China accepts that Bachelet (UN) goes to Xinjiang, reports the press


BEIJING (Reuters) – China has agreed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, visiting the Xinjiang region in the first half of the Beijing Olympics, the Beijing Olympics reported on Thursday. South China Morning Post newspaper, citing unidentified sources.

Western powers and NGOs accuse China of carrying out widespread abuses against the Ughurs and other Muslim communities in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, torture and forced labor. The United States accuses Beijing of genocide.

China denies the accusations of abuse and says it is pursuing a policy necessary to combat religious extremism.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has been negotiating since September 2018 the conditions for a visit by Michelle Bachelet to Xinjiang.

No comment was immediately obtained from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese diplomatic mission to the UN, and the United Nations.

According to sources cited by the South China Morning Post, Michelle Bachelet’s visit was authorized after the Beijing Olympics, held from February 4 to 20, on condition that it be “friendly” and not mask an investigation.

As in 2008, when the Chinese capital hosted the Summer Olympics, the Olympics are once again highlighting China’s human rights practices. Activists say the situation has since worsened, and several countries including the United States have decided on a diplomatic boycott of next month’s event for this reason.

(Report Gabriel Crossley, Martin Pollard, Emma Farge and Michelle Nichols; French version Jean Terzian)



Source link -88