New York (AP) The US Ambassador to the United Nations says China’s selection of a Uyghur athlete to help deliver the Olympic flame in Beijing was an attempt by Chinese officials to distract from global attention on its human rights violations.
The United States is staging a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics, sending athletes but not the traditional delegation of dignitaries, citing China’s alleged systemic and widespread abuse of ethnic and religious minorities in its western region, especially Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim Uyghurs.
China’s selection of cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang for the honour of being a final Olympic torchbearer at the ceremony that opened the Winter Games was a big surprise.
To the US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, that choice was an effort by the Chinese to distract us from the real issue here at hand, that Uyghurs are being tortured, and Uyghurs are the victims of human rights violations by the Chinese.
And she told CNN’s State of the Union that we have to keep that front and centre.
The US says China is committing genocide in its treatment of the Uyghurs.
China denies any abuses and says the steps it has taken are necessary to combat terrorism and a separatist movement.
The American diplomat says we have made clear that crimes against humanity are being committed in China.
She added: It is important that the audience who participated and witnessed this understand that this does not take away from what we know is happening on the ground there. (AP)
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