Canada leads international coalition calling on China to allow investigators free access to Xinjiang
Social Sharing
Separate alliance of 60 elected officials from 18 countries calls for probe into 'indications of genocide'
Peter Zimonjic,
Philip Ling · CBC News · Posted: Jun 18, 2021 12:57 PM ET | Last Updated: June 19
Canada leading global push to investigate China’s treatment of Uyghurs
2 days ago
2:30
Canada is expected to lead a global effort to start a United Nations investigation into China’s human rights abuses on its Uyghur Muslim minority at the United Nations Human Rights Council. 2:30
816
comments
Canada is leading an international effort at the United Nations to demand that China allow "meaningful and unfettered access" to investigate "credible reports" of widespread human rights violations against China's Muslim minority in Xinjiang province, CBC News has learned.
An international alliance that is expected to include more than 20 countries — including Canada's G7 partners and Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand — will make its demand in a joint statement it's expected to deliver to the United Nations Human Rights Council's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday.
"We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region," says a draft of the joint statement seen by CBC News and addressed to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
"We urge China to allow immediate, meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang for independent observers, including the High Commissioner," reads the statement, which also calls for the end of "the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities."
The statement also expresses concerns about the "deterioration of fundamental freedoms" in Hong Kong and Tibet and calls on China to "abide by their human rights obligations."
The international effort comes as 60 parliamentarians from 18 countries in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, including Canada, plan to issue a separate public letter asking the UN Human Rights Council to set up an independent commission of inquiry to investigate what it calls crimes against humanity and indications of genocide in Xinjiang province.
These diplomatic moves follow years of reports from media, academic and UN experts that have accused China of imprisoning more than a million Muslim-minority Uyghurs in concentration and "deradicalization" camps, targeting them for forced labour, sexual violence, population control methods and sweeping surveillance.
The Chinese government has denied the claims of human rights abuses.
China pushes back
In February, the Chinese government lashed out at Canada after the House of Commons voted to declare that China is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.
"Facts have proven that there's no genocide in Xinjiang. This is the lie of the century made up by extremely anti-China forces," said Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, according to a translation of his remarks provided by the foreign ministry.
The Commons motion said that China's persecution of these groups amounts to genocide, according to the definition set out in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, and called on the federal government to formally adopt that position.
A substantial majority of MPs — including most Liberals who participated — voted in favour of the non-binding motion, which was proposed by the Conservative Party.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and all but one member of his cabinet were absent for the vote. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau was present but said he was abstaining from the vote "on behalf of the Government of Canada."
A draft of the joint statement to be delivered to the council in Geneva expresses grave concerns about what is going on in Xinjiang.
'Torture ... cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment'
"Credible reports indicate that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang and that there is widespread surveillance disproportionately targeting Uyghurs and other minorities and restrictions on fundamental freedoms and Uyghur culture," the draft joint statement says.
"There are also reports of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, forced sterilization, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced separation of children from their parents by authorities."
The joint statement also expresses concerns about allegations of "forced labour" and the "collective repression of religious and ethnic minorities" by the Chinese regime.
Aware of the coming joint statement, China issued a preemptive rebuke to the countries behind it, accusing them of habitually using "human rights issues as tools to practice blatant political manipulation."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian gestures as he speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing on Feb. 24, 2020. (Andy Wong/The Associated Press)
"Some individual countries like the U.S., Canada and the U.K. have been seeking to attack and smear China under the guise of human rights, making and spreading disinformation, and abusing the platform of the UN Human Rights Council," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters in a briefing.
Zhao went on to say pressure tactics like the joint statement only obstruct international dialogue and cooperation on human rights. He also accused the countries behind the joint statement of ignoring human rights abuses in their own countries.
"They have human rights issues like racism, gun violence, forced labour, child labour, and the list goes on and on," Zhao said, citing the death of George Floyd in police custody in the U.S. and reports on the discovery of "the remains of Indigenous children found in residential schools in Canada."
A man holds a child as they watch a dance performance at the International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi in western China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in April. (Associated Press/Mark Schiefelbein)
The public letter on behalf of elected officials from 18 countries in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China separately alleges that China is "committing crimes against humanity" in Xinjiang, with "credible sources finding indications of genocide."
