World Uyghur Congress, 26 October 2018

BBC Investigation Reveals New Evidence of Internment Camps

A BBC News investigation has provided new evidence of the mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in internment camps. The BBC team analysed updated satellite imagery and sent a team to the region to East Turkistan to try and visit the camps.

Despite being followed and harassed by Chinese police, the BBC team were able to see several camps from a distance. Although they were prevented from approaching the camps by Chinese police, they were able to record video of the watch towers and fortified walls of the camps. The report concluded that the camps are even larger than previously thought, which they were able to confirm through satellite imagery. One camp that the team visited was being drastically expanded, which may make it one of the largest detention facilities in the world.

The excellent reporting by the BBC adds to the growing body of evidence of the existence and nature of the camps. The report clearly shows that the camps are not ‘vocational education centres’ as Chinese propaganda has asserted, but large scale detention centres arbitrarily detaining many people.

China File Shines Light on Forced Assimilation of Uyghurs

Academic Darren Byler, writing on behalf of China File, published an excellent report this week on a very important, but under-reported element of China’s persecution and forced assimilation of Uyghurs: the mobilisation of over 1 million Han-Chinese people to forcibly live with Uyghur families and monitor their behaviour.

Over 1 million Han-Chinese were mobilised by the CCP and installed in the houses of Uyghurs to monitor them for signs of religious belief, political activity and loyalty to the CCP. Those sent to live with the Uyghur people were also tasked with indoctrinating them about CCP thought, forcing them to speak in Mandarin Chinese and bring Chinese culture to the “uncivilised” Uyghur people. They were tasked with reporting on the behaviour and thoughts of the Uyghur families they were installed with and many Uyghurs were sent to reeducation camps on based on the reports.

Uyghur families were tested by being asked to eat porc, smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. Emphasis was given on questioning Uyghur children about their parents religious or political beliefs. Not only is this a massive invasion of privacy, but it reveals the scale and seriousness of China’s attempt to totally culturally assimilate and reengineer the Uyghur people.

Darren Byler interviewed a number of Han-Chinese who took part in this initiative, which sheds light on how many of the Han-Chinese population think about Uyghurs and what is happening in East Turkistan. The majority of Han-Chinese that he spoke with bought into Chinese propaganda and believed that Uyghurs are being they were doing their ‘patriotic duty’ by monitoring and indoctrinating the Uyghur population. This provides an important insight into China’s domestic narrative and what the Han-Chinese population are exposed to about the situation.

US Senator Grassley Calls for Religious Freedom in China

US Senator Chuck Grassley has called for the US government to hold China accountable for its religious persecution of Muslims, Buddhists and Christians and for the freedom of religion for all peoples to be a priority for the US government.

In an opinion piece for Politico Magazine, Senator Grassley highlighted the significant persecution of all religious groups in China and drew attention to the mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in internment camps, often for their religious beliefs. Senator Grassley and Senator David Perdue, with a bipartisan group of senators, recently introduced a resolution condemning violence against religious minorities in China and reaffirming America’s commitment to promote religious freedom and tolerance around the world.

Prominent Uyghur Television Host Detained

According to Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, Erkin Tursun, the host of the “Hopeful Eyes” show on the official Ili Television Station in the XUAR’s (East Turkistan) Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, was arrested by police in Ghulja county in March and later sentenced to as many as 11 years in prison.

Tursun was reportedly targeted for producing a program that detailed the financial struggles of three young students. He is just one of the countless prominent Uyghurs who have been detained by the Chinese authorities, as China tries to silence potential leaders and important people in the Uyghur community.

WUC Congress to Hold Large-Scale March and Demonstration in Geneva on November 6th

The WUC is continuing its preparations for its large-scale march and demonstration in Geneva, Switzerland on November 6th. The march and demonstration have been timed to coincide with the start of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of China, an important opportunity to raise the abhorrent human rights situation in China and call for the release of all those arbitrarily detained in internment camps in East Turkistan.

The thousands of Uyghurs who will be participating in the protest will be joined by the Tibetan communities in Switzerland and Lichtenstein, organisations representing the Vietnamese and a number of other communities and human rights NGOs.

China’s UPR is a very important occasion to highlight the current human rights crisis in China. Momentum has been building is recent months and the UPR of China presents an important occasion to put China’s serious human rights violations on the centre stage. Now is the time for states to speak up for human rights and human dignity in China. It cannot wait. The fate of the Uyghur people and all those who long for human rights in China is at stake.

The protest will be held on 6 November 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland. Those participating will meet outside Palais Wilson at 09:00 in the morning. At 10:00, participants will march from Palais Wilson to the Palais des Nations, at the Broken Chair. From 11:00 – 13:00, we will hold a static demonstration at the Broken Chair and will hear speeches from a number of individuals representing civil society, national governments, the institutions of the European Union and Chinese human rights defenders.