After endless negotiations in Beijing, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet began her visit to China for an ultra-sensitive investigation into the plight of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
He spoke via videoconference on Monday with heads of delegations from about 70 foreign embassies in China, the agency said.AFP diplomatic resources.
According to these sources, Michelle Bachelet assured diplomats that she had talked about access to detention centers and could talk to local human rights activists.
This northwestern region of the country, which has long been plagued by bloody attacks, in which authorities accuse separatists and Uyghur Islamists, has been the subject of tight surveillance since the mid-2010s.
Western studies accuse China of interning at least a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities in re-education camps and prisons, and even of imposing forced labor. Beijing has denied these accusations.
The visit of Ms. Bachelet has been the first of a High Commissioner for Human Rights in China since 2005.
During his six -day visit, he must go specifically to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, as well as to Kashgar, a city in the south of the region where the Uighur population is particularly large.
But his stay will be scrutinized, as many observers doubt that the 70-year-old Chilean former president enjoys truly free access. Many fear that China is using this visit to clear customs.
human rights organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), based in Washington, on Monday in an open letter to Ms. Bachelet that his visit will be carefully managed and choreographed of Beijing.
We are scared […] that you have no free access to victims, witnesses, independent members of civil society at your views have been distorted by the Chinese governmentemphasizes theNGO.
He will also meet some senior officials at the national and local levelsfrom civil society organizations, business and academic representatives, says his office. The UN official will also give a lecture at the University of Canton (southern China).
Genocide
Mostly Sunni Muslims, the Uyghurs are the main ethnic group in Xinjiang, with a population of 26 million.
Western studies, based on interpretations of official documents, testimonies of alleged victims and statistical extrapolations, accuse Beijing of interning in camps at least a million people, to perform sterilizations pilit or impose forced labor.
The United States accuses the Chinese authorities of committing a genocide.
China presented the camps as vocational training centers intended to combat religious extremism and train the inhabitants of a trade to promote employment and social stability.
Beijing has also said not to impose any sterilization, but only apply the policy of limiting working births nationwide, and which has not been done much previously in the region.
Officials ofUN discarded since 2018 in Beijing to get a free and meaningful access.
Propaganda
According to scholars and foreign-based Uyghurs, however, Xinjiang authorities in recent years appear to have abandoned the brutal crackdown to focus on economic development.
Now there is little visible evidence of a crackdownexpresses theAFP Peter Irwin, of the organization Uyghur Human Rights Project.
Widespread state surveillance and fear of retaliation may have prevented Uyghurs on the ground from speaking freely to the UN team.
Michelle Bachelet has also been criticized by Washington for not being more straightforward about Xinjiang so far. The United States warned on Friday that The continued silence of Ms. Bachelet in the face of unequivocal evidence of atrocities ay deeply pertinent.
The official Chinese media seems in any case engaged in the propaganda machine. The New China News Agency praised Monday remarkable progress human rights in recent years in the country.
In another article, he denies any forced labor, arguing that people from Xinjiang are free to choose to go elsewhere in China to work because of better wages and career opportunities.
Source: Radio-Canada
