A massive data leak purportedly from Chinese police, including thousands of photos of detained women, children and elderly people, sheds light on the plight of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.
(You might be interested in: Michelle Bachelet begins her historic visit to China)
The documents were published this Tuesday by a group of 14 international media outlets.coinciding with the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to this northwestern region
from China.
(It might interest you: Biden begins to turn his policy of ‘ambiguity’ towards Taiwan)
They were handed over by an anonymous source to the German investigator Adrian Zenz, the first to accuse the Chinese regime in 2018 of having interned more than a million people.
Uyghurs in political re-education centers.
Beijing rejects this figure and qualifies the accusations as “the lie of the century”.
He claims that these sites are actually “vocational training centers” to deradicalize people tempted by Islamism or separatism after a series of
of attacks that hit the region.
Among the leaked documents are more than 2,800 identity photos of detainees, including Zeytunigul Ablehet, a 17-year-old girl detained for listening to a prohibited speech, and 16-year-old Bilal Qasim, allegedly convicted for his relationship with other prisoners.
Anihan Hamit, 73 years old at the time of her arrest, is the oldest on the list.
It has been shown that Uyghurs (even young or very old) being sentenced to dozens of years in prison for “presenting suspicious signs of extremism” such as not drinking alcohol or even being relatives of another detainee. pic.twitter.com/YRIUkmwUJ9
– Curro Peña 🏳️🌈🌻 (@Currikitaum) May 24, 2022
Another image shows guards armed with batons trying to control a chained prisoner.
Written documents prove, for their part, the thesis of a repression ordered by the highest spheres of the Chinese State. A speech attributed to Police Minister Zhao Kezhi in 2018 says, for example, that President Xi Jinping ordered the expansion of detention centers.
According to Zhao, at least two million inhabitants of southern Xinjiang are “seriously influenced by the infiltration of extremist thought.”
The Uyghurs represent about half of the population of Xinjiang (26 million inhabitants).
In a 2017 speech, Chen Quanguo, then the region’s chief, ordered guards to shoot those who try to escape and “keep close watch on believers.”
Beijing categorically rejected Zenz’s conclusions.
Bachelet’s access to the Chinese region, under scrutiny
China described the UN human rights chief’s mission as an opportunity to “clarify misinformation” ahead of his visit to the Xinjiang region, where members of the Uyghur minority have warned it could become a public relations stunt by Beijing.
Uyghurs in exile demanded firmness from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, during her visit to the western region of Xinjiang, where they say they face persecution that legislators from the United States and other countries describe as “genocide.”
With her six-day trip, the former Chilean president is the first UN human rights official to go to the Asian giant since 2005.
In a meeting with Bachelet on Monday in Guangzhou, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi “expressed the hope that this visit will help strengthen understanding and cooperation and clear up misinformation,” his office said in a note.
The text did not refer to Xinjiang, a remote region where the Communist Party is accused of holding a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
In its report of the meeting, the state news agency Xinhua said that Bachelet “congratulated China on its important achievements in economic and social development and in promoting the protection of human rights”.
Bachelet’s spokesman did not confirm to AFP what was said outside of the initial comments. Nursimangul Abdureshid, a Uighur based in Turkey, commented: “I don’t have much hope that her visit will bring change.”
“I ask you to visit the victims, like my family, not the scenes prepared by
the Chinese government,” he told AFP.
“If the UN team does not have unlimited access in Xinjiang, I will not be able to accept their reports”he added.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Bachelet will visit the cities of Urumqi and Khashgar in
Xinjiang. “I hope you can ask the Chinese government about my mother’s whereabouts,” said Jevlan Shirement, a 31-year-old Uyghur in exile in Turkey who hasn’t heard from his mother for four years.
‘Important and sensitive’ issues
The regional capital Urumqi, with a population of four million, hosts the main government bodies that would have organized this campaign that China describes as focused against religious extremism.
It is also home to a significant Uyghur community and was the scene of ethnic clashes in 2009 and two terrorist attacks in 2014.
For its part, Kashgar, with 700,000 inhabitants, lies in the cradle of the Uyghur community in southern Xinjiang.
A former stage on the Silk Road, this city has been the main scene of Beijing’s campaign according to activists and researchers, who they accuse the authorities of stuffing this high-tech cultural center with security while demolishing houses of Uyghurs and religious sites.
The outskirts of both cities are dotted with what are believed to be detention camps, part of a vast network of facilities that have recently been built across the country.
NGOs have expressed concern that the Chinese authorities prevent Bachelet from carrying out an exhaustive investigation of the alleged violations of rights and the United States expressed concern about the lack of prior guarantees about what she could visit.
“We are very concerned that this visit brings little benefit to victims and activists at a very high political cost,” said Raphael David of the International Service for Human Rights.
“Bachelet has to understand that global trust in the UN and the ability of her own office to respond to a human rights crisis in a world power are at stake,” added David In Canton, where she met with Wang Yi, Bachelet assured which will discuss “some very important and sensitive issues”.
“I hope this will help us build trust,” he said.
The Chilean also held telematic meetings with the heads of some 70 foreign missions in China, according to diplomatic sources, who said that she gave them guarantees of their access to detention centers and defenders of freedoms.
The office of the High Commissioner also reported meetings with organizations
from civil society, business representatives and academics. In addition to mass arrests, researchers and activists denounce that the Chinese authorities have deployed a campaign of forced labor, sterilization of women and destruction of the Uyghur cultural heritage in Xinjiang.
Exiled members of this community have held demonstrations in recent weeks pressuring Bachelet to visit relatives detained in the region.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP.
More world news:
-Independence waves, the phenomenon that puts the world order in check
-Iván Duque and the other presidents with the greatest disapproval in Latin America
-Monkeypox: the US will apply vaccines, but not to all people
#China #Secret #files #show #scope #crackdown #Uyghurs