UN report lists torture, abuse of Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang

The United Nations released a bombshell report late Wednesday into serious human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, saying torture allegations were credible and citing possible crimes against humanity. The long-awaited report detailed a string of rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region, but made no reference to genocide: one […]

The United Nations released a bombshell report late Wednesday into serious human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, saying torture allegations were credible and citing possible crimes against humanity.

The long-awaited report detailed a string of rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region, but made no reference to genocide: one of the key allegations made by the United States and other critics.

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“The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups… may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” the report said.

It said the world must now pay “urgent attention” to the human rights situation in the Xinjiang.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN human rights chief, decided that a full assessment was needed of the situation inside the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

China has been accused for years of detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslims in the region.

Beijing has vehemently rejected the claims, insisting it is running vocational centres designed to curb extremism.

“Serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR in the context of the government’s application of counter-terrorism and counter-’extremism’ strategies,” the UN report said.

The assessment raised concerns about the treatment of people held in China’s so-called “Vocational Education and Training Centres” (VETCs).

Campaigners have accused China of practicing forced sterilisation of women.

The report said there were “credible indications of violations of reproductive rights through the coercive enforcement of family planning policies”.

China’s mission in Geneva hit out at the report and maintained its firm opposition to its release.

“Based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilt, the so-called ‘assessment’ distorts China’s laws and policies, and wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s internal affairs,” it said.

Non-governmental organisations and campaign groups said the report should act as a launchpad for further action. (AFP)