During a press conference held online this Saturday, May 28, at the end of his stay in China, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, recalled that her visit, which was banned by foreign newspapers, did not take place. “A Study”. However, according to the 70-year-old former president of Chile, these six days allowed him to speak “openly” to communist leaders about the repression in Xinjiang (northwestern part of the country) in the name of counter-terrorism.
China denies any ‘compulsory contraception’
According to Uyghur separatists and Islamist officials, the Chinese region has long been the scene of bloody attacks targeting civilians – the region’s main ethnic group. Thus Xinjiang has been under intense surveillance for many years.
Western studies accuse Beijing of keeping more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic members in “re-education camps”, imposing “forced labor” or “forced contraception.” The United States is inciting a “genocide.” China condemns biased statements and talks about “vocational training centers” to improve employment and eradicate terrorism. He denies any “compulsory contraception” solely for the purpose of applying the national birth control policy. Members of human rights groups and members of the Uyghur diaspora accuse Beijing of falling into the trap of a crime-free counter-terrorism campaign.
According to them, Uyghurs are said to be extremists and would have been imprisoned only because their beards were so long that suspicious foreign travel or religious beliefs were considered too advanced. Michelle Bachelet called on China on Saturday to avoid such “arbitrary” actions [adoptées] While blindly condemning “terrorist acts of terrorism” in Xinjiang.
The words were considered highly compromised by the World Uyghur Congress, a German-based organization of exiles, and considered by Beijing to be separatist. “If the High Commissioner for Human Rights is silent, it is because he has failed in his duties,” he said in a statement. “The only meaningful thing he can do is resign.”
Some improvement?
Amnesty International, a human rights group, has condemned the ambassador’s fall into the “most speculative propaganda maneuver of the Chinese government.” China’s state media reported this week that he praised China’s progress on human rights – UN. Agencies do not deny or confirm.
Read again: “Repression” of minorities: New US actions against Chinese authorities
Overall, they minimized his travels only to the most polite accounts of his meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “Some Western nations, driven by indirect motives, have made great efforts to disrupt and undermine the visit of the High Commissioner. Their plan failed, ”said Mao Zedong, China’s deputy foreign minister.
Amnesty International has called on Michelle Bachelet to release her report on Xinjiang as soon as possible. Many Uyghurs claim that there is no news of their imprisoned relatives. This question, and the other, was raised with the authorities, Michael Bachelet assures. He adds that he “raised a lot of lawsuits.”
“Explicit” access
The high commissioner strongly supported his stay, saying he was able to reach people he wanted to meet in Xinjiang “without being monitored” by authorities. According to Michelle Bachelet, she met with members of civil society and the leader of the Chinese Communist Party in the region, among others. This is the first visit to China by a High Commissioner for Human Rights in 17 years. It follows tough talks between the UN and Beijing.
Michelle Bachelet went to Xinjiang, the regional capital of Urumqi, and said he visited a prison in the city of Kashgar, where he particularly saw inmates whose access was described as “very open, very open.” He said the Xinjiang government had promised that the network of “vocational training centers” would be “dismantled”.
read more: UN China hopes that the visit of High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet will clarify the misinformation.
The High Commissioner said he had visited one of these old centers. Details of his visit have not been released. The former president of Chile was in a health bubble in the name of an epidemic situation in China, which kept him out of the foreign press.
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