US urges Muslim nations to condemn Xinjiang abuses
GENEVA: The United States yesterday voiced disappointment at the failure of Muslim nations to jointly take a stand against China's treatment of its Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province.
“We are, I can say, disappointed about the lack of response from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the lack of outspoken concern,” said US ambassador Kelley Currie, who heads the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice.
Currie was speaking ahead of a US-sponsored event at United Nations headquarters here focused on allegations of mass-internment of Uighurs in China’s restive Xinjiang province.
While she applauded Turkey for its recent criticism of China’s treatment of its Muslim minorities, she said Washington had hoped the IOC would have collectively condemned the situation in Xinjiang as it has done regarding abuses against Muslims in Myanmar and Syria.
Her comments came as Washington released its annual human rights report, in which it said China had “significantly intensified its campaign of mass detention of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang”.
“Today, more than one million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslims are interned in re-education camps designed to erase their religious and ethnic identities,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said as he introduced the report.
Currie and other speakers, including experts and an alleged former detainee in a re-education camp, made similar charges here, eliciting strong reaction from a Chinese diplomat.
“We strongly object to this antiChina side event sponsored by the US mission,” said the diplomat, charging that it was “obviously driven by a political agenda”.
“There are no so-called concentration camps in Xinjiang,” he said, reiterating Beijing’s claims that it is combating separatism and religious extremism through vocational education.
The event, which was backed by Britain, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, took place on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council, and not before the main UN rights body itself.
The administration of President Donald Trump decided to slam the door on that council last year.