The parliamentarians also accuse the council of "failing to end impunity for perpetrators of abuse."
"At least one million people are held in arbitrary detention, with inmates exposed to sexual abuse, torture and political indoctrination," the letter says.
"Since 2015, birth rates of minority groups have declined dramatically in the wake of forced sterilizations, forced abortions and draconian birth control policies against minority groups."
The coalition of international parliamentarians is asking the council to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of human rights abuses, identify the alleged perpetrators, make recommendations to end those abuses and report back regularly to the UN on progress.
China did not commit to providing the access for UN investigators that the joint statement demands. Zhao did say, without elaborating, that "the world will see the facts and come to a fair judgment."
"If these countries think they can deceive the international community, jeopardize the prosperity, stability and sustainable development of Xinjiang and hamstring China's development by fabricating lies on Xinjiang, that will be like trying to hold back the tide with a broom," he said. "Failure will be their fate!"
Amnesty says China has created ‘dystopian hellscape’ in Xinjiang
Rights group alleges ‘crimes against humanity’ being perpetrated against Uighurs, other Muslim minorities.
Uighur women gather outside the Chinese consulate in Istanbul to denounce the alleged rights violations of Uighurs in Xinjiang [File: Ozan Kose/AFP]
By
Al Jazeera Staff
10 Jun 2021
China’s far western region of Xinjiang has become a “dystopian hellscape” where Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities face systematic and state-organised “mass internment and torture amounting to crimes against humanity”, Amnesty International said in a new report, citing dozens of eyewitness accounts from former detainees.
In a study published on Thursday, Amnesty said the minority groups had been forced to abandon their religious traditions, language and culture, and subjected to mass surveillance, supporting previous
allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansingcommitted within a network of
hundreds of detention centres.
KEEP READING
Australia Uighurs despair over ‘disappeared’ relatives in ChinaWhy China’s exploitation of Uighurs implicates Western brandsChina’s treatment of Uighurs is ‘crimes against humanity’: Report
More than 50 former camp detainees shared new testimony with Amnesty, providing a detailed inside account of the conditions and treatment of Uighurs and other groups in the internment camps sanctioned by Chinese authorities since 2017, Amnesty said.
“The Chinese authorities have created a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general and a former UN investigator on human rights.
Play Video
“Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities face crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations that threaten to erase their religious and cultural identities.
“It should shock the conscience of humanity that massive numbers of people have been subjected to brainwashing, torture and other degrading treatment in internment camps, while millions more live in fear amid a vast surveillance apparatus.”
Torture and other ill-treatment are systematic in the camps and every aspect of daily life is regimented in an effort to forcibly instil secular, homogeneous Chinese nation and Communist party ideals, the 160-page report said.
In recent days, China has also been accused of rolling out birth-control policies targeting the same minority groups,
aiming to cut between 2.6 to 4.5 million birthswithin 20 years.
Aside from the Uighurs and Kazakhs, the Hui, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Tajik minorities in Xinjiang have also been swept up in the campaign.
China has previously rejected the genocide and ethnic cleansing charges, saying the internment camps are
vocational training centres aimed at countering the threat of “extremism”.
On Wednesday, Beijing also presented family members and former neighbours to refute the testimonies of witnesses who have appeared at a UK special tribunal
investigating allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. However, a human rights advocate warned that Beijing’s witnesses may have been speaking “under duress”.
‘Tiger chair’ interrogation
Since early 2017, huge numbers of Uighur men and women as well as other Muslim ethnic minorities have been arbitrarily detained or imprisoned, the report said.
They include hundreds of thousands who have been sent to prisons in addition to the one million the UN estimates to have been
sent to the internment camps. Al Jazeera has published
similar witness accounts detailing the experience of Uighurs inside the detention centres.
All of the more than 50 former detainees told Amnesty they were detained for what appeared to be entirely lawful conduct, such as possessing a religiously themed picture or communicating with someone abroad
The witnesses said that many of them underwent intense interrogation at police stations, and the process included beatings and sleep deprivation.
They were also made to sit up to 24 hours in so-called “tiger chairs”, with affixed leg irons and handcuffs that restrain the body in painful positions.
