LONDON: The Chinese embassy in London said an unofficial tribunal of lawyers that accused Beijing of genocide against the Uyghurs was nothing more than a political tool of China's enemies, who were spreading lies.
The unofficial tribunal of lawyers and campaigners said on Thursday (Dec 9) that Chinese President Xi Jinping bore primary responsibility for what it said was genocide, crimes against humanity and torture of Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Xinjiang.
An embassy spokesman said it was "nothing but a political tool used by a few anti-China and separatist elements to deceive and mislead the public".
"Anyone with conscience and reason will not be deceived or fooled," the spokesman said.
WHAT THE "TRIBUNAL" SAID
The tribunal, which is headed by British lawyer Geoffrey Nice, has no powers of sanction or enforcement.
"The People's Republic of China (PRC) has committed genocide, crimes against humanity and torture against Uyghur, Kazakh and other ethnic minority citizens in the north-west region of China known as Xinjiang," the British-based Uyghur Tribunal said on Thursday.
"The Tribunal is satisfied that President Xi Jinping … and other very senior officials in the PRC and CCP (Chinese Communist Party) bear primary responsibility for acts that have occurred in Xinjiang."
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), which represents the interests of the mostly Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang and around the world, asked Nice in 2020 to set up an independent tribunal to investigate accusations of abuse in Xinjiang.
Some foreign lawmakers and parliaments, as well as the US secretaries of state in both the Biden and Trump administrations, have labelled the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide.
But China vehemently denies that.
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