China has long been accused of detaining Uyghurs and wanting to wipe out their culture. Shortly before the visit of the UN human rights commissioner to the Uyghur region, the media published shocking details about China’s treatment of the ethnic group.
An international media consortium published further evidence of the mass detention of Uyghurs in China shortly before the visit of the UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet to Xinjiang. Photos, speeches and instructions from the authorities prove that the camps are not, as the Chinese government claims, “professional training institutions”, said the Bavarian radio station involved in the research and “Spiegel” (paid content) on Tuesday.
The data set includes a previously unknown speech by the former Xinjiang regional party leader in 2017, which said that any prisoner who tried to escape even a few steps was to be “shooted”. Security forces with assault rifles can be seen in the pictures. A photo also shows a prisoner in a so-called tiger chair – a torture device in which the legs are overstretched.
China accuses Uyghurs of terrorism
The Chinese embassy in the US said the measures in Xinjiang were aimed at countering terrorist activities and that it was not about “human rights or a religion”.
According to the announcement, the data set was leaked to the German anthropologist Adrian Zenz. This is a well-known China researcher in the USA who pointed out the alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang early on and was sanctioned by Beijing in 2021. He shared the data with a total of 14 Western media outlets.
The chairman of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens), called for new sanctions against China to BR and “Spiegel”. The “images of horror” should lead to the European Union taking a clear position.
UN human rights commissioner visits Uyghur areas
Bachelet is expected to visit the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on Tuesday and Wednesday. The government in Beijing is accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far western region of the country in “re-education camps”.
Representatives of the Uyghur ethnic group urged Bachelet not to become a propaganda tool for the Chinese government during her trip to Xinjiang on Tuesday. “I urge them to visit victims like my family members and not the sites prepared by the Chinese government,” Nursimangul Abdureshid told AFP in Turkey. According to her own statement, she lost contact with her family in the Chinese border region years ago. Abdureschid emphasized: “If the UN team does not have full access in Xinjiang, I will not accept their so-called reports.”
sterilization and forced labour
Among other things, Beijing is accused of forced sterilization and forced labor. The authorities are also said to raze cultural sites to the ground. The entire region is under strict surveillance. The US speaks of a genocide. They had also expressed doubts that Bachelet would get an “unmanipulated” picture of the situation. China vehemently denies the allegations.