Since early 2017, huge numbers of Uighurs as well as other Muslim ethnic minorities have been arbitrarily detained or imprisoned in a network of facilities spread across Xinjiang [File: Greg Baker/AFP]One woman, detained for having the WhatsApp messaging platform on her phone, said life under detention was heavily regimented, from an early morning flag-raising ceremony to a series of classroom sessions and late-night duties to monitor other cellmates.
“There was not a minute left for yourself. You are exhausted,” the woman was quoted as saying by Amnesty.
Systematic torture
Every former detainee interviewed suffered torture or other ill-treatment, including electric shocks, water and sleep deprivation and exposure to extreme cold among others, the report said.
An older woman who was punished for defending her cellmate said she was taken to a small, dark, cold and windowless room where she had her hands and feet cuffed and was forced to sit on an iron chair for three days straight.
Two former detainees said they had been forced to wear heavy shackles – in one case for an entire year. Others described being shocked with electric batons or sprayed with pepper spray.
Some detainees reported being tortured multiple times, while others said they were forced to watch their cellmates being tortured.
Play Video
Amnesty International learned of one case where a detainee is believed to have died as a result of being restrained in a tiger chair, in front of his cellmates, for 72 hours, during which time he urinated and defecated on himself.
“China must immediately dismantle the internment camps, release the people arbitrarily detained in them and in prisons, and end the systematic attacks against Muslims in Xinjiang,” said Callamard.
“The international community must speak out and act in unison to end this abomination, once and for all.”
A United States Senate committee held a hearing on Thursday addressing the alleged atrocities in Xinjiang with testimony from Uighur advocates and US researchers.
US legislators are considering bans on imports of solar panels and other products made with forced labour and plan to probe the role of US technology firms in enabling China’s mass repression in Xinjiang.
“We have some very concrete steps we can take,” said Senator Tim Kaine, adopting the Amnesty report as part of the Senate hearing record.
The US in March joined the EU, UK and Canada in levying specific sanctions on Chinese officials for what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called “genocide and crimes against humanity”.
In February, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi defended Beijing’s policy towards Uighurs and other groups, telling the UN Human Rights Council that “there has never been so-called genocide, forced labour or religious oppression in Xinjiang”.
He had also invited the UN human rights commissioner to visit the closed-off region but gave no time frame.
Ethnic minority students attend a class at the Urumqi Islamic Institution during a government-organised trip for foreign journalists, in Urumqi, western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, on April 22 April. China has denied that rights abuses are taking place in Xinjiang, calling the allegations ‘the lie of the century’ [Wu Hong/EPA] Amnesty said it would be stepping up its campaign to secure the release of more than 60 people from Muslim minorities who are missing and believed to be detained in Xinjiang.
Meanwhile, Beijing faces more pressure as lawyers have submitted new evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that China is
forcibly returning thousands of Xinjiang people from Tajikistan to China.
Beijing denies the allegations of abuse and is not a signatory to the ICC statute. Tajikistan is a member, and lawyers hope its membership could be a way to bring the allegations of Chinese mistreatment of Uighurs before the court.
“Based on this new dossier of evidence presented to the ICC prosecutor, showing the actions of Chinese authorities directly in Tajikistan – an ICC State Party – it is clear that the ICC does have jurisdiction to open an investigation,” Rodney Dixon, a lawyer representing Uighur groups, said in a statement.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
Uighur woman breaks silence as her fears grow: 'If our genocide is fake, then where is my husband?'
Mehray Mezensof and Mirzat Taher have been married for almost five years but have been together for only 14 months of that time.
By Sabah Choudhry, news reporter
Friday 11 June 2021 08:33, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Play Video - Wife's anguish over detained husband
'Everyone has someone they know who has been taken'
Why you can trust Sky News
Australian-born Mehray Mezensof has been married to her husband, Mirzat Taher, 30, for almost five years.
But he has been absent for most of this period.
The 27-year-old told Sky News the young couple have only spent 14 months of their marriage together, as Mr Taher was in and out of China's so-called "vocational education and training" schools and detention centres - which some US officials have referred to as "concentration camps".
Image:Mehray Mezensof and her husband Mirzat Taher are both ethnically Uighur Muslims
On 1 April this year, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail, for involvement in alleged "separatist" political activities in Turkey.
