International Criminal Court will not investigate China’s alleged abuses against Uighur Muslims

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The International Criminal Court has refused calls to investigate alleged Chinese government oppression of Uighur Muslims, saying it has no jurisdiction to do so because China is not a signatory to the ICC, VOA reports. The ICC announced its decision in a report published by the office of prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on December 14.

Diaspora Uighur groups allege China is abusing their people by committing genocide and crimes against humanity and by forcefully deporting Uighurs out of neighboring Cambodia and Tajikistan to mainland China. “The reason for [approaching] the ICC is the impotence of the United Nations, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation senior fellow Adrian Zenz said in a statement. The main mechanism to do something like that really should be the United Nations, and especially the Human Rights Council.”

In regard to forced deportation allegations, it was hoped the ICC would accept jurisdiction to investigate as, although China is not a signatory to the Court, Cambodia and Tajikistan are. However, ICC officials said the deportations did not amount to an international crime, even if they are a “precursor” to the crimes committed in mainland China, the Washington Examiner said.

Explaining there is not enough evidence about the deportations to warrant an investigation, the ICC report said: “The conduct occurring on the territory of States Parties does not appear, on the information available, to fulfill material elements of the crime of deportation under article 7(1)(d) of the Statute.”
One Uighur diaspora group has said it plans to provide the Court with more evidence.

In a statement Tuesday, the East Turkestan Government in Exile (ETGE) wrote: “The prosecutor will be receiving further evidence of the rounding up of Uighurs abroad by the Chinese Government, and forcing them back into occupied East Turkistan (Xinjiang). The Complaint makes clear that the crimes committed against the Uighur people have been widespread and systematic.”

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