Dozens of people to testify in the People’s Court in London, which China has dismissed as a “clumsy public opinion show”.
A London-based People’s Court investigating whether China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority population amounts to genocide has started hearing testimony.
The “Uyghur Tribunal” has no state backing and no judgment will be binding on any government, but it drew a furious reaction from Beijing, which called the hearings a “machine that produces lies”.
The first hearings take place over four days, from Friday to Monday and are expected to bring together dozens of witnesses. A second series is expected in September.
Organizers hope the process of publicly presenting evidence of an alleged state-orchestrated campaign of repression against Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group, in northwest China’s Xinjiang province, will compel the international community to take action against the country’s authorities.
The tribunal is chaired by prominent human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice, who has led the prosecution of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and has worked on several cases brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It was created at the request of the World Uyghur Congress, an international organization of Uyghurs in exile.
Court organizers said Chinese authorities ignored requests to participate in the hearings.
“I want my son to be released”
According to the United Nations, at least one million Uyghurs have been held in internment camps in Xinjiang, which borders eight countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Critics of the camps, including UK and US, claim detainees in the facility network have been subjected to human rights violations including arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, forced sterilization and the separation of children from their imprisoned parents.
Before testifying in court via video link, three Uyghurs who fled China to Turkey described their treatment by Chinese authorities.
One, named Rozi, said she was forced to have an abortion when she was six and a half months pregnant. Her youngest son has been detained since 2015, when he was just 13, and she hopes the court’s work will help her release.
“I want my son to be released as soon as possible,” she said. “I want him to be released.”
Another, a former doctor, spoke of draconian birth control policies.
And a third, a former detainee, said he was “tortured day and night” by Chinese soldiers while imprisoned in the remote border region.
Beijing denounces the hearings
China denies allegations of abuse in internment camps, claims facilities are “rehabilitation” centers.
Officials insist that mass “education and training” is needed in Xinjiang in order to combat and stimulate what they call the “three evil forces of extremism, separatism and terrorism”. economic development.
In March, the tribunal was among four British entities and nine people sanctioned by Beijing for raising concerns about the treatment of Uyghurs.
China has also publicly condemned the tribunal.
“It is not even a real tribunal or a special court, but only a special machine producing lies,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said last week. “It was founded by people with ulterior motives and has no weight or authority. This is just a clumsy public opinion broadcast under the guise of law. “
