BEIJING (Reuters) - China's government has lodged official protests with 22 countries, which recently signed a joint letter demanding China shut down detention camps for Uighurs and other ethnic minorities, Beijing said, citing Beijing as a "violent interference" in its internal affairs.
The ambassadors of 22 countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Japan, called on the Chinese government to stop what they called the arbitrary detention of about 1 million Uighur minority in camps in the western Xinjiang region in a letter to the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner Of human rights.
The diplomats rarely send open letters to members of the 47-nation council to criticize a state's record, but the move may have been the only option available to highlight Xinjiang, with China likely to get enough support to vote against a formal decision, the Guardian reported.
Human rights groups and former inmates say Chinese authorities are holding Uighurs in "concentration camps", where they forcibly integrate and other minorities into the majority of the Han Chinese community.