Beijing:
China on Tuesday politely declined UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s contact for a meaningful access to confirm the significant reports of human rights violations in the restive area of Xinjiang, saying she is welcome for a “friendly visit” but not to pursue a probe with presumption of guilt.
The US and the EU in addition to numerous other nations have accused China of committing a genocide against the minority Muslim Uygurs in Xinjiang and referred to as for an international probe by human rights groups.
In her address to the 47th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Bachelet stated, I continue to go over with China modalities for a check out, like meaningful access, to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and hope this can be accomplished this year, especially as reports of significant human rights violations continue to emerge.
China has been vehemently refuting allegations of interning millions of Uygurs in mass detention camps, which had been officially termed as education camps, in a bid to wean them away from religious extremism.
Asked for his reaction to Bachelet’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing right here that the remarks made by the chief of the best UN human rights body on Xinjiang-connected problems “runs counter to facts.”
We welcome the High Commissioner to come to China to check out Xinjiang. We have lengthy issued an invitation to the High Commissioner to come to China for a check out to Xinjiang and we are in communication on this challenge.
This check out must be a friendly check out with the aim of advertising bilateral exchanges and cooperation rather than to pursue a so-referred to as investigation with the presumption of guilt , Zhao stated.
We firmly oppose any try by any one to seek political manipulation by working with this challenge and to exert stress on China, he stated.
Without straight naming the US and EU, which are pressing for a probe into the allegations of genocide against Muslim Uygurs in Xinjiang, Zhao stated some nations are spreading “lies and misinformation” on Xinjiang to smear China and include China’s development.
Their attempts are only doomed to fail, he stated.
China accuses East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which is entrenched in Uighur Muslim-majority province of Xinjiang province, of becoming accountable for various violent attacks in the province and outdoors, like one at the Forbidden City in Beijing in 2013, killing quite a few persons.
It had sharply criticised the US for delisting the Xinjiang’s separatist terrorist outfit from its list of terrorist organisations last year, saying it reflected Washington’s ‘double standards’ on fighting international terrorism.
Bachelet, in her remarks to the Council, had also sharply criticised China’s crackdown in Hong Kong immediately after imposing the National Security Law to take handle of the former British colony.
It has now been a year considering the fact that the adoption of the National Security Law in Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region), on which my Office has expressed significant issues, she stated.
We have been closely monitoring its application and the chilling influence it has had on the civic and democratic space, as effectively as independent media, Bachelet stated in an apparent reference to the police crackdown on journalists, specially on the independent media residence Apple Daily whose editor and other employees faced prosecution.
She underlined that considering the fact that July 1 last year, 107 persons have been arrested below the National Security Law and 57 have been formally charged, with the initial case coming to trial later this week.
This will be an crucial test of independence for Hong Kong’s judiciary in its willingness to uphold Hong Kong’s obligations below the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in accordance with the fundamental law, Bachelet stated.
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