UN chief Antonio Guterres rejects claim he did not condemn China over Muslims detained in Xinjiang
- ‘I don’t think anyone has been more persistent and more clear in talking to the Chinese authorities in relation to this issue’, he tells human rights groups
- Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International among groups calling for UN secretary general to do more
“I don’t think anyone has been more persistent and more clear in talking to the Chinese authorities in relation to this issue than myself,” he said on Wednesday. “It is absolutely not true that I’ve only done discreet diplomacy.”
The official said that on his visit to Beijing in April, “not only did I raise the issue, but I made it public”.
The five rights groups said in a letter to Guterres circulated on Tuesday that he would make an important contribution to addressing “one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time” by speaking out against China’s internment of the Uygurs and members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups and calling for the immediate closure of the detention camps.
The letter was signed by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Uygur Conference.
Guterres said he told the Chinese “that it is very important to act in a way that each community feels that their identity is respected and that they belong, at the same time, to the society as a whole”.
“There could not be a more clear message,” he said. “So, if there is an area where I believe I’ve been doing publicly much more than many other leaders around the world [it] is this.”
Guterres said he would continue acting to guarantee that “all human rights in all circumstances are fully respected in that situation”.
“It will mean to do everything that is necessary for human rights to be respected,” he said when asked if the detention should be closed.
US’ Uygur Human Rights act calls for sanctions on Chinese officials
Criticism has grown over China’s internment of the Uygurs and other Muslims, and Guterres has been criticised previously by human rights groups and some governments for his behind-the-scenes approach and failure to address their plight publicly.
China’s government insists the detention sites are “vocational” centres aimed at training and skills development. It has sharply criticised 22 Western countries that called for an end to mass arbitrary detentions and other abuses of Uygurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region.
In a report earlier this year to counter criticism of the camps and other oppressive security in the traditionally Islamic region, China said it had arrested nearly 13,000 people it described as “terrorists” and had broken up hundreds of “terrorist gangs” in Xinjiang since 2014.
The five rights organisations cautioned Guterres “against any action that might lend credence to Beijing’s narrative that the unlawful detention of over a million Uygurs and other Muslims is a necessary measure to counter terrorism”.
