China Committing Genocide Against Uyghurs, Unofficial British Tribunal Confirms

Uyghurs living in Xinjiang province have been subjected to crimes against humanity orchestrated by the Chinese state, constituting an act of genocide, an independent and unofficial British tribunal has determined,
reports the British portal Guardian.

Hundreds of thousands, perhaps even a million people, have been detained without any or any reasonable justification, emphasized the chairman of this tribunal, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, while presenting the findings of the Tribunal's investigation in London.

'This enormous apparatus of state repression could not exist if the plan had not been approved at the highest levels,' said Nice.

The Uyghur Tribunal, based in the UK, is composed of lawyers, academics, and business people. Although it has no government backing or authority to sanction or punish China, the tribunal's leaders and organizers hope that the process of publicly presenting evidence will spur international action to combat the alleged abuses of Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, reports the Guardian.

The Tribunal's report details crimes including torture and the systematic suppression of births. Sir Nice stated that China's treatment of Uyghurs, under the Geneva Conventions, amounts to an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a group physically or biologically, primarily through the suppression of births. In response to the findings, a cross-party group of British MPs called on the Foreign Office to reconsider its refusal to join the Biden administration in declaring genocide in Xinjiang.

Nice said that while some Uyghurs had died in detention, there was no evidence of mass killings, and comparisons to the Nazi Holocaust were unhelpful.

Detainees were instead mostly released after re-education, said Nice, as part of a plan by the central government, ordered at the highest levels, to reintegrate Xinjiang province and dismantle every aspect of Uyghur culture.

'The authorities of the PRC (People's Republic of China) have detained hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs – by some estimates even more than a million – without any, or any approximately sufficient reason, and have subjected them to acts of wanton cruelty, depravity, and inhumanity,' the Tribunal's report states.

'Sometimes, up to 50 people were held in a cell of 22 square meters,' the report states, adding that there is evidence that detainees were held in containers where they stood up to their necks in cold water, shackled with heavy metal chains and immobilized for months. It also states that some of those detained were subjected to extreme sexual violence, including gang rapes and penetration with electric shockers and iron rods. Women were raped by men who paid to enter the prison building for this purpose, the report states.

Mass forced labor, intensive monitoring and surveillance of individuals, among other measures organized by the Chinese leadership, mean that parts of Xinjiang have become a form of open prison, the report states.
The Tribunal found evidence of forced abortions, involuntary hysterectomies, the killing of infants immediately after birth, and mass forced sterilization by the insertion of IUDs that could only be removed surgically.

'In 29 counties with a majority indigenous population for which we have data for 2019 or 2020, the birth rate fell by 58.5% compared to the baseline average for the period 2011-2015,' the report states, adding that in areas that are over 90% indigenous, the birth rate fell at an even higher rate, showing a decrease of 66.3% in the period 2019-2020.

Hundreds of thousands of Uyghur children have been separated from their families and placed in Han-run boarding schools, cemeteries have been bulldozed or built over, mosques have been destroyed, and
religious practices have been banned, the document states.

Nice said the tribunal would have been unnecessary if 'timid governments' had asked an international court to investigate the allegations, adding that there is an obligation to investigate the credibility of claims of the suffering of others and violations of international human rights law. He claims the tribunal bases its work on universal standards, acts on evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, and makes every effort not to approach this issue with prejudice towards communism or the Communist Party of China. The Chinese leadership refuses any cooperation with the tribunal; moreover, some tribunal members have been targeted by Chinese state sanctions, leading to their withdrawal from the process.

During a press conference held last week, Zheng Zeguang, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, said: 'The so-called witnesses found by the organizers are merely actors who have fabricated the so-called persecution that has not happened at all.' Zheng also said he had asked the UK government to 'prevent the organizers from continuing such malicious behavior.'

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London condemned what he called the 'pseudo tribunal' as 'nothing more than a political instrument used by a few anti-China and separatist elements to deceive the public.'

The report was released a day after the US House of Representatives voted 428 to 1 to ban imports from Xinjiang over forced labor concerns. Commenting on the vote, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the 'so-called forced labor and genocide in Xinjiang are dangerous rumors' and accused the US of using Xinjiang-related issues to 'spread rumors under the guise of human rights and engage in political manipulation and economic bullying.'

Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom have announced they will launch a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled for next year. France, for now, refuses to join them in this endeavor.