The Guardian, 31 August 2018

By The Guardian – United Nations human rights experts have called for China to shut down alleged political “re-education camps” for Muslim Uighurs and called for the immediate release of those detained on the “pretext of countering terrorism”.The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination cited estimates that “from tens of thousands to upwards of a million Uighurs” may be detained in the far western Xinjiang province. Its findings were issued after a two-day review of China’s record, the first since 2009.

China’s foreign ministry has rejected the allegations, saying anti-China forces are behind criticism of policies in Xinjiang.

Independent experts said during the review that the panel had received many credible reports that a million ethnic Uighurs are held in what resembles a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy”. Panel expert Gay McDougall described it at the time as a “no-rights zone”.

Former detainees who spoke to the Associated Press described the internment camps as facilities policed by armed guards where Muslims were forced to disavow their religious beliefs, criticise themselves and their loved ones and give thanks to the ruling Communist party. Claims of beatings and deaths have made it out despite authorities’ tight control on information from the region.

The detention programme has swept up people, including relatives of American citizens, on ostensible offences ranging from accessing foreign websites to contacting overseas relatives. Other aspects of the security crackdown the AP has detailed include all-encompassing digital surveillance, mass deployment of police and severe regulations against religious customs and dress.

China denies such internment camps exist but says criminals involved in minor offenses are sent to “vocational education and employment training centres”. “The argument that ‘a million Uighurs are detained in re-education centres’ is completely untrue,” Chinese representative Hu Lianhe this month told the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva.