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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has pointed out to China's President Xi Jinping the importance of a credible visit to the country by Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet.
"The Secretary-General made it clear that he expects contacts between the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner and the Chinese authorities to facilitate a credible visit by the Commissioner to China and Xinjiang," the UN report on Guterres' meeting with Xi Jinping said on the fringes of the Olympic Games.
For more than two years, the United Nations human rights chief has been trying to gain access to Xinjiang to investigate allegations of mistreatment of the Muslim Uyghur minority there.
Bachelet's Geneva office confirmed last month that talks were underway for a possible trip to the area in northwest China in the first half of the year.
Human rights activists accuse China of forcing at least one million Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang to give up their religion, culture and language in "re-education camps" and in some cases of physically abusing them.
The USA and other countries are now talking about a »genocide«.
China has so far refused to allow former Chilean President Bachelet to visit Xinjiang.
At the end of January, the South China Morning Post, citing insiders, reported that Bachelet would be allowed to travel to the region after the Olympics.
The condition is that it is a "friendly visit" and not research.
As the newspaper further reported, the government in Beijing has asked Bachelet not to publish a report on the situation in Xinjiang.
The Olympic Games in the Chinese capital from February 4th to 20th brought potential human rights violations back into focus.
China denies the allegations and describes the camps as professional training centers to combat religious extremism.
Guterres met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
A report by China's state news agency Xinhua did not mention the dispute over how to deal with the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
At his meeting with Xi, Guterres also expressed "the desire for increased cooperation between the United Nations and the People's Republic of China in all areas of work of the organization - peace and security, sustainable development, including climate change and biodiversity, and human rights," according to the UN statement. .
kry/Reuters/AFP
