Daily Times

Britain, for once has the moral high ground. Except that this has nothing to do with the state. No surprises there. Rather, ‘people power’ has taken centre stage.

The so-called Uighur Tribunal is a people’s tribunal and has kicked off in London, with a second session earmarked for September followed by a report in December. It was convened at the behest of the World Uighur Congress, an international organisation of exiled Uighurs.

At the heart of the matter is whether or not Beijing has committed genocide against the Uighurs who are native to the Xinjiang autonomous region in northwest China. They, and other Muslims, including Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and ethnic Turks have reportedly been rounded up since 2018 and detained in ‘vocational educational and training centres’ that Human Rights Watch and others have termed indoctrination camps. Close to 2 million Muslims are reportedly incarnated in 1,400 camps across Xinjiang. China says it is simply trying to tackle poverty.

Back in 2018, the BBC aired the “China’s Hidden Camps” documentary featuring interviews with former inmates who spoke of forced sterilisation, gang rape and torture. These charges have repeated in London. That Beijing has ignored requests to participate was inevitable. Nevertheless, the tribunal, which has some heavyweights to its name such as the chair, Geoffrey Nice, who led the prosecution of ex-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, is an important step in the Uighur quest for justice. It doesn’t even matter that the tribunal judgement is not binding — the international spotlight is all that matters for now.

Luke de Pulford, co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response and Adviser to the World Uighur Congress, writing on the website of British television broadcaster ITV, has highlighted an international system so fragile that proving genocide before the courts remains an arduous task. “Part of the cause is that genocide is now almost universally understood as as legal term. This means that it has to be proven beyond doubt before governments are willing to act, or even use the word.” Another impediment is the UN and the selective use of veto power.

It is good and just that the Uighur are having their day in ‘court’, especially since the Muslim world has been largely silent on this issue. ; even while denouncing Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. Yet the portrayal of the people’s tribunal as a concerned citizenry triumphing over power politics at the global institutional level may be misplaced. This is not to say that that China should not answer these allegations — it absolutely must. Nevertheless, the true litmus test of people power must also include putting western countries on ‘trial’. Britain’s Tony Blair has never been held to account over Iraq. Indeed, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was only ever interested in probing war crime allegations committed by British in 2003-2009 and not the legitimacy of the war of aggression itself.

Thus, China will be able to point to these double standards. And countries like Pakistan will have to tread carefully. *