Australia said on Thursday it is seeking a United Nations investigation into allegations that women in the “re-education” camps for Uighurs in China have been systematically raped and sexually abused, according to a report.
“These latest reports of systematic torture and abuse of women are deeply disturbing and raise serious questions about the treatment of Uighurs and other religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang,” a spokesman for Australian Chancellor Marise Payne told Bloomberg in a statement on Thursday.
According to last year’s reports, up to three million Muslim Uighurs in western China’s Xinjiang province have been uprooted from their homes since 2017 by authorities and disappeared in a prison camp, which the Chinese government has disguised as a prison facility. reeducation.
USA ‘DEEPLY DISTURBED’ BY ACCUSATIONS OF SYSTEMIC RAPE, MUSLIM ABUSE IN CHINA FIELDS: REPORT
Supporters of China’s Muslim Uighur minority wave the flag of East Turkestan and hold up signs on December 20, 2019, during a demonstration in Fatih, Istanbul. (Photo by Ozan KOSE / AFP) (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP via Getty Images)
The BBC reported on Wednesday that women in these camps were systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured.
On Wednesday, the US State Department said it was “deeply disturbed” by the allegations.
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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has already been invited to visit Xinjiang “and the two sides have been in contact with each other”, said Bloomberg.
China denies accusations of abuse in Xinjiang, saying “it is not about ethnicity, religion or human rights, but about anti-violence, anti-terrorism, anti-paratyism and de-radicalization”.
“We welcome foreigners with an impartial view to visit Xinjiang to see for themselves a true Xinjiang,” he added. “In the meantime, we are opposed to meddling in China’s internal affairs under the guise of human rights and we are opposed to the presumption of guilt or any investigation based on it.”
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Former President Donald Trump’s government earlier this year ruled that the Chinese government committed “genocide” and “crimes against humanity” against Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities.
It appears that the current Biden government will also be tough on Beijing as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January that “forcing men, women and children into concentration camps” constituted genocide.