Suppression of the Uyghurs – Will the UN High Commissioner’s visit degenerate into a propaganda tour? – News


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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is due to visit Xinjiang this month. One wonders what this visit will bring.

It is the first time that a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has been allowed to travel to Xinjiang. “A historic moment,” says Zumretay Arkin of the World Uyghur Congress, an organization of exiled Uyghurs. And yet Arkin is against this visit.

Because too many questions remain unanswered for her: “Will the High Commissioner be able to visit the camps, will the victims be able to talk to her freely, and can she even guarantee their safety? We do not know it. The whole thing is not transparent and we are left in the dark.”

Legend:

For years, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has been trying to visit the Uyghur region. NGOs warn the trip could degenerate into a Chinese propaganda tour.

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A team from the High Commission is currently in China. It is to work with the Chinese authorities to prepare for Bachelet’s visit. Little information is known about this either, says Arkin. For example, whether Bachelet’s team understands Chinese and Uyghur at all. “How is the translation organized, will the Chinese authorities translate or will translators and interpreters from the UN do it?” In addition, most people in the region are afraid of the consequences if they give information freely.

The Chinese government is very adept at staging and manipulating international visits.

Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao is even clearer. It is hardly possible for the High Commissioner to meet people independently in China and to talk to them without being observed. “The Chinese government is very adept at staging and manipulating international visits.”

A camp for at least 10,000 inmates in Xinjiang.

Legend:

China has been oppressing the Uyghur ethnic minority for years. The allegations range from re-education camps to torture and forced labor to genocide. Pictured: A camp for at least 10,000 inmates in Xinjiang.

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In 2005, for example, the then UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, visited Beijing, Tibet and Xinjiang, Teng Biao recalls. Human rights lawyers and activists were monitored in advance, and Nowak complained that Chinese officials followed him at every turn. The human rights situation has also deteriorated in recent years, says Teng Biao.

Disappointment with UN High Commission

The Chinese government naturally rejects the serious allegations. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has already written a report on the situation of the Uyghurs in China. But it hasn’t published it yet. According to the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, China has demanded that the report not be released before the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The Chinese government apparently wanted to prevent the prestige project from being overshadowed by the UN report. But the Winter Games have been over for two months now, says Zumretay Arkin. She doesn’t understand why the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights still hasn’t published the report.

She is disappointed in Michelle Bachelet. “We are experiencing such a great trauma, we have lost family members. It’s amazing. Bachelet’s mandate is to uphold human rights and to stand up for the victims of such crimes.”

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