[StraitsTimes] A watchdog said on Thursday (May 19) that an independent UN expert took a large payment from Beijing, alleging that she helped China "whitewash" its treatment of the Uighur minority and demanding that she return the money.Professor Alena Douhan, the United Nations special rapporteur focused on the negative impact of unilateral sanctions, received a US$200,000 (S$275,900) contribution from Beijing in 2021, said Geneva-based rights group UN Watch, pointing to a UN filing.
Whores get paid
In a statement, the group called on her "to return US$200,000 that she received from the Chinese state while she helped the regime whitewash its ethnic cleansing of the Uighurs".
Prof Douhan, a law professor from Belarus, is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2020. She does not speak on behalf of the UN.
Her mandate is controversial, with rights activists accusing the expert of playing into authoritarian regimes' propaganda by blaming their countries' woes on Western sanctions.
She has visited countries such as Venezuela and Zimbabwe, and concluded a trip to Iran this week, after which she decried the "devastating humanitarian impact of sanctions", insisting they were illegal and should be lifted.
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