China's Mass Detention of Xinjiang's Ethnic Minorities Shows No Sign of Let-up

Uyghur Detentions Continue in Xinjiang, Despite Pledge to End With Party Congress

More than two months since the Communist Party Congress in Beijing, authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang region continue to place ethnic Uyghurs deemed “extremists” in political re-education camps, despite assurances the detentions would end after the sensitive annual meeting.

Since April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring “extremist” and “politically incorrect” views have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.

The detentions ramped up ahead of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held Oct. 18-24 last year, with officials claiming that the campaign was part of “safety measures” to prevent violent incidents around the time of the event.

Some local officials in Xinjiang had told family members arrests would end and detainees be returned home when the Congress was concluded, but sources recently told RFA’s Uyghur Service that authorities continue to round up residents more than two months later.

According to an official from Aqsaray township’s No. 1 village, in Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) prefecture’s Qaraqash (Moyu) county, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, police arrested dozens of Uyghurs and placed them in a re-education camp as recently as last month.

“There were 85 people sent to the re-education camps in our township [on Dec. 18], and more were taken there [on Dec. 28],” he said, confirming that 33 additional residents had been arrested in the second roundup—bringing to 118 the total detained within a 10-day period.

An official from neighboring Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture’s Poskam (Zepu) county, who also asked to remain unnamed, told RFA that authorities have been instructed to “make sure that everything is safe” while patrolling the streets of the county, and that they had been provided with notebooks including a list of “the names and pictures of individuals on record” to be detained.

One suspect on the list was identified as Abdusemet Metkerim, 23, from Talbagh village, in Poskam’s Seyli township.

“He had illegal religious video materials in his possession,” the official said of Metkerim, adding that authorities had issued a warrant in the young man’s name in September.

Additional names on the list were not immediately available, he said, as it was “locked up in a drawer” at the time of the phone call.



Overcrowded camps


Prior reporting by RFA has found that as arrests in Xinjiang have increased in recent months, the region’s re-education camps have been inundated by detainees, who are forced to endure cramped and squalid conditions in the facilities.

Sources say that authorities often convert government buildings and schools into makeshift re-education camps to deal with the overcrowding, and routinely shift detainees between locations—that include prisons—without informing their family members.

In Bayin’gholin Mongol (Bayinguoleng Menggu) Autonomous Prefecture’s Korla city—where sources told RFA last week that as many as 1,000 people have been admitted to the city’s detention facilities over the course of a few days—a local government employee named Erkin Bawdun recently said that area re-education camps “are completely full.”

“One of my friends overheard the camp governor shouting at police over his walkie-talkie, saying ‘Please stop bringing people, there is no more space here in the camp for anyone,” said Bawdun, who helps to oversee Lengger village, in Korla’s Awat township.

Authorities regularly detain residents for allegedly “extremist” incidents that took place years before Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo was appointed to his post in August 2016 and began implementing several harsh policies targeting religious freedom in the region.

According to Bawdun, Awat township maintains a “department for cases of special concern” that had recently detained a group of 13 women who “gathered and listened to religious preaching” some six years ago.

Bawdun’s manager confirmed that “in 2012, they gathered at a house and conducted religious teachings.”

“Four of them were arrested in July, and the remaining nine were taken away [in late December],” the manager said.

None of the women had received sentences, he said, and it was unclear where they had been taken.

“They won’t be taken to the re-education camps because they are treated as part of a special case and will be dealt with separately,” he added.

China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.

While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.


Uyghur Detentions Continue in Xinjiang, Despite Pledge to End With Party Congress

Crikey, apparently there are :

China (Xinjiang)	11,303,355 -15,000,000+ (Uyghur American Association)
Kazakhstan	223,100 (2009)
Uzbekistan	55,220 (2008)
Kyrgyzstan	49,000 (2009)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghurs

Rights Situation in Xinjiang Has ‘Further Deteriorated’ in Recent Months: CECC

Restrictions on religion and security controls have intensified in northwest China’s Xinjiang region in recent months, a congressional commission said Monday, warning that Washington’s anti-terrorism cooperation with Beijing must not come at the cost of the rights of ethnic Uyghurs.

In a statement, the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) said that the situation in Xinjiang had “further deteriorated” since the release of its 2017 annual report, which found that freedoms of speech and religion, the rule of law, and individual rights and freedoms had worsened under the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

“Reports indicate XUAR Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo has implemented a hardline, all-encompassing security network throughout the region, by overseeing the hiring of tens of thousands of new security personnel, the convening of mass rallies, and the involuntary collection of residents’ DNA, fingerprints, eye scans, and blood types,” said Senator Marco Rubio, CECC chairman.

“Civilians are detained without cause, ‘political education’ camps proliferate, and a vast surveillance apparatus invades every aspect of daily life. These rights violations are deeply troubling and risk serving as a catalyst for radicalization.”

Representative Chris Smith, cochairman of the CECC, similarly expressed alarm over the state of human rights in Xinjiang.

“The Chinese government’s expansive surveillance and security network in Xinjiang is a gross violation of privacy and international human rights, including the right to religious freedom, as the government is turning mosques into political propaganda centers and labeling religious beliefs as extremist,” he said.

“These policies seem to be completely counterproductive and a recipe for instability and dissatisfaction rather than security.”

Smith urged U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to avoid condoning restrictions on freedom in Xinjiang in the name of counterterrorism.

“The U.S. should be calibrating our counterterrorism cooperation with China to ensure that we do not condone or advance a crackdown on peaceful domestic dissent or the freedom of religion, association, and expression,” he said.

Rubio and Smith highlighted the detention and “likely mistreatment” of up to 30 family members of U.S.-based Uyghur activist Rebiya Kadeer, which the CECC said was “yet another example of China’s efforts to silence criticism of the Party or of government policies through intimidation, detention, and threats to the family members of activists living abroad.”

Kadeer’s children, grandchildren, and other relatives are reportedly in detention, including her sons Ablikim and Alim Abdureyim—both of whom previously suffered torture and abuse during periods of detention and imprisonment.

Kadeer was a political prisoner for more than five years before being released on medical parole in 2005, and since her relocation to the U.S. that year, Chinese authorities have carried out a campaign of harassment against her family members who remained in Xinjiang.

The CECC also expressed concern over an expansion of detentions in Xinjiang’s political re-education camps, where large numbers of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and others have been held for months at a time for “crimes” such as praying, wearing “Islamic” clothing, or having foreign connections.

Additionally, the commission said, Chinese authorities have ordered Uyghurs studying abroad in countries including Egypt, Turkey, France, Australia, and the U.S. to return to Xinjiang, and have subsequently detained some of them in re-education camps, “about which very little is known.”

Officials have also been issued quotas for the number or percentage of the population in their jurisdictions that must be sent to undergo “political education,” the CECC said, citing overseas reports.

China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.

While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.


Rights Situation in Xinjiang Has ?Further Deteriorated? in Recent Months: CECC

It seems to be a war of attrition.

Around 120,000 Uyghurs Detained For Political Re-Education in Xinjiang’s Kashgar Prefecture






Around 120,000 ethnic Uyghurs are currently being held in political re-education camps in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture of northwest China’s Xinjiang region alone, according to a security official with knowledge of the detention system.

Since April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring “extremist” and “politically incorrect” views have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.

Prior reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service found that as arrests in Xinjiang increased around the sensitive 19th Communist Party Congress in Beijing in October, the region’s re-education camps have been inundated by detainees, who are forced to endure cramped and squalid conditions in the facilities.

The security chief of Kashgar city’s Chasa township recently told RFA on condition of anonymity that “approximately 120,000” Uyghurs are being held throughout the prefecture, based on information he has received from other area officials.

“I have great relationships with the heads of all the government departments and we are in regular contact, informing each other on the current situation,” he said, adding that he is also close with the prefecture’s chief of security.

Tens of thousands of people are detained within Kashgar city alone, the Chasa township security officer said, citing statistics from the city’s subdistricts.

“Around 2,000 [are detained] from the four neighborhoods of Kashgar city, as well as an additional 30,000 in total from the city’s 16 villages,” he said.

Among Kashgar city’s four neighborhoods, the largest number of detainees—more than 500 people—are from Yawagh, while among its 16 villages, the largest number are from Yengi-osteng, he added, without providing specific details.

Kashgar city is home to four re-education camps, the security chief said, the largest of which was established in the city’s No. 5 Middle School in May 2017.

“It’s located in the Shinka neighbourhood and is newly built,” he said.

“The plan was initially to build the new school in that area and transfer the current middle school students there. That is why it was named No. 5 Middle School.”

Around 80 people are living in the school’s main hall, the security chief said, while 20-25 people sleep in each of its classrooms.


Overcrowded and squalid


Sources say that authorities often convert government buildings and schools into makeshift re-education camps to deal with overcrowding, and routinely shift detainees between locations—that include prisons—without informing their family members.

In Bayin’gholin Mongol (Bayinguoleng Menggu) Autonomous Prefecture’s Korla city—where sources told RFA recently that as many as 1,000 people have been admitted to the city’s detention facilities over the course of a few days—a local government employee named Erkin Bawdun recently said that area re-education camps “are completely full.”

Bawdun said that a friend who spent time as an inmate at a local re-education camp told him he had seen officials from the center tell the police to “stop bringing people … as it is already too full.”

He described cells that had previously held eight people now accommodating 14 inmates, who “were not allowed pillows” and “had to lay on their sides because there was not enough room to lay flat,” let alone space to turn over or stretch their legs.

