The UN has said it will soon publish its findings on the abuse in Xinjiang

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations Office for Human Rights is finalizing an assessment of the situation in China’s Xinjiang region, where Uyghurs have been arrested for illegal detention, ill-treatment and forced to work, a spokesman said on Friday.

Rupert Colville said the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expects to publish its report in the coming weeks and that there has been no “concrete progress” on a proposed visit in talks with Chinese officials.

Earlier on Friday, a British-based lawyer and unofficial campaign judge said Chinese President Xi Jinping was primarily responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and torture of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region and torture of members of other minorities. China has dismissed as a “farce” a court that has no jurisdiction to punish or enforce.

“The Uyghur court has revealed more information, which is very worrying about the treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang,” Colville said at a UN conference in Geneva.

“Of course, we have similarly identified patterns of arbitrary detention and ill-treatment in institutions, coercive work practices, and general erosion of social and cultural rights,” he said.

‘MANIPULATION’

China’s UN mission in Geneva, in a statement issued on Saturday, said it had repeatedly extended an invitation to Bachelet to pay a “friendly visit”.

“However, this visit will in no way become a so-called‘ investigation ’under the presumption of guilt,” he said.

If his office were only interested in “political manipulation of forces against China in the US and the West,” that would call into question its impartiality, he added.

In June, Bachelet publicly suggested a timeline for this year’s visit. He has been negotiating the terms of that visit since September 2018, when about a million Uyghurs were arrested in mass camps since allegations surfaced.

His findings should be shared with the Beijing government before they can be made public, Colville said, adding that he expects that in a few weeks.