Judy: Late last night the U.N.
Human rights chief released a
report accusing the Chinese
government of possibly
committing crimes against
humanity against minority Muslim
uighurs in the western -- in a
western province.
The report reiterated much of
what the U.S. Government and
independent researchers have
said about beijing's campaign
against the group but it was the
first time the accusations were
leveled by the U.N..
Nick schifrin reports.
Reporter: On the banks of this
river, uighur victims of Chinese
detention did not need a U.N.
Report of what they had
survived.
Can you describe for us what the
detention center was like?
>> They brought everyone in
there because they called us
suspicious.
There is unimaginable pressure
inside.
Every day they would toss us a
little bread and water so we
would not die and every day they
would interrogate 15 or 20 of us
with unbearable brutality.
Reporter: We met him three years
ago and he says he was detained
in 2017 in what he called a
prison for brainwashing.
>> In 10 hours of class they
would tell us in one day was the
same as the next.
The goal was to change our
minds, our faith, and our
beliefs.
Aging has long called some
uighurs extremists and
separatists that needed to be
reeducated with Chinese language
and skills.
The former ddts -- the former
detainees that we interviewed
said it was a façade that hid
what was really happening.
In this drone video prisoners in
blue with shaved heads were kept
blindfolded and are led away one
police officer per prisoner.
Today's report details the
tensions patterns of torture.
And it concludes the extent of
arbitrary and is criminal
taurine detention of members of
uighur and other predominantly
Muslim groups may constitute
international crimes in
particular crimes against
humanity.
Beijing says the camps have been
closed and calls report a farce.
>> Those so-called assessment
report was manufactured by the
United States and western forces
and it is completely illegal and
invalid.
Reporter: The author of the
report, the former president of
Chile, was herself detained and
tortured under a military
dictatorship of pinochet.
In may she visited China to
conduct her own research but
human rights defenders
criticized her for pulling her
punches.
>> I said from the outset what
this visit was.
It was not an investigation.
Reporter: Her term ended last
night.
She said she was taking the
greatest care to deal with
Chinese feedback and release the
report 13 minutes before
midnight.
For more on this we turn to
Sophie Richardson, China
director at human rights watch.
Come back to the newshour.
Last month human rights watch
said this report had at its
stake the reputation and legacy
of the author, the credibility
of her office, and the trust of
all victims.
Are you satisfied by the report?
>> This report should have come
out a year ago because the
damage and harm endured by the
uighurs inside and outside of
the country could have been
mitigated.
But it is nonetheless an
important reflection of the
scope and the scale of abuses
across the region at the hands
of the Chinese government with a
strong suggestion that those
rise to the level of crimes
against humanity.
Reporter: How impressive is it
that the U.N. Suggest that the
Chinese may be committing crimes
against humanity?
>> It is unprecedented.
It would've been helpful to have
this assessment years ago.
The latest crisis took on new
momentum in 2017.
But the authorities were
planning as early as 2014
specifically to commit systemic
human rights violations.
We have to look at this report
and wonder what could have
turned out differently if this
report had come sooner.
Reporter: What might follow it
in terms of investigations or
government actions do you think?
>> Many of the issues that the
report identifies have been
identified elsewhere but it is
the imprimatur of the office
that lends a certain momentum
and credibility that in turn
places pressure on or gives
governments necessary facts to
go into a body like the united
nations human rights council and
start arguing it is time to
establish a formal investigation
that could gather evidence and
make recommendations about
actual prosecutions.
Reporter: And the council meets
in a few weeks.
On the other hand, the report
does not use the word "Genocide"
which the U.S. Government has
used nor does it have a number
appeared the U.S. Government
says there are 1-3 million
uighurs that have been detained
by China.
Senator Marco Rubio says it
downplays the severity of the
Chinese communist party's
crimes.
>> The report downplays the
scope and scale of abuse or
whether it has put forward an
assessment that is a playing
defense partly by drawing on
Chinese sources in addition to
having spoken to victims.
Part of the office's goal was
to provide governments in
particular with a very solid
facts and to leave out that
which they could not
definitively confirm so that the
governments that are likely to
take this assessment forward
could be confident they are
arguing on strong analytical and
factual grounds.
Reporter: It is important to put
an underlying and that in that
this report does not only use a
testimonies.
It also uses China's -- Chinese
government sources.
>> That is playing good defense.
Beijing's media response was to
say this is a U.S. Conspiracy.
It is hard to do that when your
own governments documents are
being quoted extensively
throughout the analysis.
Reporter: You and the others in
the U.S. Have been sanctioned by
the Chinese government because
of "Meddling in Chinese
affairs."
>> If that is the Chinese
perspective, they probably
should not have signed up to
human rights treaties that allow
for scrutiny by the united
nations.
As well as the human rights
council.
Reporter: It is difficult but do
you believe this report can
provide any comfort or
recognition to so many victims
and their families of Chinese
detention?
>> I think this is one of the
most important aspects of the
report that finally uighurs
around the world see at least
some of the nightmare they have
lived validated and reflected by
the world's premier human rights
agency.
The key now is for governments
to respond to this report and
take it forward to end this
nightmare for uighurs and to
actually presume accountability
-- pursue accountability and
deny China impunity.
Reporter: Thank you very much.