BEIJING: China must come clean about the fate of an estimated one million minority Muslims swept up in a “massive crackdown” in its far western region of Xinjiang, Amnesty International said on Monday.
Beijing has tightened restrictions on Muslim minorities to combat what it calls Islamic extremism and separatist elements in Xinjiang. Critics say the drive risks fuelling resentment towards Beijing and further inflaming separatist sentiment.
In a new report, which included testimony from people held in the camps, the international rights group said Beijing had rolled out “an intensifying government campaign of mass internment, intrusive surveillance, political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation”.
Up to a million people are detained in internment camps, a United Nations panel on racial discrimination reported last month, with many detained for offences as minor as making contact with family members outside the country or sharing Islamic holiday greetings on social media.
“Hundreds of thousands of families have been torn apart by this massive crackdown,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s East Asia director, in a statement. “They are desperate to know what has happened to their loved ones and it is time the Chinese authorities give them answers.”
Beijing has denied reports of the camps but evidence is mounting in the form of government documents and escapee testimony.
These suggest that Chinese authorities are detaining large groups of people in a network of extrajudicial camps for political and cultural indoctrination on a scale unseen since the Maoist era.
Amnesty’s report interviewed several former detainees who said they were put in shackles, tortured, and made to sing political songs and learn about the Communist Party.
The testimony tallies with evidence gathered by foreign reporters and rights groups in the past year.
Sweden halts Uighur deportations to China
Swedish authorities said on Monday they had temporarily halted the deportation of Uighurs to China due to concerns over the situation there.
“Information from several human rights organisations indicates that the situation for Uighurs has deteriorated” in the western region of Xinjiang, the Swedish Migration Agency said in a statement obtained by AFP. The decision also concerns “other minority groups from Xinjiang who have received expulsion orders,” said a spokeswoman for the agency.
The authorities did not give any details of how many people might be affected by the decision but in early September, the Swedish Migration Agency announced it had suspended the deportation of a Uighur family to China after their asylum request was rejected.
Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2018
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