She says the claims are "ridiculous" - and based on suspicion, rather than factual evidence.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, co-founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, is calling on the G7 to act - and soon.
He told Sky News that the UK, as a host of the summit, has a duty to speak out against the "genocide" happening "right under our noses".
More on Uighur
Image:Sir Iain Duncan Smith says the UK should say more about China's human rights abuses
Sir Ian said Britain can "no longer turn a blind eye" to China's abuse towards its Uighur and minority populations and must "reconsider how we trade" as the UK and other Western countries are too dependent on China.
The former Conservative party leader says the Western world "allowed" China to join the free market without adhering to principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights - what Francis Fukuyama termed "the end of history" - and the G7 now has the opportunity to fix this.
"In the chase for cheaper production… the 'greedy route' as I call it… we relied on an anti-democratic and brutal government… but we cannot separate business and trade from human rights."
Image:Mirzat Taher was recently granted permanent residency in Australia
Ms Mezensof has kept quiet up until now to protect their family, and with the hope that the Chinese Communist Party would release her husband sooner, if they were seen to be "co-operating".
She said: "My husband is a good person. He isn't a criminal. He isn't political. He hasn't done anything wrong, he's innocent."
His only crime, she told Sky News, is being ethnically Uighur.
According to Amnesty International, an estimated one million people, most of them Uighurs - a Muslim ethnic group living largely in the northwest Chinese province of Xinjiang - are believed to have been detained inside "re-education camps" by the Chinese authorities since 2017.
Although the UK government has declined to get involved, MPs in April passed a motion declaring
Uighurs are being subjected to "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" in China.
The first steps of an independent "people's tribunal" in the UK was under way last week, to decide if this is true.
It heard that Uighurs are treated
"worse than dogs" and "tortured day and night" in Chinese camps in Xinjiang.
Ms Mezensof was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. Her parents emigrated from the Xinjiang region in northwestern China more than 35 years ago.
When she was 22, she travelled for the first time to the region's main city, Urumqi, and met Mr Taher - a moment she describes as "love at first sight".
Image:Australian-born Mehray Mezensof has been married to Mirzat Taher for almost five years
After an Islamic ceremony, the couple were married on 3 August 2016 with plans to settle in Melbourne.
Ms Mezensof extended her stay in Xinjiang while they waited for Mr Taher's Australian visa to come through.
At this time - things started to change.
"There were a lot of whispers going around," she said.
"People were disappearing in the middle of the night, police were coming and taking them away. No one knew where they were going, how long for.
"There was constant monitoring, surveillance. Heavy police presence - you'd get stopped on the street a lot to get your phone checked.
"We needed permission from the police to leave the city - you'd have to tell them where you were going, how long for…
"Everyone was on edge."
Image:Mehray Mezensof says she is concerned about the safety of her husband Mirzat Taher
China's
crackdown on Uighurs and other minorities was beginning to ramp up in 2017, and Ms Mezensof's family in Melbourne became increasingly concerned for her safety.
Shortly after Mr Taher was granted a visa on 1 April 2017, the couple immediately booked plane tickets for Australia, due to fly out 11 days later.
However, one day before their flight was due to leave, police turned up at Mr Taher's house and took him away for questioning.
But he did not come home.
Mr Taher was held in a detainment centre for 10 months, and consequently transferred to two different "schools" for "re-education" - where Uighurs who are thought to be "extreme" or "terrorist-like" are sent by state officials.
The Chinese authorities deemed him "dangerous" because he had travelled to Turkey in 2014 and 2015.
It's thought he and other Uighurs in Turkey - who, like him, are ethnically Turkish and not Han Chinese - rallied against the Chinese state with the supposed aim of establishing independence from mainland China, Ms Mezensof understands.
Image:Australian-born Mehray Mezensof said her husband has been sentenced to 25 years in prison
Human Rights Watch report that, during this time, the Xinjiang authorities made foreign ties a punishable offence.
State officials targeted those with connections or travel history to "26 sensitive countries" - including Turkey - and subsequently interrogated, detained, and in some instances imprisoned those people.
However, despite claiming - and demonstrating - his visits consisted of a holiday and opportunity to study Turkish on a student visa, Mr Taher was held by the state for two years, until his unexpected release on 22 May 2019.
