The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has concluded her visit to the region where the Xi Jinping government is violently repressing the Uyghur minority. Victims and activists believe that the former Chilean president was not tough enough

< /i>

Michelle Bachelet (AP)

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Chilean Michelle Bachelet, ended her visit to China and offered a press conference in which she urged the Xi Jinping regime to avoid “arbitrary measures” in the “anti-terrorist” campaign in the region. of Xinjiang (northwest). There, China is accused of holding a million Uyghurs and other people from Muslim minorities in detention centers, sterilizing women and forcing these citizens to perform forced labor.

The former Chilean president clarified that her visit was not an “investigation mission” but that she did affirm that she had spoken “frankly” to the communist leaders. no clutch, his statements sparked controversy between the victims and human rights activists who demand greater commitment in the face of the brutal violation of human rights by the Chinese regime.

According to numerous researchers, Chinese authorities interned more than a million Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslims in detention centers and prisons in the province. While Beijing denies that figure and explains that they are “professional training centers” designed to combat Islamist radicalism, former detainees testified about rape and torture inside those camps, and the political indoctrination of the of Chinese officers, all framed in an omnipresent surveillance system.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights during her visit to China (AP)

Guards equipped with tear gas, electric or stun guns and spiked rattles control these centers surrounded by barbed wire and infrared cameras, according to government documents examined by the AFP in 2018 .

The leak of a series of government data, especially a confidential file from 2019 known as the “Xinjiang Papers”, made it possible better understand the magnitude of Beijing’s internment strategy.

Other documents obtained by Sheffield University professor David Tobin and seen by AFP show how officials in the northern region&nbsp ;were mobilized systematically targeting Muslims. One such document is a manual published in 2016 detailing interrogation techniques and prompting officials to be wary of “savage” imams or religious adepts who “play double games.”

China is also accused of recruiting Uyghurs in its forced “labor transfer” programs, related to international supply chains in various sectors ranging from clothing to automobiles.

According to China, such initiatives facilitate poverty reduction by providing well-paying jobs for low-income rural residents. But the investigation indicates that the authorities forced tens of thousands of people to work in camps and factories under a system related to detention camps.

Last year, the United States adopted a law that prohibits the importation of products made through forced labor in Xinjiang.

In April, China said it had ratified two international conventions against forced labor.

File photo of workers walking along the perimeter of what is officially known as a vocational education center being built in Dabancheng, China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

According to academics and NGO activists, the very strict birth control measures taken in Xinjiang since 2017, especially sterilization quotas and the installation of sterilants, are part of a deliberate attempt to reduce births to ethnic minorities.

China cracked down on religious, cultural and linguistic practices in recent years, according to researchers and Uighurs living outside the country.

Some 16,000 mosques in Xinjiang, or two-thirds of the total number in the province, were destroyed or damaged under government policies since 2017, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

KEEP READING:

By admin

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *