ICC will not open investigation into treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, responded to a request to open an investigation into the plight of the Muslim Uyghur minority in the Chinese region of Xinjiang Monday, saying that Beijing is not a member of this international judicial body, according to a report published by her office.

In response to a request to open an investigation by Uighurs living in exile, Bensouda said it is impossible for the International Criminal Court to open an investigation about a domestic incident as long as China has not signed the Rome Treaty that created this court In 2002.

"This precondition for the court to exercise its spatial jurisdiction does not appear to be met in relation to the majority of cases," the prosecutor explained in her report.

As for what the lawsuit stated about forced deportations to China by Tajikistan and Cambodia against Uyghurs, Bensouda said that "there is not at this stage sufficient evidence" to open an investigation in this regard.

The Uyghur plaintiffs claim that Tajikistan and Cambodia are parties to the Treaty of Rome and that these forced deportations have obtained their territories, and therefore it is the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation.

The Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims who make up the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, the vast region in northwestern China that enjoys self-rule and borders with both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The United States, other Western countries, and several international organizations accuse the Chinese authorities of committing widespread violations of the Uyghurs and detaining more than a million Muslims in Xinjiang in concentration camps.

However, Beijing says that this number is greatly exaggerated, and that these sites are not detention centers but vocational training centers designed to help residents find work and move away from religious extremism.