Britain Challenges China To Give UN Access To Investigations In Xinjiang

Illustration of Xinjiang, China (Wikimedia Commons/Yu Huafeng)

JAKARTA - Britain will on Monday call for support for the United Nations (UN) to have urgent, unrestricted access to investigate reports of human rights violations in Xinjiang.

This was carried out as one of the UK's concrete actions, after rejoining the UN Human Rights Council. According to Reuters, this statement was issued by the Office of Foreign Minister Dominic Raab.

Apart from China, the statement also said Britain condemned the humanitarian record in Russia and would raise attention to the conditions that occurred in Myanmar and Belarus.

In China, Raab will refer to reports of abuses in Xinjiang, including torture, forced labor, and forced sterilization of women.

"It happened on an industrial scale. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or any other independent fact-finding expert, must and I repeat, must, be granted urgent and unfettered access to Xinjiang," he said through the British Foreign Office.

China has been widely criticized for setting up a complex in Xinjiang, which Beijing describes as a 'vocational training center', to root out extremism and give people new skills. Chinese critics call them concentration camps. The United Nations says at least 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang.

Dominic Raab is also said to be highlighting the despicable actions of Russia's Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and setting up steps to help address problems in Myanmar and Belarus including the imposition of sanctions.

Previously, the Government of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XUAR), China stated that it was open to foreign parties. The condition is, the origin of the arrival is not for investigative purposes.

"We have a principle that in essence will not accept the so-called 'investigation' because we think (we are) guilty," XUAR's Deputy Director-General of Publications for the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Xu Guixiang said in Beijing, Monday, February 1.

His party invited foreign parties, including officials of the new United States (US) government to know the real people who live in the southwestern region of mainland China.

"We invite foreigners from all countries, including officials of the new US administration to visit Xinjiang and see the real situation," he added.