. All of this suggests that the Xinjiang issue will continue to feature in global discussions.
In the letter to the country’s Foreign Secretary, the UK lawmakers raised concerns over the invitation to the “architects” of genocide against the Uyghur minority. They said the decision was “extraordinary” since the UK Parliament had voted to recognise the “genocide committed by the Chinese government.”
The UK has already banned Chinese officials from visiting the Queen’s body lying in state at Westminster Hall in London. Now calls are made for withdrawing the invitation to the Beijing government, reported Tibet Press.
“Inviting the Chinese government is an insult to the memory of the Queen and should be rescinded immediately, “Tim Loughton, an MP from the ruling Conservative Party.
The growing opposition to China’s participation in the funeral comes as a humiliation for China. The Xi Jinping-led communist government in China has been facing criticism for state-sponsored arbitrary and discriminatory detentions, enforced disappearances, forced labour, forced sterilisation of women, sexual violence, intimidation and mass surveillance, reported Tibet Press.
Global activists and leaders of many western countries have expressed their concerns over the repressive governance in Xinjiang.
Protests are regularly held in the UK, US, Germany and other countries, seeking action against Beijing. Even calls were made to boycott Beijing Olympics and Chinese goods.
The US, UK, Canada, Japan, and Australia had diplomatically boycotted the Beijing Olympics. The US has banned Chinese cotton that is suspected to be produced using forced labour in Xinjiang.
Now the European Union (EU) has proposed a ban on all Chinese goods made using forced labour, expressing concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang.
Henrike Hahn, the German representative to the European Parliament, said “We are not like-minded friends of the totalitarian regime in China. We demand a ban on imports of products from Chinese forced labour and on products from Chinese companies in general produced with forced labour.”
The UNHCR report on Xinjiang was released despite the resistance from its chief Michelle Bachelet, who did not want to alienate China, reported Tibet Press.
Confirming the reports of government excesses in Xinjiang, the report sought “adequate remedy and reparation to victims” of human rights Violations. I appealed to the international community to support efforts “to strengthen the protection and promotion of human rights in Xinjiang.
Despite China denying the charges of human right violations, which often comes in the form of threats, there have been sustained efforts by the Uyghur and Kazakh communities to express their plight to the world. (ANI)
An angry Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the UN report was “planned and manufactured first-hand by the US and some Western forces”…reports Asian Lite News
The Chinese government reacted furiously to the release of a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 31 August, calling it “wholly illegal and invalid”.
Michelle Bachelet released the 46-page report on her last day in office, in fact just 13 minutes before she stepped down from her four-year tenure. The report is titled “OHCHR Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China”.
Bachelet had secretly given China preview of the report before it was published, and on the very day it was released, parts of the UN document were allegedly being rewritten to accommodate Chinese requests.
Thanks to this preview, China immediately published its own 131-page refutation. It claimed: “This so-called ‘assessment’ runs counter to the mandate” of Bachelet’s office and “distorts China’s laws and policies, wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s internal affairs”.
An angry Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the UN report was “planned and manufactured first-hand by the US and some Western forces” and was a “hodgepodge of misinformation” and “a political tool”.
Bachelet conducted a highly contrived visit to Xinjiang in May, where she visited a decommissioned “training center” that now serves as a school and talked with a former vice-president of the center, but was not permitted to visit anything personally. Bachelet also visited Kasgar Prison, though she said most inmates there were incarcerated for reasons other than terrorism.
The Xinjiang government “assured” Bachelet that training centers were “dismantled”, though she acknowledged that she was “unable to assess full scale” of the training centers.
Section VIII of the report provided the OHCHR’s overall assessment and recommendations. It unequivocally stated: “Serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR [Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region] in the context of the government’s application of counterterrorism and counter-‘extremism’ strategies. The implementation of these strategies, and associated policies in XUAR, has led to interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights.”
