The UN believes that China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang

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• Asia The controversial tour of Michelle Bachelet to the Chinese region of Xinjiang

China, under the pretext of stamping out terrorism and religious extremism after two decades of attacks, has committed serious human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its northwestern region of Xinjiang, which may constitute a crime against humanity.

That is the conclusion reached by a long-awaited UN report whose publication has been delayed for months by pressure from Beijing.

Just 11 minutes before midnight, just before the term of

, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, expired, the international body released a 45-page report detailing Beijing's repression in Xinjiang.

"The extent of the

of members of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups, in accordance with law and policy, in the context of more general restrictions and deprivations of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity", reads the final evaluation led by Bachelet.

The report reiterates that in Xinjiang, between 2017 and 2019, there were "arbitrary arrests and related patterns of abuse" inside what China calls "vocational education and training centers", which for human rights organizations are internment centers. where more than a million Uyghurs would have ended up against their will.

The UN says it has found

in detention camps, links employment policies to forced labor and points to "coercive government actions" that have led to a sharply declining birthrate in the region.

"There has been a sharp decline in birth rates in Xinjiang since 2017, with a drop of 48.7% between 2017 and 2019. During the same period, there was an unusually strong increase in sterilizations and intrauterine device placement," he says. The report.

Bachelet notes that the average sterilization rate per 100,000 people in China as a whole was just over 32. In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region it was 243.

"There are reports of physical and psychological torture"

The UN investigators rely on interviews with 40 ethnic Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz people.

Twenty-six of those interviewed stated that they had passed through the detention centers.

"Detainees were not allowed to speak their own languages ​​or pray. There are accounts of physical and psychological torture in the facility, including

, interrogations while water was poured on detainees' faces, constant hunger leading to a severe weight loss, sleep deprivation, invasive group gynecological exams, and

," the report states.

Apart from the complaints, the published documents also contain a lengthy rebuttal from China's UN mission: "Xinjiang has taken measures to fight terrorism and extremism in accordance with the law, effectively curbing the frequent occurrences of of terrorist activities. At present, Xinjiang enjoys social stability, economic development, cultural prosperity and religious harmony. People of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang live a happy and peaceful life."

From Beijing they reject all accusations

of human rights violations and say that the report is "a farce planned by the United States and Western countries", that it is based on "disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces", and that it "undermines the credibility" of Bachelet's office, who has said goodbye to the UN by pulling a report that had been kept for many months out of the drawer.

In early February, a day after the opening of the Beijing Winter Games, President Xi Jinping met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who asked the Chinese leader to allow a delegation from the international organization to travel to the Xinjiang region to conduct a kind of human rights inspection.

Xi accepted the proposal.

However, at the end of the meeting, Chinese officials transferred to their UN colleagues an essential condition for this trip to take place:

.

At least not at the moment.

Three months after the meeting between Xi and Guterres, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet traveled to Xinjiang, that vast territory of deserts and mountains,

, under constant international scrutiny.

The six-day tour of the former president of Chile, long considered a candidate to be the first woman to head the UN, ended with a bland press conference in which she

beyond to urge Beijing to "avoid arbitrary measures in the anti-terrorist campaign in the region".

Human rights organizations accused the Chilean of allowing herself to be used by China to whitewash abuses against ethnic minorities in the country.

The high commissioner's visit also coincided with the release of a major data leak from Xinjiang's security apparatus, including mug shots of thousands of Uyghur detainees and internal documents outlining policies such as

A consortium of international media had access to some documents that tested a new proof of the existence of the internment camps.

Centers with barbed wire, watchtowers, armed police guarding patios and corridors.

The accusations of Uyghurs who were detained in the centers and the journalistic investigations, as well as internal leaks from the Chinese government and the Xinjiang police, go much further: forced labor, destruction of mosques,

, draconian surveillance and persecution. police.

Bachelet decides to speak

After her visit to Xinjiang, Bachelet remained silent until a couple of weeks ago, when she acknowledged that there was pressure from Beijing not to publish the expected investigation on the Uyghurs in China.

Reuters revealed that the authorities of the Asian country had sent a letter to the agency's headquarters in Geneva expressing "serious concern" about the report on Xinjiang.

"The evaluation, if published, will intensify politicization and bloc confrontation in the area of ​​human rights, undermine the credibility of the OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) and damage cooperation between the OHCHR and the states. members," the letter said, referring to Bachelet's office.

"We strongly urge the High Commissioner

."

Finally, rushing her last minutes as head of human rights, Bachelet launched the harshest report against China that has been published under the seal of the UN:

"The policies and practices described in Xinjiang have transcended borders, separating families and severing human contacts, while causing particular suffering to affected Uyghur, Kazakh and other predominantly Muslim minority families, exacerbated by

against members of the diaspora community, speaking publicly about experiences in Xinjiang".

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