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UN Human Rights Council wants to investigate war crimes - China votes against: "double standards"

2022-05-13T14:37:10.550Z


UN Human Rights Council wants to investigate war crimes - China votes against: "double standards" Created: 05/13/2022, 16:30 By: Sven Hauberg A priest blesses the deceased who were exhumed from temporary graves in Bucha at the end of April. The UN is now calling for an investigation into the events. © Emilio Morenatti/AP/dpa China was just one of two countries to refuse to approve a resolution


UN Human Rights Council wants to investigate war crimes - China votes against: "double standards"

Created: 05/13/2022, 16:30

By: Sven Hauberg

A priest blesses the deceased who were exhumed from temporary graves in Bucha at the end of April.

The UN is now calling for an investigation into the events.

© Emilio Morenatti/AP/dpa

China was just one of two countries to refuse to approve a resolution condemning crimes in the Ukraine war.

Now Beijing justified itself.

Munich/Beijing/Geneva – China was one of only two countries to vote against a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council that, among other things, calls for the clarification of alleged war crimes in the Ukraine war.

While 33 states approved and 12 states abstained, only the People's Republic of China and Eritrea rejected the resolution on Thursday (May 12).

Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian justified his country's position on Friday with alleged "double standards" in the UN body.

Zhao also said at a press conference in Beijing that "politicization and confrontation have continued to increase in recent years" at the Human Rights Council.

The UN Human Rights Council resolution calls for an "end to military hostilities" in Ukraine and calls on all warring factions to stop attacks on civilians and human rights violations and abuses.

Moscow should also grant the United Nations access to people trafficked from Ukraine to Russia or Russian-controlled areas.

In addition, a commission should investigate the "events" in the regions around Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv.

China is neutral in the Ukraine war - claims Beijing

Above all, a massacre in the Kiev suburb of Bucha in April caused global horror;

China only spoke up after a delay of several days and avoided blaming Russia for the alleged war crimes.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said ahead of the Human Rights Council session on Thursday: "The scale of illegal executions, including evidence of mass executions, in the areas north of Kyiv is shocking."

Since the beginning of the war, the government in Beijing has claimed to be neutral in the conflict.

At the same time, China repeatedly emphasizes its "rock-solid" friendship with Russia and usually does not officially speak of a "war", but adopts the Russian narrative that it is merely a "military special operation".

Although China emphasizes the sovereignty of Ukraine, it does not blame Russia for the escalation of the conflict that has been smoldering since 2014, but rather the USA and NATO.

China distracts from its own problems - and blames the US

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao now said that the UN Human Rights Council "frequently convenes special sessions against some countries";

At the same time, the body fails to "take effective action against other countries that spread disinformation and slander about the human rights situation in other countries, wage aggressive wars, indiscriminately kill civilians in military operations abroad, indiscriminately use unilateral coercive measures, widespread racism, gun violence and mistreatment of migrants in distress”.

Even if Zhao doesn't say it, the USA is meant.

China has long pursued the strategy of relativizing or distracting from other crimes by making accusations against the United States.

Since the beginning of the war, the state media has been very reluctant to report on the events in Ukraine, but prefers to report on alleged human rights violations in the USA.

Beijing also repeatedly rejects criticism of the re-education camps in the Chinese province of Xinjiang – the USA and other countries speak of genocide against the local population – with reference to the “genocide” of the American natives in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Most recently, China also justified its tough zero-Covid strategy with reference to an “irresponsible” US corona policy that led to one million deaths.

(sh)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-13

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