A CIA-backed Uighur group has claimed success in its campaign to oust UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet after she refused to back Western claims of a genocide in China. 

Adviser to the World Uighur Congress Luke de Pulford celebrated her resignation saying that the “Uighur-led campaign” had “achieved its goal.”

He called for “someone who is up to the job” to replace her. 

Ms Bachelet said that she is stepping down from the role for “personal reasons” after she came under intense pressure following her visit to China’s Xinjiang region. 

Anti-China NGOs had long demanded she visit Xinjiang to check allegations of mass incarceration of Uighurs, but dismissed the visit as a Chinese propaganda stunt as soon as it was agreed.

The former Chilean president — who was herself a victim of torture under the Western-backed regime of Augusto Pinochet — announced her departure on Monday during a session of the Human Rights Council.  

Ms Bachelet has since stated that her decision not to seek a second term was made for personal reasons saying that “it is time to go back to Chile and be with family.”

She had faced calls to resign following her visit to China after she failed to find evidence of a genocide of Xinjiang’s Uighurs.

Her trip was undermined before her plane had left the tarmac with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China accusing Beijing of organising a “Potemkin-style tour,” without presenting any evidence for their claims. 

During her visit a report was leaked via evangelical Christian militant Adrian Zenz to the BBC which listed alleged atrocities committed against thousands of Uighur people.

Washington has claimed without evidence that between one and three million Uighur people are held in concentration camps in China’s eastern Xinjiang province. 

Yet last February the US State Department’s own lawyers said there was no evidence of a genocide of Uighurs in China.

Most of the claims emanate from just one source, Mr Zenz, who believes he is on a mission from God to save the world from the Chinese Communist Party. 

His work has been debunked, however Western media organisations continue to use him as their only reference point when reporting on the Uighur issue. 

Many of the world’s Muslim-majority countries back China on human rights and praise its efforts to deal with terrorism, rejecting Western claims of a genocide of Uighur people. 

A letter signed by 45 countries in 2020 said: “It is an imperative to respect the basic facts rather than making unfounded allegations against China and interfere out of political motivations and bias.”