Other acquaintances told Bawdun that they had seen “detainees walking barefoot,” and that inmates were “not allowed clothes with buttons or metal zippers,” belts, shoelaces, or “even underwear” in some cases, despite average low temperatures of around 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius) at night in December.

Since Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called “two-faced” Uyghur officials—a term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of “disloyalty.”

China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.

While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.




Around 120,000 Uyghurs Detained For Political Re-Education in Xinjiang?s Kashgar Prefecture

China's Xinjiang to build 'Great Wall' to protect border: governor

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang will build a “Great Wall” around its borders to prevent the infiltration of militants from outside the country, state media reported on Tuesday citing the regional governor.


Hundreds of people have been killed in Xinjiang in the past few years in violence between Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkic language, and ethnic majority Han Chinese, especially in the heavily Uighur southern part of Xinjiang.


China blames the violence in Xinjiang on Islamist extremists and separatists, some of whom it says have links to groups outside the country.



Rights groups and Uighur exiles say it is more a product of Uighur frustration at Chinese controls on their culture and religion. China denies any repression.


Xinjiang governor Shohrat Zakir said Xinjiang would step up border measures to create a “Great Wall”, the official China Daily reported.


“We will try our best to leave no gaps or blind spots in social security management and ensure the key areas remain absolutely safe,” he said at the opening of the regional assembly’s annual session.


Technology along the border would be improved and roads and other infrastructure increased, Shohrat Zakir said.


“The overall situation was stable in 2017, which made people feel safer,” he said. “We won’t allow separatism to stage a comeback and will ensure religious extremism never rises again from the ashes and terrorist attacks are doomed to failure.”



The “Great Wall” comments were similar to those President Xi Jinping made last year during the annual session of the country’s parliament, where he told Xinjiang lawmakers of the need to build a “great wall of iron” to safeguard stability.

Xinjiang has been relatively quiet over the past year or so after a spate of incidents, which has coincided with a massive increase in security, including collecting DNA and other biometric data from the whole population.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-f...KBN1FB14G?il=0

Call From Blacklisted Number Lands Uyghur Woman in Political Re-Education Camp

https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...tid=9108&stc=1

A Uyghur woman from a remote northwestern corner of the Xinjiang region of China was recently hauled off to a political re-education camp set up to punish members of her Muslim ethnic group deemed disloyal to China.


Her crime: answering a phone call from a relative whose number was on a government blacklist.


RFA’s Uyghur Service has learned that Mihray Jume, 37, was picked up by a policeman in recent weeks and taken to the Beshtope Re-education Camp in Kunas (Shinyuan, in Chinese) county in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture.


A police officer from Araltope Police Station in the same county, confirmed that Jume, whose occupation he said was “housewife,” is in detention at the Kunas Besh camp.


“She is in Kunas,” said the officer, who declined to give further details.


A second officer told RFA by telephone that he had arrested Mihray and handed her over to the police from Beshtope.


“I put her in a police car to be taken to Beshtope,” said the officer.


Jume’s had answered a phone call from a blacklisted number, he said.


“The reason (for her detention) was that her brother-in-law’s wife called her and she answered it. The person registered to that number was blacklisted,” said the officer.


Since April last year, ethnic Uyghurs accused of holding “extremist” and “politically incorrect” views have been detained in re-education camps throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.


Chinese authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in Xinjiang, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret, but Uyghur activists estimate that up to 1 million Uyghurs have been detained throughout the region since April 2017.


Since Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called “two-faced” Uyghur officials—a term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of “disloyalty.”


Uyghurs, as well as Xinjiang ethnic minority Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, who have family member living abroad have come under state pressure designed to force their relatives to return to China. Those who have heeded the demand have been sent to re-education camps.


China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.

While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.


https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyg...018153451.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misskit

but Uyghur activists estimate that up to 1 million Uyghurs have been detained throughout the region since April 2017.

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They of course would always under estimate the numbers of detainees.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misskit

experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.

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Have the 'experts" suggested who is responsible for the actual violence leaving "hundreds dead" in the past 9 years? or are we to assume it is the local police?

Rights Groups Condemn China’s Detention of RFA Reporters’ Relatives


Human rights and press freedom watchdog groups condemned China’s detention of close relatives of four U.S.-based reporters for RFA’s Uyghur Service in apparent retaliation for their coverage of the Xinjiang region, as a fifth Uyghur reporter came forward on Thursday with an account of missing family members.


The Committee to Protect Journalists said it is “alarmed” by news that authorities in the northwestern China’s Xinjiang region have detained multiple relatives of U.S.-based RFA journalists Gulchehra Hoja, Shohret Hoshur, Mamatjan Juma, and Kurban Niyaz. More than two dozen relatives have been affected by the clampdown, RFA has learned.


