UN chief denies keeping mum against China over Muslims

United Nations, Sept. 19: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly rejected claims by five human rights groups that he hasn’t condemned the Chinese government’s detention of more than a million Muslims in the Xinjiang region, saying he has spoken out forcefully.

“I don’t think anyone has been more persistent and more clear in talking to the Chinese authorities in relation to this issue than myself,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“It is absolutely not true that I’ve only done discreet diplomacy.”

On the contrary, Guterres said that during his visit to Beijing in April, “I not only did raise the issue, but I made it public.”

The five rights groups said in a letter to the secretarygeneral circulated on Tuesday that he would make an important contribution to addressing “one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time” by speaking out against China’s internment of the Uighurs and members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups and calling for the immediate closure of detention camps for them.

The letter was signed by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Uighur Conference.

Guterres said he told the Chinese “that it is very important to act in a way that each community feels that their identity is respected and that they belong, at the same time, to the society as a whole.”

“There couldn’t be a more clear message,” he said.

“So, if there is an area where I believe I’ve been doing publicly much more than many other leaders around the world (it) is this.”

Guterres said he will continue acting to guarantee that “all human rights in all circumstances are fully respected in that situation.”

— AP