World Uyghur Congress, 19 October 2018

The Chinese government this week took a significant step in radically reframing their extensive use of political indoctrination camps holding over one million Uyghurs and other Turkic groups. A new video report from state media paints a picture in dramatic contrast to the trove or reporting from civil society, academics and diplomatic missions to the region illustrating pervasive human rights abuses.

In a new video report aired on October 16^th by CCTV, China’s primary state television network, the Chinese government attempts take control of the narrative of the camp system, showing contented Uyghurs taking classes and developing skills in a peaceful, safe and controlled environment.

The video shows Uyghurs speaking about their past mistakes and how their time in the ‘training centers’ have reformed them and led them down the ‘correct path’ once again. The video also includes numerous references to economic prosperity and the work that has been done ‘lifting millions out of poverty.’

CCTV also makes it clear that these ‘training centers’ are all administered “according to relevant laws and regulations,” something echoed this week by regional Chairman and Deputy Party chief, Shohrat Zakir, in an interview with Xinhua. Zakir accepted that ‘vocational training centers’ have been built, but underlined that they fall in line with Chinese legislation on terrorism and extremism.

The video report stands in direct opposition to numerous reports from civil society including Human Rights Watch, who released a detailed report in September laying out the extent of the human rights violations inside the secretive camps. The report includes interviews with five former detainees and 38 relatives of detainees who tell of the horrendous conditions in the camps.

The information has been corroborated by other groups like Amnesty International, who released their own report in late September, reinforcing horrific details of the extralegal facilities and illustrating the impact of the camps on families. Other groups like Chinese Human Rights Defenders and the Uyghur Human Rights Project have also released their own reports covering the camps.

Reporting from Radio Free Asia and the Uyghur Congress have revealed the deaths of more than 30 people in the camps so far including 82-year old religious scholar, Muhammad Salih Hajim, 88-year old religious scholar Abdulnehed Mehsum and 78-year old Ayxan Memet, the mother Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa.

Reports of the deaths of Uyghurs in their late 70s and 80s directly contradicts the CCTV report and statements from Chinese officials who claim the facilities are utilised as a response to extremism. Extensive reporting shows the extent to which violence plays a role in the camps as torture and mistreatment appears to be widespread.

Members of the Uyghur Congress have been in touch with hundreds of members of the Uyghur diaspora – all of whom have family members and friends who have disappeared into the camps, with no communication for months and even years in some cases.

Hints of official admission of the camp system began during China’s review by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva, Switzerland in August this year. One member of the large Chinese delegation, Hu Lianhe of China’s United Front Work Department in response to a direct question about the use of internment camps, remarked that:

There are no such things as ‘re-education centers’ or ‘counter-extremism training centers’ in Xinjiang […] With respect to criminals involved only in minor offenses, the authority provides them with assistance  and education by assigning them to vocational education and employment training centers to acquire employment skills and legal knowledge, with a view to assisting in their rehabilitation and reintegration.

This statement and the outright refusal to adequately respond to countless other questions from the UN panel on a number of other specific concerns was echoed by a number of state media reports at the time from China Daily and Xinhua defending the government’s position and offering outright denial of the reports from civil society and journalists working on the region.

WUC President Dolkun Isa has said in response to this week’s events that, “China has now transitioned from outright denial of the existence of the camps in mid-2018 to a full-on justification of what it calls ‘vocational training centers’ as well as the continued denial of repeated claims of gross human rights violations.”

The Uyghur Congress expects further attention from Chinese state media and others representing Chinese interests to attempt to paper over systematic abuses and to protect China’s reputation internationally. To this end, the Chinese government now has a strong incentive to mislead the public over their treatment of Uyghurs.

Omer Kanat, WUC Executive Committee Chairman also remarked, “These efforts from Beijing are clearly absurd and contemptible from top to bottom and merely confirm what has been documented in countless official documents claiming equal and just treatment for Uyghurs for decades. The clear intention over these decades has been to stamp out the Uyghur identity.”

It is now crucial that the international community carefully scrutinize official Chinese statements, particularly ahead of China’s 3^rd Cycle Universal Periodic Review by states at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next month.

We must all stand together to call for an immediate investigation from a groups of like-minded states. It will be the job of civil society to continue to press for answers to basic questions, like “Where is my family?”