United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet should postpone her planned visit to China, dissidents from Tibet, Uyghur, Hong Kong, and China said during a Zoom news conference Monday.
They said Bachelet has repeatedly failed to meet with or hear from affected communities since she took office in 2018 and shows no indication of holding China accountable for human rights atrocities. Tibetan, Uyghur, Hong Konger, and Chinese communities in exile include survivors of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the concentration camps in East Turkistan, the 2008 uprising in Tibet and the recent severe crackdown in Hong Kong.
The news conference was moderated by Pema Doma of Students for a Free Tibet. She also is a representative of the Tibet Advocacy Coalition.
“We have been left in space where impacted communities have no other options but to organize a press conference of this nature,” Doma said. “The last visit by a high commissioner of the United Nations for human rights to China, to Tibet, has not happened since 2005.
"Since those past 17 years or so, many things have happened in the region that have been left unmonitored, such as the introduction of the National Security Law, the arrest of over 10,000 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong [over 10,000] and the exile of many, and the fleeing of many, including Joey Siu, one of speakers here today as well,” Doma added.
She said more than 1 million Uyghurs have been imprisoned or detained for no reasons other than their cultural and religious identity. She urged Bachelet to explore these matters.
Chinese officials have called this a “friendly visit” as opposed to be a rigorous human rights monitoring mission. An advance team is already on the ground making plans for the tour.
There is much to see and learn, the dissidents said, but if Bachelet will not meet or listen to them, the tour is bound to be a disappointment.
“Not only has she not consulted with Tibet groups about this visit, she has not responded to at least 10 letters we have sent to her since 2018 and has never even spoken about Tibet publicly,” said Lhadon Tethong of Tibet Action Institute.
Tethong said Bachelet’s silence and failure to act stands in stark contrast to her predecessor, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. This is a “historic” visit, Tethong said, and she has an obligation to listen to the impacted people.
“Especially when this community has lost so much in the past few years,” she said, adding that she has more than 40 family members held in the murky nightmare of concentration camps.
Zumretay Arkin of the World Uyghur Congress said Bachelet must open her eyes and ears to the harsh reality that these people are facing at the hands of the Chinese government.
“Victims of atrocity crimes, including genocide, deserve to be heard, consulted with and to have access to accountability measures,” Arkin said. “The United Nations is supposed to play this role but, unfortunately, the UN has failed our community on multiple occasions, and this is one of them.”
The speakers also denounced her office’s stalling of the long-delayed report on East Turkistan, also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.
It contains “well-founded allegations of genocide and the arbitrary detention of millions of Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims in camps,” the dissidents said in a release.
Tethong noted that Bachelet has not indicated any intention of visiting Tibet. Instead, she is willingly going along with the Chinese on a “propaganda tour.”
“It is unconscionable that now, on the eve of her visit to China, the first of a UN high commissioner for human rights in 16 years [and more than 20 to Tibet], has not said anything about her plans to try to visit Tibet,” she said.
Joey Siu of Hong Kong Watch said she also has not announced plans to tour Hong Kong.
Siu, who lives in exile in the United States, said “despite the continuous efforts from not just Hong Kongers but also other members of affected communities and international human rights groups, the high commissioner showed no intention to visit Hong Kong and meet with political prisoners. … It is unreasonable and troubling that the high commissioner is now choosing to neglect the worsening situations in Hong Kong.”
Gloria Montgomery of Tibet Advocacy Coalition said Bachelet appears either uninformed or naïve about the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party, which has held a firm grip on power since 1949.
“It is utterly shocking that there is so little transparency around this extremely important visit by the high commissioner,” Montgomery said. “Without consulting those with firsthand experience and knowledge of the situation, the high commissioner is simply walking into a minefield that is controlled by the Chinese government.”
Kai Muller of International Campaign for Tibet said this visit could end up being counterproductive for people who desperately need their voices heard across the globe.
“In the short term, the visit may be used as a propaganda tool to discredit the numerous accounts of gross human rights violations in East Turkistan [Xinjiang], Tibet and across China,” Muller said.
A UN high commissioner has not visited China in more than 16 years, Tibet in more than 22 years, and has never before visited East Turkistan nor Hong Kong. Bachelet has an obligation to hold meaningful meeting with human rights defenders and political prisoners, the dissidents said, and she must ensure there are repercussions for their honesty.
They said Bachelet also should tour internment camps and colonial boarding schools, calling this “absolutely imperative.” Otherwise, the Chinese can argue that they allowed outside authorities to visit affected areas, and close doors to them once again for years, if not decades.
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