It added that China’s “deeply problematic” application of domestic antiterrorism laws “has in practice led to the large-scale arbitrary deprivation of liberty of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities in XUAR in so-called VETC [vocational education and training centers] and other facilities, at least between 2017 and 2019. Even if the VETC system has since been reduced in scope or wound up, as the government has claimed, the laws and policies that underpin it remain in place.”
In detention facilities, “Allegations of patterns of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.”
Indeed, Uyghurs experienced constant hunger and deprivation in these camps. Families were separated and left uninformed of the whereabouts of loved ones, including parents who were incarcerated and children sent to orphanages. There were sickening allegations of guards forcing inmates to perform oral sex, or forms of sexual humiliation such as forced nudity or group gynecological examinations.
Inmates were compelled to take pills or have injections, which typically made them drowsy. They also endured extremely invasive electronic surveillance. Furthermore, the OHCHR report found that China’s policy has put “undue restrictions on religious identity and expression, as well as the rights to privacy and movement”. Key crimes of which China stands accused are mass arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, forced labor, persecution based on ethnicity and religion, coercive birth control, and pervasive surveillance and harassment.
Indeed, the extent of China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” policy “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity”. Indeed, Xinjiang’s human rights situation requires “urgent attention by the government, the United Nations intergovernmental bodies and human rights system, as well as the international community more broadly”.
The phrasing “may constitute international crimes” is actually the strongest language that the UN is permitted to use until the International Criminal Court makes a ruling that widespread human rights abuses, arbitrary detention and torture have indeed occurred.
Only that particular court can declare that crimes against humanity have been committed. However, the International Criminal Court will not be given the chance. This is because China is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, and therefore the court does not have any jurisdiction over China’s alleged crimes.
The report’s strongest sections are on internment and religious freedom, although the document has shortcomings. These include comparatively short and weak sections on forced labor and birth prevention.
Quoting a diplomatic source, Adrian Zenz, a respected German academic known for his research into Chinese abuses against Uyghurs, said that the section on forced sterilization was watered down during the final hours, in response to Chinese protests, which does raise important questions about the report’s independence.
Zenz commented: “This is the clearest evidence to date that political considerations interfered in the presentation of the evidence. Birth prevention is indeed one of the weakest sections in the report and, when reading it, I was suspecting whether there may
have been interference. Beijing is especially sensitive about anything that could point to genocide allegations, which would explain that.”
In the report’s birth prevention section, it failed to include the Xinjiang’s government’s explicit aim of limiting Uyghur births. “That is the most damning evidence, together with statements on ending dominance of Uyghur population and optimizing ethnic ratios,”
Zenz concluded. The report only admitted that “coercive measures are likely to have accompanied the strict enforcement of family planning policies”. In fact, the Uyghur birth rate slumped 48.7% in the 2017-19 period, reaching a figure that was 22% below that of China’s average.
The report relies mostly on China’s own governmental records and documents to prove the human rights violations, as well as some 40 interviews with Uyghur victims. Zenz offered his personal reaction. “The report is very conservative in its use of data and the conclusions drawn from it, which, together with using Beijing’s own sources, will make it very hard for China to counter or refute it.”
The OHCHR took steps to authenticate the validity of all internal documents, lending credence to its conclusions. Examples it referred to include the so-called Xinjiang Papers, China Cables, Karakax List, Urumqi police database and Xinjiang Police Files. Its methodical and conservative methodology adds to the report’s value and authenticity.
Zenz further pointed out: “Bachelet’s visit doesn’t seem to have impacted the report, positively or negatively. There is no indication that her own very problematic assessment or Chinese state propaganda influenced the report or its conclusions. Delaying report
China blames faith of Uyghur Muslims for concentration camps in Xinjiang. (source:uyghurcongress.org)
publication over her visit was a waste.” The German academic noted that Beijing’s responses are mostly “appropriately woven into the report (often in footnotes) and, importantly, the report doesn’t indiscriminately repeat Beijing’s accusations and whitewashing”.
