China faces a new political storm after a massive journalistic leak that accuses the Government of supporting “at the highest level” the repression against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, a leak that also coincided with the visit to this region by the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet.
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The Chinese Communist Party is accused of holding a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in detention centers in this remote western region where the United States and other countries’ parliaments denounce a “genocide.”
Beijing, for its part, defines it as “the lie of the century” and ensures that these camps are vocational training centers to keep the population away from the separatism and Islamism that plague this region.
But the panorama worsened this week after the revelation of “The Xinjiang police files” by a consortium of international media, including the British BBC, the French Le Monde or the Spanish El País.
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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.
The file, according to the BBC, reveals in detail China’s use of “re-education” camps and mass detentions of Uyghurs. According to the network, the documents provide some of the strongest evidence to date of a policy directed against any expression of Uyghur Islamic identity, culture or faith, and of a chain of command reaching back to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The hacked files contain more than 5,000 mug shots of Uyghurs taken between January and July 2018, and using other attachments, it can be shown that at least 2,884 of them have been arrested.
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.
It would be hard to imagine that a systematic effort to conduct a campaign of genocide would not have the blessing of the highest levels of government.
After the complaint came to light, the British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said that the details about human rights violations in Xinjiang are added to “first-hand testimonies, satellite images and visits by diplomats to the region. ”.
“New evidence shows the extraordinary scope of China’s attacks on Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, including forced labour, severe restrictions on freedom of religion, separation of parents from their children, forced birth control and mass incarceration,” he added.
For his part, the spokesman for US diplomacy, Ned Price, assured that they were “dismayed by the reports” and stated that “it would be very difficult to imagine that a systematic effort to conduct a campaign of genocide did not have the blessing of the highest levels. of the government”.
Bachelet’s access to the Chinese region, under scrutiny
For its part, China described the mission of the UN human rights chief 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 people from 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 Uighur 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 few benefits for 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 and EFE.
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