UN Needs To Show It Has Listened To Victims, Not Perpetrators, Of Genocide

One of the most stunning aspects of the “Xinjiang Police Files” is that it occurred four days before UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet held a press conference in Beijing parroting the Chinese government’s own narrative. After completing a six-day visit to China, including two days in the Uyghur homeland of East Turkistan, Ms. Bachelet’s comments were shocking. Her remarks were mostly a review of Chinese government disinformation, even repeating the government’s false framing of its atrocities as steps for “poverty alleviation” and  “de-radicalization” of Uyghurs. 

Ms. Bachelet said not a word about well-documented atrocities targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. She talked about “unduly severe restrictions” on religion, but said nothing about mass arbitrary detention and imprisonment of Uyghur intellectuals, religious figures, and ordinary people. She did not mention the systematic eradication of Uyghur culture, religion, and language. She made no mention of torture, forced labor, enforced separation of children from their families, or forced sterilization and other coercive birth prevention policies.

Before her trip, I specifically urged the High Commissioner not to allow the visit to amount to a “PR victory” for the perpetrators of genocide. But the High Commissioner and her team went ahead anyway, walking straight into a minefield prepared by Chinese officials, who controlled where she went and who she spoke with. She really should have known better. It is obvious, as I and others warned, that the UN would not be able to uncover anything that the government wanted to hide in our homeland. After five years living under the threat of imprisonment or internment, not one Uyghur can speak openly. 

There is, however, a chance for redemption for Ms. Bachelet and her mission of defending  human rights.