US, UK, Germany corner China at UNSC on Uyghurs issue

The US, the UK and Germany cornered China at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the issue of Uyghur minorities being abused in the restive northwestern province of Xinjiang. The remarks were made at a UNSC briefing on counter-terrorism with all the three countries advising Beijing not to use "counter-terrorism" as a pretext to silence political dissent.

US permanent representative to the United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft said, “We are deeply concerned by the situation in Xinjiang, where more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslims have been detained under the false guise of counter-terrorism.”

Craft added, "Counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism should never be used as a pretext to silence political dissent or freedom of expression or to violate religious freedom or repress minority groups."

UK's envoy to UN James Roscoe echoed the sentiments saying, "We remain deeply concerned about systematic, egregious human rights violations against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities."

"Counter-terrorism measures must never serve as a pretext for human rights violations," Germany said at the meeting.

Envoy Günter Sautter said, "Regarding Xinjiang, the internment of large parts of the population is, in our view, unjustified. In the long run, it is prone not to reduce but rather to increase the risk emanating of terrorist organisations."

Earlier this year, Hong Kong was raised at UNSC's closed-door meet for the first time over the new security law irking Beijing.