The 48-page report, which said that China had committed grave human rights abuses in Xinjiang, sharply undercuts Beijing's aggressive efforts to discredit Uyghurs who dared to speak out
FILE — Uyghur supporters hold a rally encouraging sanctions against Chinese officials in Washington on Friday, May 3, 2019. For the many Uyghur activists who have campaigned — often at great personal cost — to bring China’s intense crackdown in Xinjiang to light, the United Nations report released on Aug. 31, 2022 that largely validated their claims was a powerful, if long-delayed, vindication. Image: Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
HONG KONG — At first China said there was “no such thing” as re-education centers that held vast numbers of people in its far western Xinjiang region. Then, as more reports emerged that hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and members of other largely Muslim groups were being detained, Beijing acknowledged the camps’ existence but described them as vocational training centers.
When overseas Uyghurs spoke out about the authorities’ abuses in Xinjiang, China targeted their families back home, sentencing their relatives to long prison terms and using the full weight of state media and prominent Chinese diplomats to denounce the activists as liars and frauds.
For the many Uyghur activists who have campaigned — often at great personal cost — to bring China’s intense crackdown in Xinjiang to light, a United Nations report released Wednesday that largely validated their claims was a powerful, if long-delayed, vindication.
The 48-page report, which said that China had committed grave human rights abuses in Xinjiang, sharply undercuts Beijing’s aggressive efforts to discredit Uyghurs who dared to speak out. It also gives new momentum to the Uyghur activists’ cause and an opportunity for rights campaigners to put the issue before the U.N. Human Rights Council later this month and increase pressure on businesses to distance themselves from China.
“As I was reading the entire report, I was fighting back tears,” said Rayhan Asat, a Uyghur lawyer in Washington whose brother, Ekpar, was sentenced in 2020 to 15 years in prison in Xinjiang. “It was a long-awaited recognition of the suffering of my brother and millions like him.”
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