He had "graduated" from his "re-education" school and was deemed safe enough to re-integrate back into society.
Several weeks later, the couple reunited at the Urumqi airport.
Image:Mehray Mezensof says she has not heard from her husband for more than 200 days
Ms Mezensof, now on a six month Chinese visa, discovered that her husband, and others with him, were subject to "constant brainwashing" and "propaganda" in the camps.
She told Sky News that contrary to the Chinese state's propaganda videos, her husband did not develop any vocational skills, play sports or attend dance classes.
Rather, inmates were "forced" to learn about the Chinese Communist Party, memorise political speeches and confess their "crimes" to their class on a daily basis.
She said: "It wasn't really physical abuse…. But more mental and psychological.
"If one of them misbehaved - they suffered together. They weren't given food for that whole day, they pretty much starved.
"They were reminded every single day that none of them would ever get to see their family members again… and the only way they would leave is in a body bag, if you die."
The party secretary of Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, has previously told Sky News that the facilities are tantamount to "boarding schools" - and that claims of "concentration camps" were "made up", "lies" and "very ridiculous".
Mr Taher decided against sharing explicit details of his ordeal with his wife - apart from the one time he accidentally spoke in the Uighur tongue and was handcuffed, strung to a door, and was forbidden to eat or drink.
But, unbeknown to them, they were running - once again - on borrowed time.
Ms Mezensof's six-month Chinese visa was running out, and the couple were struggling to obtain Mr Taher's passport from state officials.
She returned to Melbourne on 30 December 2019 - where she applied for another Chinese visa.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Urumqi in Xinjiang was under lockdown. China had closed its borders to foreigners. The couple resorted to keeping in touch on WeeChat.
But on the morning of 19 May 2020 - Ms Mezensof felt uneasy. Her husband hadn't checked or responded to her messages in hours, which she says was very unlike him.
It later transpired that police had taken him from his bed and detained him for a second time - again, about his travels to Turkey.
Image:Mirzat Taher has been detained a number of times in China due to his travel in Turkey
He was kept in solitary confinement for two months and was in separate quarantine for 40 days after an inmate caught COVID-19.
Mr Taher's Australian permanent residency was granted shortly before his release.
However just weeks later, he was detained for a third time on 26 September 2020.
Ms Mezensof hasn't heard from his since.
Sky News has seen a notice of arrest issued by Hami police in Xinjiang on 23 October last year.
All she knows - and from her family in Xinjiang - that Mr Taher has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, for accusations of "separatist" activities which he asserts he had no part in.
Detainees in Xinjiang camps tortured, beaten and given electric shocks, says Amnesty report
She said: "I was in I was in shock that day, I think I like I was I sat for like, hours just crying and shaking my head, being like, no, no, no, no, this, this can't be…. this is a, this is a dream, I'm gonna wake up from it.
"I was just sitting there. And I was calculating it in my head being like, it's 25 years.
"So if he were to carry out that full sentence, when he comes out, he'll be 55. And I'll be 52… how can that be like that's our whole youth, our whole lives, just like ripped and taken away from us?
"The moment you get married and you're about to start your life with the person you love, it should be the happiest moment of your life, but instead I've been going through this in silence.
"This isn't something out of a movie, it is happening.
"It frustrates me when people say its fake, because if it was, where is my husband?
"We really wanted to start our own family…"
Image:Australian-born Mehray Mezensof met Mirzat Taher in Xinjiang's main city, Urumqi
She added: "I just want to know that my husband is alive, that he's somewhat doing okay… I just want to hear his voice.
"It's been over 200 days, since I've had any kind of communication with him. I've been backed into a corner, and there's no way out, besides going public.
"We have no ulterior motive. I just want to be with my husband."
Sky News has contacted Chinese state officials for comment relating to the claims made in this piece, but are yet to receive a response.
![Uighur women gather outside the Chinese consulate in Istanbul to denounce the alleged rights violations of Uighurs in Xinjiang [File: Ozan Kose/AFP]](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F06%2F000_94J69E.jpg%3Fresize%3D770%252C513&hash=c8928fd9be3e7a52c1d28e55f1cab5db "Uighur women gather outside the Chinese consulate in Istanbul to denounce the alleged rights violations of Uighurs in Xinjiang [File: Ozan Kose/AFP]")