“Overall,” Zenz concluded, “the report is not perfect and a lot of available supporting evidence was not used. But it will provide a strong and authoritative basis going forward from here for holding Beijing accountable.” Zenz’s sentiments were shared by Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Daria Impiombato and Nathan Ruser of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). They said in an assessment:
“While the report was long overdue and lacked strength in certain areas, its release following a four-year investigation is a positive development celebrated by victims of Xinjiang’s human rights crisis, as well as scholars, journalists and advocates around the
world who have for years sought to pour sunlight on the issue.”
ASPI found that Bachelet’s report, despite its narrow scope of research, “strongly verifies the nature of human rights abuses in Xinjiang in relation to arbitrary detention since the 2017 crackdown”. The authors added, “Ultimately, the value of an independent report by the most senior international human rights office lies in having the UN’s imprimatur on the now unassailable conclusions of industrial-scale human rights abuses, leaving no room for censorship and denial, and no excuses for a lack of concrete action.”
Bachelet admitted that “tremendous pressure” had been placed on her by all sides as to whether her report should be published. Certainly, Beijing pressurized her to bury it. Nonetheless, questions need to be asked as to why the report was delayed, and why did the UN wait so long before commissioning an investigation?
China sometimes does respond to international pressure, so a much earlier release of this UN report may have helped some incarcerated victims. Going forward, it may also help prevent some countries deporting Uyghurs back to China. Human Rights Watch is demanding that this report be formally and urgently presented to the UN Human Rights Council, while the International Labor Organization might continue its quest to launch a technical advisory mission to explore this issue of forced labor in China.
ASPI pointed out: “Bachelet’s report should serve as a stern reminder for businesses to improve the transparency and accountability of their own supply chains, and for governments to strengthen their regulatory environments to prevent copouts and workarounds.”
Countries like Canada, France, Lithuania, the Netherlands, UK and USA had already branded Chinese policy in Xinjiang as “genocide”, though others such as Australia have stopped slightly short of that. Germany has been soft on China, but there are signs that the tolerance of Angela Merkel’s era is ending. Patricia Flor, Germany’s Ambassador to Beijing, issued a strongly worded public statement. She noted that the report “clearly states that the extent of detention may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.
This is not a domestic issue. Fighting terrorism cannot excuse human rights violations.” New Zealand is another country that can be wishy-washy when it comes to confronting China, but Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta tweeted, “We are particularly concerned
about arbitrary detention, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, forced medical treatment, widespread surveillance, violations of reproductive rights, restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, and forced labor” in Xinjiang.
Yet the National Party opposition in New Zealand undid all this when foreign affairs shadow minister Gerry Brownlee repeated all China’s talking points. In his unwelcome apology for Beijing’s pogrom, he said people had been “caught up” in China’s counterterrorism measures and that the country’s counterterror laws were no different to New Zealand’s.
In response, Anne-Marie Brady, a well-known academic at Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand who speaks out against Chinese abuses, tweeted, “Let’s play spot-the-useful-idiot worldwide.”
Nor has the Muslim world’s response been any better. It can best be described as tepid. For example, in December 2018 the Human Rights Commission of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) mentioned “disturbing reports on the treatment of Uighur Muslims, and expressed hope that China, which has excellent bilateral relations with most OIC countries as well as the OIC, would address the legitimate concerns of Muslims around the world”.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia went further by actively shielding China from criticism, while Indonesia’s vice president said “we don’t want to intervene in the domestic affairs of another country”. Or what about Imran Khan’s former government in Pakistan, who claimed the Xinjiang situation had been distorted by a “faction of foreign media [who] are trying to sensationalize the matter by spreading false information”? The eventual release of Bachelet’s report makes Beijing’s diplomatic situation even more difficult, particularly in its relations with the West. However, the key question is how many non-aligned nations will join the West’s principled stance on this issue.
Despite China’s protestations of innocence and that the investigation was all a foreign plot – and indeed because of a refusal to own up to its terrible atrocities at home – the world must continue to exert incessant pressure on the heartless communist leadership in Beijing. (ANI)
The Uyghurs from 20 countries urged UNHRC to take up the issue in a Special Session or Urgent Debate with the aim of establishing a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to independently examine the treatment of Uyghurs …reports Asian Lite News
A group of 60 Uyghur organizations from 20 countries are calling for an immediate response to put an end to atrocities against Uyghurs, following the release of a report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today. Uyghurs are calling for seven concrete actions by governments, multilateral bodies, and corporations.
