Western nations continue their vigil over human rights violations in the Xinjiang province of China. In their latest salvo, the US, the UK and Germany have asked China to provide "immediate, meaningful and unfettered access" to the UN human rights chief to visit Xinjiang to check out the plight of Muslim minorities.
The countries want China to allow UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Michelle Bachelet, to be allowed to visit the controversial region. Bachelet has been asking China to allow her to visit Xinjiang so that she can herself evaluate the human rights conditions of the Ughyurs – a Muslim minority.
China has faced continuous criticism over its human rights track record related to the Ughyur Muslims.
German ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen said: "We appeal to China to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and we ask China to tear down the detention camps. If you have nothing to hide, why do you not finally grant unimpeded access to the commissioner for human rights?"
Heusgen was speaking at a virtual event organised by Western nations in collaboration with civil society groups to discuss the plight of the Ughyur minority. China had pressed the other UN members to stay away from the debate which was finally attended by nearly 50 countries.
In the debate, US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield emphasised: “We will keep standing up and speaking out until China’s government stops its crimes against humanity and the genocide of Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang”. She added that people are being tortured and women are forcibly sterilised in Xinjiang.
Surprisingly, Turkey – a close China-ally, too was critical about the situation in China. The Turkish delegation described the situation in Xinjiang as "extremely worrying". It said that Turkey had taken up the issue with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in March this year, adding that it also supported the "immediate, meaningful and unfettered access" to the Uygur autonomous region by the UN.
Last month, Human Rights Watch in a 53-page report said that China has detained upto a million people in its western region as it carries forward a campaign of repression against the Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
The report says: "As many as a million people have been arbitrarily detained in 300 to 400 facilities, which include “political education” camps, pretrial detention centers, and prisons. Courts have handed down harsh prison sentences without due process, sentencing Turkic Muslims to years in prison merely for sending an Islamic religious recording to a family member or downloading e-books in Uyghur."
Right since 2018, after she joined as the UN human rights chief, Bachelet has been voicing her concern about the situation in China.
In February this year, at the 46th session of the Human Rights Council, Bachelet said that Beijing was restricting basic civil and political freedoms for the Muslim minority in the name of national security and coronavirus measures. She said that China is using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse.
In January this year, the US administration under Donald Trump had for the first time used the word "genocide" against China for its policy in Xinjiang. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had commented: "I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state." The new administration led by Joe Biden had agreed with that statement, carrying forward the US policy on China.
China has denied these allegations by western countries as well as human rights bodies. Beijing said that countries should not be swayed by American propaganda on the Ughyur issue.
