UN chief says China must allow ‘credible’ visit by rights envoy
UNITED NATIONS: UN secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres told Chinese leaders on Saturday that he expected authorities to allow UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to make a “credible visit” to the country, including Xinjiang, the United Nations said.
Guterres met with China’s President Xi Jinping and foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics, according to a UN readout of the meetings.
Bachelet has long sought access to Xinjiang to investigate accusations of abuse against ethnic Uighurs. The issue has soured relations between Beijing and the West, sparking accusations of genocide from Washington and a US-led diplomatic boycott by some countries of the Winter Olympics.
“The secretary-general ... expressed his expectation that the contacts between the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chinese authorities will allow for a credible visit of the High Commissioner to China, including Xinjiang,” said the UN readout of Guterres’ meetings.
Bachelet’s office in Geneva said last month that conversations were under way for a possible trip to the area in northwest China in the first half of the year.
Rights groups accuse China of widescale abuses against Uighurs and other minority groups, including torture, forced labour and detention of 1mn people in internment camps.
China calls them re-education and training facilities, denies abuses, and says it is combating religious extremism.
Canada: Tibetan groups protest China’s human rights violation
As the Beijing Olympics have commenced, Tibetan groups in Canada are staging protests to highlight occupation of the plateau by China and condemning the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) “complicity in sports washing” human rights violations there.
Multiple protests have already been held by a coalition of Tibetan groups in Toronto, which demonstrated in front of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) offices in the city, as well as the official broadcaster of the Beijing Winter Olympics, CBC.
The protests are being organised jointly by the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Toronto (RTYC Toronto), East Turkistan Association of Canada, Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario, Tibetan Women Association of Ontario, Dhokham Chushi Gangdruk Canada and Students For A Free Tibet Canada.