Michelle Bachelet fulfilled the promise repeated in recent days and published the report on China’s Xinjiang region. A document that takes for granted the existence of “serious violations of human rights in the context of the application of government counter-terrorism and anti-extremism strategies” against the Uyghurs and other minorities of the Muslim faith. For Beijing, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has “slid into a delinquent and accomplice of the US and the West”.
“Allegations of a pattern of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and unfavorable detention conditions, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence,” the report said. Over the years, human rights activists have denounced that more than a million people have been held in “re-education camps”, but the analysis only concludes that the system worked “on a large scale” across the region, without being able to confirm the number, although it indicates that, at least between 2017 and 2019, “it was very significant”.
The former Chilean president revealed last week that her cabinet was under “enormous pressure” over the report in question whether or not it would publish. Just over a month ago, Bachelet denied receiving a letter from Chinese authorities requesting that the document not be made public. But at the latest press conference as High Commissioner for Human Rights, she said she received “huge letters” every day, including one from China, signed by 40 countries, asking not to see the report.
“The politicization of these serious human rights issues by some states has not helped,” Bachelet lamented in a statement e-mail sent to AFP when the report was published, 13 minutes before his term expired.
Begun on September 1, 2018, Bachelet’s consulate was ultimately marked by the Uyghur issue. In the early days in Geneva, he urged Beijing to allow observers into that province, given reports of missing persons and the establishment of “re-education camps”.
The high commissioner – who was arrested and tortured by the fascist Pinochet regime – visited Xinjiang in May.
However, the trip resulted in a communist promotional coup, with the high commissioner having no opportunity to visit prisons or move freely. Human rights groups, which for years had warned about the crimes and even suspected genocide, criticized Bachelet. Three weeks later, the High Commissioner announced that she would not continue her post.
Source: DN
