SWISS INFO: China receives harsh criticism at the UN for its Muslim internment program

Uyghurs pray at a mosque in Hotan, en Xinjiang, in it
northwest China, he 16 April 2015
 

China faced harsh criticism at the UN on Tuesday over its internment program for Muslim citizens and treatment of ethnic minorities..

Nearly a million Uyghurs and members of other Turkic-speaking Chinese ethnicities are or were detained in camps in Xinjiang (northwest of the country), according to estimates cited in August by a group of United Nations experts.

A high-level delegation from the Chinese communist regime had to give explanations this Tuesday about this mass arrest program during the so-called Universal Periodic Review (EPU) to which the 193 members of the United Nations approximately every four years.

In front of the Palace of Nations in Geneva, say la HIM, some 500 manifestantes protestaban por su parte con pancartas en las que se podía leer "Stop al genocidio de los uigures" o "el Tíbet muere, China miente".

"Estamos alarmados ante la creciente represión de las autoridades chinas contra los uigures, Kazakhs and other Muslims in Xinjiang" declared the US representative, Mark Cassayre, in the room of the Human Rights Council.

The latest report on human rights in China dates from 2013.

Washington, declared the US representative, quiere que Pekín declare la abolición de "cualquier forma de detención arbitraria, including internment camps in Xinjiang, and immediately release the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, de individuos detenidos en esos campos".

For its part, France asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to travel to China to observe the program in situ.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, Le Yucheng, he flatly rejected the reproaches, que tildó de "acusaciones políticas provenientes de algunos países llenos de prejuicios".

At first, China denied the existence of such centers in Xinjiang, but after the publication of satellite images and the presence of official documents from local authorities on the internet that mentioned its existence, The authorities spoke of educational centers where Chinese is taught, sport or folk dances to stop religious extremism.

In his appearance this Tuesday, The Chinese vice minister insisted that the repeated Islamist attacks in Xinjiang impose these measures.

– 'Vía particular' –

An AFP investigation of more than 1.500 public documents accessible on the internet revealed in October that these centers, 184 of which established in Xinjiang since 2014, They mainly bought batons, handcuffs or tear gas sprays.

Los centros deben "enseñar como escuelas, ser gestionados como el ejército y asegurados como prisiones", according to one of the documents, which quoted the head of the Chinese Communist Party (PCC) en Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo.

A series of attacks that Beijing blamed on Uyghur separatists or extremists left hundreds dead in recent years.. The authorities say they are concerned about a rise in radical Islam in the region, where half of the near 24 million of inhabitants are Muslims.

According to activists in exile, These are closed political re-education camps.. Some former inmates claimed to have been detained for having long beards, veil or having sent congratulations online on Muslim celebrations.

For the director of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Geneva, John Fisher, el examen de China "demostró el foso que separa el punto de vista de Pekín sobre su balance en materia de derechos humanos y la triste realidad vivida por los defensores de los derechos humanos, los tibetanos y los uigures detenidos arbitrariamente".

The Chinese delegation denied any form of human rights violations and, on the contrary, highlighted the progress made in its economic development in the fight against poverty..

"Lo que China ha hecho demuestra que no hay una única vía hacia la modernización y que cada país puede elegir su vía de desarrollo y su modelo de protección de los derechos humanos", declared Le.