On sidelines of UN, a push for China's abuses to be punished

United Nations will be judged by how it dresses China's persecution of ethnic mirities, diplomats and human rights vocates charged Monday on sidelines of body's General Assembly, calling for forceful action after a report raised specter of “crimes against humanity.”

For years, rights watchdogs and journalists have exposed brutal treatment of Uyghurs and or mostly Muslim ethnic groups in far western region of Xinjiang, where China is accused of a ruthless campaign of torture, sexual assault and ethnic cleansing. Those accusations have been widely accepted in West, but were given a new imprimatur with landmark report released last month by UN human rights office.

“Inaction is longer possible,” Fernand de Varennes, United Nations' special rapporteur on mirity rights said at a forum sponsored by Atlantic Council and Human Rights Watch as world leers descend on New York. “If we allow this to go unpunished, what kind of mess is being propagated?” Jeffrey Prescott, a deputy US ambassor to United Nations, suggested integrity of institution was at stake in its response to China.

“How se atrocities are dressed goes ultimately to credibility of that system, to credibility of our international system itself,” he said. “It's deeply disheartening to see a country that has been so central to creation of modern UN system, and enjoys its status as a permanent member of Security Council, so profoundly violating its commitments.” UN report on China's alleged abuses was released in final minutes of last day in office of Michele Bachelet, w former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Its release was believed to have been long delayed. Bachelet never explained timing.

China responded to its release with fury, calling it “a patchwork of false information" and portraying it as a fabrication cooked up by Western nations. It issued a lengthy rebuttal and vowed to stop cooperating with UN's human rights office, and Chinese diplomats are w lobbying ors to thwart possibility of furr scrutiny of its campaign in Xinjiang.

Rob Roe, Cana's ambassor to United Nations, called China's reaction unsurprising and said new action was merited.

“We need to deal with this question. We need to deal with question of what furr sanctions will be required. We need to deal with question of what furr steps could be taken to respond to extent of this crisis,” he said.

U.N.'s report was drawn, in part, from interviews from more than two dozen former detainees and ors familiar with conditions at eight detention centers who described being beaten, prevented from praying and forced to perform sex acts on guards. It said evidence could constitute “crimes against humanity” but me mention of gecide, which United States and or countries have accused China of committing.

Prince Zeid Ra' Al Hussein, immediate predecessor to Bachelet as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said his successor deserved credit for publishing report, but said it was a “shortcoming” t to refer to abuses as gecide. Likewise, he criticized it for t calling for establishment of a formal U.N. commission of inquiry.

“To be silent is to be an accomplice,” he said.

Rayhan Asat, a Uyghur lawyer who works for Atlantic Council and whose bror is imprisoned in Xinjiang, urged world to insist that action be taken, t just against China, but companies who profit off its abuses.

“We should t let Chinese government off hook by rmalizing what state did,” she said, “because at end of day, this is state violence.” (AP) SMN SMN