The evidence is “clear and convincing” that China’s government is committing genocide against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the country’s Xinjiang province, experts in international law, war crimes, and human rights allege in a new independent report.
The findings, released Tuesday by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a Washington, D.C., think-tank, said the experts concluded that the Chinese Communist Party bears responsibility for its government having breached “each and every act” that is prohibited under the UN Genocide Convention, reports Axios.
The report marks the first time a non-government group performed an independent legal analysis of the allegations and Beijing’s responsibility for the alleged crimes, reports CNN, after having first obtained a copy of the report.
China’s government has denied that the rights of the Uyghurs and other Muslims have been violated, at a time when up to 2 million Uyghurs are detained in the Xinjiang mass internment camps.
The report states that China’s policies and practices of the Uyghurs in the region “must be viewed in their totality, which amounts to an intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group, in whole or in part.”
It found that people detained in the camps are “systematically tortured, subjected to sexual violence, including rape, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment, deprived of their basic human needs, and severely humiliated.”
Further, the report said the detainees are “severely humiliated and subjected to inhumane treatment or punishment, including solitary confinement without food for prolonged periods,” according to the report.
“Suicides have become so pervasive that detainees must wear ‘suicide safe’ uniforms and are denied access to materials susceptible to causing self-harm,” the report further noted.
Last December, the International Criminal Court (ICC) declined to investigate allegations of genocide against Uyghurs, but the file was left open so more evidence could be submitted and an investigation could be opened.
Meanwhile, just before the Trump administration left the White House, the State Department, under then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, issued a declaration accusing China’s Communist Party of genocide.
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