UN Accuses China Of 'Serious Violations' Against The Muslim Minority

The United Nations has accused China of committing "serious human rights violations" in a long-awaited report on alleged abuses in Xinjiang against the Muslim Uighur minority.

China urged the United Nations not to publish the report, calling it a "farce" orchestrated by Western powers.

On Thursday, China criticized the United Nations human rights office, accusing it of "collusion" with the United States and the West.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights "has become a thuggish complicit with the United States and the West against the vast majority of developing countries."

The report assesses allegations of abuse against Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities, which China denies.

But investigators said they found "credible evidence" of torture that may amount to "crimes against humanity".

They accused China of using vague national security laws to suppress minority rights and creating "arbitrary detention regimes".

The report, commissioned by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said prisoners had been subjected to "patterns of ill-treatment" that included "incidents of sexual and gender-based violence".

Others, they said, have faced forced medical treatment and "discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies."

The United Nations recommended that China immediately take steps to release "all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty," and noted that some of Beijing's actions could amount to "the commission of international crimes, including crimes against humanity."

While the United Nations said it cannot confirm how many people the government has detained, human rights groups estimate that more than a million people have been detained in camps in the Xinjiang region, in Northeastern China.

There are about 12 million Uighurs, mostly Muslims, living in Xinjiang. The United Nations said non-Muslim members may also be affected by the issues in the report.

Several countries have previously described China's actions in Xinjiang as genocide. But Beijing, which has previously seen the report, denies allegations of abuse and says the camps are a tool for fighting terrorism.

The report was released on Bachelet's last day in office, four years after her tenure as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Her tenure has been dominated by accusations of mistreatment of Uighurs.Bachelet's office noted that an investigation into allegations of genocide in Xinjiang has been underway for more than a year.

But the publication has been delayed several times, leading to accusations by some Western human rights groups that Beijing is urging them to bury the harmful findings in the report.Even in the last hours before the report was published, China was putting pressure on Bachelet not to publish it.

At a press conference last Thursday, Bachelet admitted that she was under "tremendous pressure to publish or not to publish" the report.

But she defended the delay, saying that seeking dialogue with Beijing over the report did not mean it was "turning a blind eye" to the report's contents.

Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch, said the report's findings show "why the Chinese government fought so hard to prevent publication" of the report.

"The UN Human Rights Council should use the report to launch a comprehensive investigation into the Chinese government's crimes against humanity ta,rgeting Uighurs and others - and hold those responsible to account for their actions" she added.

"The Uighurs and other victims have placed their trust in you to report the extent of the abuse they face," she said. "If you don't defend the victims, who will?"

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard condemned the "unforgivable delay" in publishing the results.

"There must be accountability for the Chinese government's crimes against humanity, including through the identification and eventual prosecution of individuals suspected of responsibility," Callamard said.

Earlier this year, the BBC obtained leaked files that revealed an organized system of mass rape, sexual assault, and torture of Uighur Muslims in a network of camps.

Xinjiang police files, as they are called, were passed to the BBC and revealed that the community was targeted on orders reaching Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Chinese authorities hunt Uighur imams

In 2020, then-British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused China of committing "gross and egregious" human rights violations against its Muslim population after a video emerged showing Uighurs being blindfolded and being led into trains.

The footage sparked an international outcry, but Liu Xiaoming, the then Chinese ambassador to the UK, insisted that "there are no such concentration camps in Xinjiang" during an appearance on the BBC.

What does China say?

China denies all allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang.

In response to the Xinjiang police files, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told the BBC that the documents were "the latest example of anti-China voices trying to discredit China". He said that Xinjiang is stable and prosperous, and the residents are leading happy and fulfilling life.

China says the crackdown in Xinjiang is necessary to prevent terrorism and root out Islamic extremism. And that the camps are an effective tool for re-educating prisoners in its fight against terrorism.

It insists that Uighur militants are waging a violent campaign for an independent state by planning bombings, sabotage, and civil unrest. But it is accused of exaggerating the threat in order to justify the oppression of the Uighurs.

China has dismissed allegations that it is trying to limit the number of Uighurs through causing mass women infertility as "baseless" and says the allegations of forced labor are "completely fabricated".