ICC: Not Enough Evidence Exists Yet for Uyghur Genocide Case

The International Criminal Court (ICC) asked for more evidence this week before it will consider opening an investigation into claims of genocide against ethnic Uyghurs by the Chinese government.

As China is not a signatory to the ICC, “the further evidence needs to address additional [alleged] instances of the rounding up of Uyghurs abroad by the Chinese government, and of it forcing them back into China, specifically from Tajikistan and Cambodia, as well as cases of deportation from China into Tajikistan,” according to the Guardian on Friday. Tajikistan and Cambodia are both ICC signatories.

The legal team presenting the case “said it had this week submitted a further communication to the prosecutor outlining this evidence.”

“Those bringing the claim say extra evidence is already being submitted to the ICC in The Hague, and some of the initial evidence gathering had been delayed by the inability to travel to collect documentation because of the coronavirus pandemic,” according to the newspaper.

Lawyers representing the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (ETNAM) presented the complaint to the ICC in July. The submission identifies senior Chinese government officials, including Xi Jinping, the nation’s dictator, as allegedly “planning and directing the campaign” against Uyghurs.

Observers expect the ICC to rule that there is still insufficient evidence to warrant opening a full-scale probe into the alleged genocide of ethnic Uyghurs by China’s government. The ICC will likely announce its ruling in the next few days ahead of an assembly of ICC state parties in the Hague from December 14-16.

“Uyghur victims have been unlawfully deported into occupied East Turkistan [China’s Xinjiang region] from Tajikistan and Cambodia. Upon return to China they have been subjected to crimes together with many other detained Uyghurs including murder, unlawful imprisonment, torture, forced birth control and sterilization, and forced marriages,” ETGE alleged in a July 6 press release announcing the complaint’s submission to the ICC.

“This has been a concerted and widespread campaign by the Chinese government to round up tens of thousands of Uyghurs abroad and those who have fled persecution, to force them back into occupied East Turkistan,” the statement further claimed.

Uyghur separatist groups regard China’s western Xinjiang region, which borders Central Asia, as “East Turkistan.” Xinjiang is home to several ethnic minority groups including the majority-Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs. Human rights organizations have accused Xinjiang Communist Party officials of detaining one to three million Uyghurs and other minorities in regional detention camps since at least 2017. The allegations cite satellite images depicting recently built internment camps, eyewitness testimony, and leaked government documents. Alleged survivors of the camps have testified that they endured physical and sexual abuse, slave labor, and forced Communist Party indoctrination.