UN Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Guangzhou, southern China. Photo: AP
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet defended her controversial visit to China on Saturday, urging authorities to avoid “arbitrary and indiscriminate” measures in Xinjiang, a region where Beijing is accused of widespread harassment. aabuso.
Bachelet’s long planned journey has taken him to the far western region, where China has been accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, as well as forced sterilization.
The United States calls China’s actions in Xinjiang “genocide” and “crimes against humanity,” charges Beijing has strongly denied, saying its security measures are a necessary response to extremism.
Bachelet insisted on Saturday that his visit “It’s not an investigation.”
controversy
The
The UN official’s tour has garnered criticism from human rights groups and Uyghurs abroad.
The screen shows the virtual meeting of Michelle Bachelet and Chinese President Xi Jinping, this Wednesday. Photo: AFP
After a video meeting Bachelet held with President Xi Jinping, the state media suggested that he support China’s view on human rights.
But his office clarified his comments does not contain direct endorsement of the Chinese record in human rights.
“Some Western countries have tried their best to disrupt and undermine the High Commissioner’s visit, but the plan was unsuccessful,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said in an online statement after Bachelet’s press conference.
“The resignation is the only thing he should do for the Human Rights Council,” said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress Advocacy Group.
US -based Uyghur activist Rayhan Asat said on Twitter that it was a “total betrayal.”
Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth downplayed Bachelet’s argument that his visit was important because he was able to speak honestly to Chinese officials.
“This kind of behind-the-scenes conversation is what the Chinese government wants, no public reporting, no pressure to end their intense crackdown on the Uyghurs and so on,” Roth tweeted.
Michelle Bachelet and Chinese President Xi Jinping on a giant screen. Photo: REUTERS
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said in a statement that “the High Commissioner’s visit was characterized by photos taken with senior government officials and the manipulation of Chinese state media statements, giving the impression that he was directly involved in a highly predictable propaganda exercise “by the Chinese government.
The answer
Bachelet regarded his visit as an opportunity to speak “honestly” with Chinese authorities, as well as with civil society and academic groups.
“This visit is not an investigation,” he told reporters, insisting he had “unsupervised” access to resources the UN planned to meet in Xinjiang: the provincial Communist Party leader and leaders of security.
The Chinese government says it has been forced to conduct “anti-terrorist” operations in Xinjiang, but human rights groups condemned the arrests across the communitymainly the Uyghurs, many of whom have not been in contact with their families abroad for several years.
“We know the number of people seeking news about the fate of their loved ones. This and other issues have been raised with the authorities,” said Bachelet, who declined to add details due to the sensitivity of the issue.
complex visit
It’s about First visit to China by top UN human rights official in 17 yearsand came after difficult negotiations in terms of his visit.
Bachelet urged China to avoid “indiscriminate arbitrary measures” in its suppression in Xinjiang, but he also said he acknowledged the damage caused by “violent acts of extremism.”
The High Commissioner visited the cities of Xinjiang, Urumqi and Kashgar, but no photos or further details were released.
Bachelet detailed visits to a prison in Kashgar, where he saw inmates, and an internal appellate court, describing his access as “relatively open, relatively transparent.”
The Xinjiang government assured him that a network of “vocational training centers” – which rights groups say are forced re -education camps – had been “disbanded,” he said, adding that he had visited a former re -education center.
The state media only echoed the meetings with Xi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, where the latter gave him a book with quotes from Xi about human rights.
Source: AFP
CB
Source: Clarin