“This UN report is extremely important. It paves the way for meaningful and tangible action by member states, UN bodies, and the business community,” said World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa. “Accountability starts now.”
“This is a game-changer for the international response to the Uyghur crisis,” said Uyghur Human Rights Project Executive Director Omer Kanat. “Despite the Chinese government’s strenuous denials, the UN has now officially recognized that horrific crimes are occurring.”
The report offers the most definitive assessment of the issues faced by Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples from the world’s leading human rights body. Most notably, it finds that “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, within the context of other restrictions, “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
The report also notes that the human rights abuses have included “far-reaching, arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international norms and standards,” and that documentation of “patterns of torture or ill-treatment” is credible, including “incidents of sexual […] violence.”
On the crime of state-imposed forced labour, the report affirms the “deep concerns” of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), stating that the “OHCHR shares, from the human rights perspective, the concerns laid out by the ILO supervisory bodies.”
The report recommends for the Chinese government to take steps to release those arbitrarily detained; clarify the whereabouts of detained family members; cease intimidation and reprisals against Uyghurs in connection with their advocacy; to cooperate with the ILO Committee of Experts recommendations; and provide “adequate remedy and reparation to victims” of human rights abuses.
The report recommends that governments should “refrain from returning [Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples] to China” and “provide humanitarian assistance, including medical and psycho-social support, to victims in the States in which they are located.”
The report also makes recommendations to the business community to strengthen human rights risk assessments in the surveillance and security sector in particular, and for companies to respect human rights across activities and business relationships.
Uyghur
What are the demands?
The UN Human Rights Council to take up the issue in a Special Session or Urgent Debate with the aim of establishing a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to independently examine the treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples;
The UN Special Procedures to consider evidence presented in the report and respond with recommendations for the UN and the international community;
The UN Office on Genocide Prevention to immediately conduct an assessment of the risks of atrocities—including genocide and crimes against humanity—targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, and to alert relevant actors and advocate for a proportionate response;
The ILO to take note of the report, include additional evidence of forced labour in its Committee of Experts annual report, and for delegates at the International Labour Conference to lodge a complaint against China for failure to uphold its obligations;
UNESCO to urgently investigate cases of destruction or marginalisation of natural and cultural heritage, including UNESCO-listed heritage (Muqam, Karez well system, Manas, Meshrep, and the Tianshan mountain range);
The global business community to immediately cut all ties with entities assisting the government to carry out the atrocities, especially the programs of high-tech surveillance and state-imposed forced labour; and
Governments and international organizations to take urgent steps to protect Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples at imminent risk of refoulement, in line with a recent joint statement from 22 refugee and human rights groups and 50 Uyghur organizations.
“The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has waited far too long to deliver its report. The truth of China’s atrocities has once again been documented, and there can be no shying away from the obligation to act. Stopping genocide was a foundational purpose of the UN, and it must be upheld now,” said Campaign for Uyghurs Executive Director Rushan Abbas.
‘’Now that the leading UN office on human rights has spoken, there are no more excuses for failure to hold the Chinese government accountable,” said Elfidar Iltebir, Uyghur American Association President.
“Our people are enduring genocide that has been documented through research, exposed by the Uyghur Tribunal, and designated by parliaments,” said Hidayet Oghuzhan, President of the International Union of East Turkistan Organizations. “As the diaspora community, we call on international human rights organizations and governments to take immediate action to stop the ongoing genocide.”
In September 2021, OHCHR confirmed it was “finalizing its assessment” and in December a spokesperson announced that the report would be released in a matter of weeks. In an open letter in March 2022, over 200 human rights groups urged the High Commissioner to promptly release her Office’s report following the long delay.
The report comes after the visit of the High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, to East Turkistan in May 2022, amidst criticism from governments, international organisations, and Uyghur groups that the trip amounted to little more than a propaganda victory for the Chinese government.
