China fumes as Uighur tribunal hears charges

LONDON: A UK panel investigating the plight of Uighurs in China on Friday heard witness testimony of torture and gang rapes, in a process slammed by Beijing as a PR stunt.

One of the witnesses described squalid conditions and brutality in camps in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, and said a woman had died after undergoing forced sterilisation.

The nine UK-based jurors of the “Uighur tribunal”, including lawyers and rights experts, convened the first of two evidence sessions and intend to publish a report in December on whether China is guilty of genocide.

“Allegations made against the PRC (People’s Republic of China) are grave,” tribunal chair Geoffrey Nice said at the opening of the first four-day session. The body is not affiliated with any government.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian had said last week the panel was “special machine producing lies”. “It was founded by people with ulterior motives. It is just a clumsy public opinion show under the guise of law,” he had said.