LONDON: The United States and Britain on Thursday responded with horror and vows of action after a BBC investigation detailed harrowing accounts of torture and sexual violence against Uighur women in Chinese camps.
"These atrocities shock the conscience and must be met with serious consequences," a US State Department spokesperson said, reiterating the view of both the former and new US administrations that China is perpetrating "genocide" against the Uighurs.
"We will speak out consistently and jointly with allies and partners to condemn these atrocities, and we will consider all appropriate tools to promote accountability for those responsible and deter future abuses," the spokesperson said.
British junior foreign minister Nigel Adams said the BBC report revealed "clearly evil acts".
"The evidence of the scale and severity of these violations is now far-reaching, it paints a truly harrowing picture," he told parliament.
"This government is committed to taking robust action in respect of Xinjiang," he said, although the government has stopped short of invoking the term "genocide", arguing only UK courts can make that legal definition.
In a lengthy investigation based on witness testimonies, the BBC on Wednesday reported allegations of systematic rape, sexual abuse and torture of women detainees by police and guards in China's western region of Xinjiang.
It described torture by electric shock, including anal rape by guards using electrified sticks. Women were subject to gang rape and forced sterilisation, witnesses said.
"The screams echoed throughout the building," one was quoted as saying.
The report also triggered outrage from politicians in Australia, and new calls for China to grant access to UN rights inspectors to tour Xinjiang.
The region is home to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority and has seen a sweeping security crackdown by Chinese forces in recent years in response to separatist unrest.
Rights groups believe that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims are incarcerated in camps in Xinjiang.
China is accused of compelling Uighurs to parrot Communist propaganda and renounce Islam, forcibly sterilising women and imposing a regime of forced labour.
After initially denying the camps existed, China's government abruptly acknowledged them, saying they were vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism. The Chinese foreign ministry dismissed the BBC investigation as "false".
Last month, Britain and Canada accused China of human rights violations and "barbarism" against the Uighur minority and announced new rules to ban imports of goods suspected of being made using forced labour.