UNSC meeting on Kashmir concludes
As China cozied up with Pakistan to take India to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A in Kashmir, a white paper prepared by Beijing has admitted that India is the victim of global spread and aggravation of terrorism and extremism.
The paper, titled "Vocational Education and Training in Xinjiang" and released on Friday by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, mentioned India in the list of countries impacted by terrorist attacks.
"Since the 1990s, the global spread and aggravation of terrorism and extremism has wrought havoc. Influenced by extremism, terrorist attacks and related incidents have caused heavy casualties and property damage in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and other countries and regions," read the report.
"World peace is under serious threat, and the future of humanity is overshadowed," it added.
China said that separatist and religious extremist forces, spreading "Pan-Turkism" and "Pan-Islamism", attempted to create a theocratic state they called "East Turkistan" in the remote province of Xinjiang.
"In an attempt to split China, such forces advocated religious extremism and carried out a series of terrorist activities. For years, religious extremism continued to make inroads into Xinjiang, resulting in incidents of terrorism," the paper noted.
While human rights activists allege that over one million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained by Chinese authorities in detention centres in Xinjiang, China claims that the education and training in Xinjiang is a social governance measure taken by the government, in accordance with the law.
"It is a basic principle, enshrined in the Constitution of China, prescribed by its laws, and demonstrated by the efforts of the Chinese government, to respect and protect human rights," the paper said.
"In organising the training programmes, the education and training centres strictly follow the provisions of the Constitution and the law to prevent any violation of the basic rights of trainees," it added.
The white paper, published by the State Council Information Office, said that no terrorist incidents have occurred in Xinjiang for nearly three years since the education and training started.
The white paper also said that education and training in Xinjiang is practiced in line with the spirit and requirements of the rule of law in the country.
"It also reflects the ideas and principles of counter-terrorism and deradicalisation as practiced by the international community," it said.
In an opinion piece in The Age last month, Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch, wrote that in Xinjiang, approximately one million people out of a Turkic Muslim population of 13 million were arbitrarily detained without any legal process, subjected to ill-treatment and sometimes tortured.
"Family members are separated, including parents from young children. People are held for weeks or months at a time in closely guarded camps, forced to learn Mandarin, sing pro-Chinese Communist Party songs and pledge loyalty to the Chinese state," Pearson wrote.
Outside the camps, Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are also denied their most basic rights, including privacy, freedom of movement and the right to leave the country, Pearson said.
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