Since China’s review by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in August 2018, where members registered “alarm” at reports of mass detention, UN experts have indicated deep concerns over the deteriorating human rights situation in China—and the Uyghur region in particular.
UN experts have issued 83 communications and 27 press releases to China since 2018, but noted they “have yet to see any signs of political will to address the concerns raised.” The Chinese government has not replied to 19 pending visit requests and rejected all Universal Periodic Review recommendations to provide unhindered access to experts.
In June 2020, 50 UN experts called for “decisive measures” to protect fundamental freedoms in China, including the creation of a UN mechanism to “closely monitor, analyse and report annually on the human rights situation in China.” On June 10, 2022, this call was reiterated by 42 UN experts, noting a lack of political will to address the concerns raised.
A growing number of governments have also expressed alarm about the human rights situation in China—notably the atrocities perpetrated against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. The U.S. State Department determined in January 2021 that this treatment amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity, and parliaments in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and the European Parliament have all passed motions or resolutions condemning the atrocity crimes.
It mentioned reports that the Muslim minorities were subjected to sexual violence, torture and forced labour in the camps, and mosques and cemeteries were destroyed….writes Arul Louis
Just hours before her four-year term ended, UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet released a controversial long-delayed report that asserted that China may be guilty of “crimes against humanity” in its treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang.
The “restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively” by the Uyghur and other Muslims “may constitute international crimes, in particular, crimes against humanity”, the report released in Geneva just before midnight Wednesday said.
It blamed the Chinese government’s campaign against terrorism for what it said was the “arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups” and the restrictions on religion.
It mentioned reports that the Muslim minorities were subjected to sexual violence, torture and forced labour in the camps, and mosques and cemeteries were destroyed.
Bachelet, the former President of Chile who became the Human Rights High Commissioner in 2018, was facing criticism for delaying the release of the report and for a visit to China while it was under preparation.
During the trip in May, she visited the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) where the Muslim minority was being repressed by the Chinese government.
The China visit added to speculations about the delay in the release of the report.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said after its release that the delay “casts a stain” on the Officer of the High Commissioner for Human Rights”.
Deafening the delay, Bachelet said that she “wanted to take the greatest care to deal with the responses and inputs” from Beijing, with whom an advance copy had been shared.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in May after her visit that Washington was concerned about Beijing’s “efforts to restrict and manipulate her visit” to Xinjiang where “genocide and crimes against humanity are ongoing”.
Several activist organisations, including the Human Rights Watch, also criticised her.
Bachelet said her visit had not been for “an investigation” but “to better understand the situation in China” and to speak frankly with Beijing officials.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres however, has defended Bachelet.
His spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday: “He fully respects the independence of the Office of the High Commissioner and the work of the High Commissioner.
Bachelet, whose term ended on Wednesday, announced in June that she was retiring and would not seek another term but Guterres is yet to announce her successor in the position that is perpetually embroiled in controversies with barrages of criticism from both governments and activists.
The 46-page report said that the information available to the high commissioner’s office “on implementation of the Government’s stated drive against terrorism and ‘extremism’ in XUAR in the period 2017- 2019 and potentially thereafter, also raises concerns from the perspective of international criminal law”.
Referring to the massive detention camps by Beijing’s name for them, “Vocational Education Centres (VETC)”, the report said that the “patterns of abuse” there “come against the backdrop of broader discrimination against members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities based on perceived security threats emanating from individual members of these groups”.
The minorities face “far-reaching, arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international norms and standards”, the report said.
The restrictions include “undue restrictions on religious identity and expression”, and “violations of reproductive rights through the coercive and discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies”.
Besides the Uyghurs, Kazakh and other predominantly Muslim minority families also have suffered under Beijing’s policies, it said.
Uyghur
The report “allegations of torture, sexual violence, ill-treatment, forced medical treatment, as well as forced labour and reports of deaths in custody” of the minorities in the detention camps and called for investigating them.
Noting the “increasing restrictions on expressions of Muslim religious practice”, the report said that there “are recurring reports of the destruction of Islamic religious sites, such as mosques, shrines and cemeteries”.
The report quoted a 2019 Beijing official document that said that “since 2014, Xinjiang has destroyed 1,588 violent and terrorist gangs, arrested 12,995 terrorists, seized 2,052 explosive devices, punished 30,645 people for 4,858 illegal religious activities, and confiscated 345,229 copies of illegal religious materials”.
Callamard said the report “lays bare the scale and severity of the human rights violations taking place in Xinjiang, which Amnesty International previously concluded amounted to crimes against humanity. There can be little doubt why the Chinese government fought so hard to pressure the UN to conceal it”.
Publication last year was postponed after China issued an invitation to the UNHCR to visit after years of negotiations…reports Asian Lite News
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed criticism at the pressure she is under over publishing a report into the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region, home to the country’s Uyghur ethnic minority.
Speaking in Geneva less than a week before the end of her term of office, Bachelet on Thursday confirmed receipt of a letter from around 40 governments seeking to restrain her from publishing a report on conditions for the Uyghur and other minorities in the region, reports dpa news agency.
She did not name the countries.
“I have been under tremendous pressure to publish or not to publish. But I will not publish or withhold publication under any such pressure,” Bachelet said.
She added that her office was working to publish by the end of August as planned.
Publication last year was postponed after China issued an invitation to the UNHCR to visit after years of negotiations.
Bachelet visited Xinjiang and other regions in May.
Following the visit, she refrained from criticising Beijing’s policies in the region, drawing criticism from many countries for not clearing up allegations of rights violations.
Human rights organisations and Uyghur who have fled the region have reported that hundreds of thousands of people have been confined to re- education camps.
Tomoya Obokata, UN special rapporteur for slavery, reported last week that in certain cases “enslavement as a crime against humanity” could be involved. China dismissed the allegations as “lies”.
Human Rights Watch spokesman John Fisher (HRW) said it would be a “dereliction of duty” for Bachelet to fail the Uyghurs and other victims.
“At stake is her own reputation and legacy, the credibility of her office, and the trust of victims and their families,” he said in Geneva.
Chinese analyst Ma Ju said Xi went to Xinjiang in preparation for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 20th Congress in autumn, where Xi is likely to be reappointed for a third term as party general secretary…reports Asian Lite News
Chinese President Xi Jinpings recent visit to Xinjiang signals a new emphasis on the assimilation of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group, who the US and other governments say are victims of an ongoing genocide, analysts said, as per media reports.
Xi’s visit to Xinjiang was his second in eight years to the region, where Chinese authorities have detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in internment camps since 2017, RFA reported.
Locals have reportedly been subjected to severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labour, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions in what the US and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity.
Chinese analyst Ma Ju said Xi went to Xinjiang in preparation for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 20th Congress in autumn, where Xi is likely to be reappointed for a third term as party general secretary, and the People’s Congress convening next March.
“Xi Jinping’s statements made after his visit to the region indicates that he will eradicate the remaining few and careful cultural figures after getting rid of the Uyghur elites,” Ma told RFA, adding: “This is an eradication campaign. They will continue this eradication campaign just like getting rid of the civilization of other nations [non-Han peoples] in Chinese history.”
Rahima Mahmut, UK director of the World Uyghur Congress, said events such as the staged dancing of Uyghurs for Xi’s visit was orchestrated for propaganda purposes.
“This happens quite often. It is the same not only for officials from the central government, but also for local officials. The Uyghur students and performers are forced to welcome such officials. The staged dancing of Uyghurs was meant to show the world that Uyghurs enjoy normal happy lives,” she said.
But Mahmut also said it was “frightening” to see photos and videos of the Chinese president with mostly elderly Uyghurs around him, and young men nowhere to be seen, RFA reported.
“Where did the Uyghur young men go? The truth is most young Uyghur males have faced enforced disappearance. They are either in the camps or prisons. This is quite clear,” she said.
