Damned on atrocities

Although unofficial, an independent UK based tribunal, in a very recent (December 9) finding, has found China guilty of committing atrocities by committing crimes against humanity which includes torture targeting Uighur Muslims and other members of the minority living in China. Sir Geoffrey Nice, head of the Uighur tribunal, who is also a well-known human rights lawyer, in his damming report disclosed that China has come down heavily on the hapless Uighur population by brazenly carrying out forced birth control and sterilization programmes as part of the state policy to drastically reduce the Uighur population.

The tribunal in its very candid and unambiguous report felt satisfied beyond doubt that the PRC by the imposition of such harsh measures had intended to destroy a significant part of the Uighurs, an act which can be aptly described as a genocide. In this context, it may be pointed out that the chief of this Uighur tribunal, Geoffrey Nice had earlier led the prosecution of former Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic on war crimes and genocide. That speaks of his proven credentials and, therefore, confirms 'bonafides' of the Uighur related report, under reference.

While discussing the findings of the tribunal, the report also merits highlighting that such a vast level of repression against the Uighurs wouldn't have been possible if the blueprint of the plans was not authorized at the highest level of the Chinese government. It is equally significant to point out that the tribunal is helpless as it doesn't have the backing and the power to sanction or punish China hence no institutionalized or formal indictment can be proceeded with. Yet, experts closely watching Uighurs' atrocities in China, reckon that at least the current findings will facilitate mobilizing governments around the world to hold China accountable for these endless oppression abuses against the Muslim minority.

Meanwhile, as per these fresh observations, as claimed by the tribunal, China has arbitrarily detained as many as one million Uighurs and other minorities in 300 to 400 facilities in Xinjiang in the largest ever internment of an ethnoreligious minority since World War Two. This is significant and cannot be ignored. Intriguingly, while the US and several other major countries have always declared Chinese excesses of genocide against the Uighurs, the UK has so far not condemned China for its continued abuses. This seems to be beyond comprehension as in other cases of human rights violations, the UK has been vehemently vocal. Similarly, Pakistan which is a staunch ally of China, and a predominantly Muslim country with Islam as its state religion, has shied away all these years from criticizing China for its brutality against fellow Muslims. This is highly contradictory and exposes Janus's face.

On its part, China has all along denied the allegations levelled against it and maintained a consistently constant position of being in denial mode. It has even not agreed to international pressure from the multiple human rights groups to conduct any international level investigations or monitoring to probe the highhandedness perpetrated by the Chinese authorities. Here, it would also seem pertinent to point out that while China has been muted on the allegations and terms the Uighurs as terrorists, it is moving cautiously in castigating the Afghan Taliban as terrorists whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocents. In the same vein, it has systematically refrained from being critical of two dreaded Pakistan based terror outfits the Jaish e Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar e Toiba (LeT) and instead moved against any move to declare JeM an internationally branded terror group. Such is the duplicity of the Chinese state policy of being inhuman on the Uighurs, and on the other hand, remaining a silent spectator on the real terrorists thriving in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In light of the prevailing developments, the UK based tribunal led by Nice on Uighurs was established last year in September with an NGO called Coalition for Genocide Response (CGR) to investigate ongoing atrocities against the Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic Muslim population. Earlier, in December 2020, The Hague based International Criminal Court (ICC) refused to investigate the allegations made against China as China was not a party to ICC and the UN couldn't intervene as China has veto power. These handicaps notwithstanding, the CGR co-founder, Luke de Pulford, who is also a senior advisor to the World Uighur Congress, reacting to Nice's report, disclosed that the civil societies the world over need to step up and create an exclusive court of international level like the tribunal on the Uighurs to try the guilty responsible for the crimes against the Uighurs. This recommendation merits serious consideration.

Encouraged by the indictment of China by the UK based tribunal, the Human Rights Watch, another group informally monitoring Chinese discriminatory actions led by Sophie Richardson, opines that the latest findings have at least created a space for the people to explain to the world what exactly happened on ground to raise the public awareness of these ongoing crimes against humanity.

So far, the world seems to be more well informed than in the past taking notice of the Chinese human rights abuses and if these NGOs and tribunals closely collaborate, the Chinese may be compelled to relent though it may not be possible in the near foreseeable future given the country's dictatorial attitude and indifference towards the minorities. In this light, this fresh report of the tribunal may at least set the tone. The Islamic world should also come forward in expressing sympathies towards the persecuted Muslims in China showing solidarity for them as fellow brethren. Time is now as it is the most opportune moment.

The writer is a retired IPS officer, a security analyst and a former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Mauritius. Views expressed are personal