San Francisco Frontiers - UN to release Xinjiang rights report within hours

The outgoing High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet promised to release the report before her mandate expires at the end of August.

"The report on Xinjiang will go out by the end of the day," spokesman Jeremy Laurence told AFP.

Her report is therefore set to come out in the final seven hours of her four-year term and should stand as her last act in office.

Beijing stands accused of detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western Xinjiang region.

Campaigners accuse China of a litany of abuses, including mass incarceration, forced labour, compulsory sterilisation and the destruction of Uyghur cultural and religious sites.

The United States and lawmakers in other Western countries have gone as far as accusing China of committing "genocide" against the minority groups.

Beijing vehemently rejects the claims and has long insisted it is running vocational training centres in Xinjiang designed to counter extremism.

It claims the allegations are part of a plot by the United States and other Western nations to smear China and contain its rise.

Bachelet came under increasing pressure to investigate and speak out as the allegations mounted.

Nearly a year ago, the former Chilean president told the UN Human Rights Council that an independent evaluation of the situation was needed -- and indicated that her office was finalising a report.

But it was repeatedly delayed amid growing impatience from rights groups and some countries.

- A 'fabricated lie': China -

Zhang Jun, China's ambassador to the UN in New York, said Beijing had made it clear to Bachelet that it was "firmly opposed" to the rights assessment.

"The so-called Xinjiang issue is a completely fabricated lie out of political motivations and its purpose is definitely to undermine China's stability and to obstruct China's development," he told reporters.

Zhang said Bachelet should "stay independent and... not resign to the political pressure of a number of Western countries.

"We haven't seen this report yet, but we are completely opposed to such a report," he added.

"We do not think it will produce any good to anyone. It simply undermines the cooperation between the UN and a member state. It completely interferes in China's internal affairs."

In her farewell press conference last Thursday, Bachelet admitted she was under "tremendous pressure to publish or not to publish" the long-delayed report.

"But I will not publish or withhold publication due to any such pressure," she said.

Bachelet released a departing video on Wednesday in which she said the world was at a critical juncture, with increasing attempts to shrink the space for debate, too often coupled with attacks on rights defenders.

She did not reference the Xinjiang report but said: "That's the essence of human rights work: doing the hard job of putting the finger where it hurts.

"Not looking away when things don't go smoothly. Seeing when people are excluded and attacked. Bringing hope for change and a better life when people have become desperate and frustrated.

"The journey to defend human rights never ends," she concluded.

- 'Better late than never' -

In May, Bachelet concluded a rare six-day visit to China that took her to Xinjiang.

During her visit, she had urged Beijing to avoid "arbitrary and indiscriminate" measures in Xinjiang.

But rights groups criticised her for a perceived lack of firmness. They said she had capitulated to a stage-managed tour of the region orchestrated by Beijing.

Human Rights Watch said the report would help to show that no state is above the law.

"Better late than never," HRW's China director Sophie Richardson told AFP. "If this does in fact happen, it will be a watershed moment."

The non-governmental organisation would like to see the report reach the same assessments as HRW and others, given the "mountains of evidence".

But she said that more than the content, the publication of the report itself would be important since it would force the UN Human Rights Council to address the issue.

"Not taking this forward is not an option," she said.

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B.Ramirez--SFF