On Thursday, United Nations (UN) spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called for a visit by the Office of the High Commissioner’s for Human Rights (OHCHR) to the Muslim-majority Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang, following the release of a BBC report alleging that Uighur women have been “systematically raped, sexually abused, and tortured” in the supposed “re-education camps”. Several former detainees and a guard gave the BBC rare first-hand accounts of what goes on inside the internment camps, reporting that “they experienced or saw evidence of an organized system of mass rape, sexual abuse, and torture.”
The report recounts testimonies of several women who talk about being gang-raped regularly by guards. Tursunay Ziawudun, a former detainee who fled to the United States (US) after her arrest, recounted being tortured and gang-raped by Chinese men in masks on several occasions. She also described the detention facility, saying each room housed 14 women, and had bunk beds, barred windows, a basin and a “hole-in-the-floor-style toilet”. Another Kazakh woman who was formerly detained in the camp recounted how Chinese men “would pay money to have their pick of the prettiest young inmates” and that her job was to undress and handcuff the chosen women before the men entered the room.
Following the release of other such accounts, Dujarric told a press briefing: “Taking into account the nature of the allegations in the report and the denial by the authorities of these allegations, I think it’s more important now than ever for the proposed mission of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to go forward.” The US State Department also joined Dujarric in calling for an international inquiry into the matter and further released a statement expressing shock. “We are deeply disturbed by reports, including first-hand testimony, of systematic rape and sexual abuse against women in internment camps for ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang. People’s Republic of China (PRC) authorities should allow for immediate and independent investigations by international observers into these shocking allegations, in addition to the other atrocities being committed in Xinjiang,” the statement said.
Adrian Zenz, a leading expert on China’s policies in Xinjiang, told the BBC that the most recent news was “some of the most horrendous evidence… since the atrocity began”. He further added, “It provides authoritative and detailed evidence of sexual abuse and torture at a level clearly greater than what we had assumed.”
Through various intelligence reports, it is widely believed that over one million Uighur Muslims and other Muslim minorities are detained in over 85 camps across the region. Beijing has been accused of numerous crimes against ethnic and religious minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, including setting up a mass detention and surveillance system and subjecting Muslims to forced labour, birth control, sterilisation, and marriages, as well as torture. The international community has decried China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide, with the US even imposing sanctions against senior Chinese officials for their involvement in human rights abuses.
However, China has consistently dismissed such criticism, maintaining that the facilities in Xinjiang are job training centres, aimed at countering religious extremism and terrorism. It has further justified their need as a necessary measure against separatist violence in Xinjiang. In a setback to the cause of the Muslim minorities in China, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December declined to open an investigation into China’s forced detention, stating that prosecution was not possible for the time being since China is not a signatory to the Rome Statute.
UN Requests OHCHR to Visit Xinjiang Detention Camps Following Reports of Systemic Rape
UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called on the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Xinjiang following reports of systemic rape and sexual abuse against Muslim communities in detention camps.
February 5, 2021
SOURCE: XUAR