"Punishing family members of journalists beyond the reach of the Chinese government is a cruel, if not barbaric, tactic," said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler said in a statement.


"The Chinese government should immediately account for these people's health, whereabouts, and legal status and set them free,” he said.


The New York-based CPJ was responding to a Washington Post report on Wednesday on the four Uyghur reporters, whose work has documented a brutal crackdown on the Turkic-language speaking Muslim minority since the installation of a hard-line Communist Party boss in the Xinjiang region in August, 2016.


Amnesty International, meanwhile, issued an urgent appeal for 20 relatives of Hoja, a 17-year veteran RFA reporter, who “have been detained and are at risk of torture” and were believed to have been targeted for her work for the U.S.-government-funded broadcaster based in Washington.


“Media reports from Radio Free Asia, Buzzfeed, the Globe and Mail, the Associated Press and others, as well as information gathered by Amnesty International, indicate that in the spring of 2017, authorities throughout the region began detaining Uighurs en masse, and started sending them to administrative detention facilities or sentencing them to long prison terms,” said Amnesty.


Hoja’s brother Kaisar Keyum was taken into custody by Chinese police in October 2017, while her parents are unreachable and suspected to be in custody.


Another brother of Hoja’s has been detained since September 2017 and her extended family – as many as 20 relatives – are feared detained and being held in undisclosed locations, she told RFA.


When her brother was detained, police told Hoja’s mother that her employment with RFA was the reason for his detention. The relatives may have been detained for communicating with her through a WeChat group, according to a cousin who she was able to contact, Hoja said.


'Stop calling inside China'


Hoshur’s brothers Shawket Hoshur and Rexim Hoshur were jailed from August 2014 until they won release December 2015, in part due to pressure on China from the U.S. Congress.


However, the two brothers were detained again in September 2017 and are now being held in the Qorghos county re-education camp. Shohret’s younger brother Tudaxun Hoshur, who was sentenced in 2015, remains jailed.


Shohret told RFA he has heard from family members in Xinjiang who have told him they were contacted by Chinese authorities urging them to ask him to stop calling inside China.


RFA Uyghur Deputy Director Mamatjan Juma reported that his brothers Ahmetjan Juma and Abduqadir Juma were detained in May 2017.


While the whereabouts of Ahmetjan, who has a family and a toddler son, are unknown, Abduqadir was taken to Urumqi No. 1 Prison, a facility known for incarcerating political prisoners in inhumane conditions in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang.


Abduqadir suffers from heart and health issues that require medical care, and his sister was denied access to him in prison, Mamatjan Juma said.


“He needs immediate medical attention. I am extremely worried that his health condition will dramatically worsen without proper food and medication and, more importantly, the inhumane treatment he faces in Chinese prison,” he said.


Juma said his mother has suffered a heart attack and has been hospitalized four times in recent weeks. His father died in October 2017 and he learned of his father’s passing only 10 days later.


“I cannot send money to help because of Chinese government restriction on my family,” he said.


RFA Uyghur broadcaster Kurban Niyaz’s youngest brother, Hasanjan Niyaz, was arrested in May 2017 in Bugur county, and in July sentenced to six years in jail on charges of “holding ethnic hatred.”


Fifth RFA reporter affected


Niyaz’s other relatives in Xinjiang have been visited by police, who have questioned them about Niyaz and another U.S-based brother, he said.


Following reports by the Washington Post, the Associated Press and other international media outlets that brought attention the fate of the four reporters’ families, a fifth RFA journalist on Thursday revealed that three of his relatives and in-laws have been detained.


RFA broadcaster Eset Sulaiman said his elder brother, an educator in the Tianshan region, was picked up by authorities around October 2017 and sent to undergo forced study at a “Political Re-education Camp” in Qomul City (in Chinese, Hami).


His mother-in-law, Saadet Kichik, and father-in law, Memteli Sopi, both pensioners in their 70s, were also detained in October 2017 and sent to the same re-education camp.


“Because of my job at RFA and my wife’s position on the board of the Uyghur American Association, Chinese authorities have retaliated against and threatened us by detaining three relatives in the Uyghur Region,” said Sulaiman, who last saw his relatives in person in 2008.


“Because I cannot contact my family since the end of 2017, I did not hear about my mother’s death in real time,” he said.


“She passed away February 18, but I heard this news four days later through my relative in Sweden. I don’t know what happened to my other brothers and sisters,” added Sulaiman.


“We’re very concerned about the well-being and safety of our journalists’ family members, especially those in need of medical treatment,” said Rohit Mahajan, director of public affairs at RFA in Washington.


“We’re also particularly concerned about the use of detentions as a tactic by Chinese authorities to silence and intimidate independent media, as well as to inhibit RFA’s mission of bringing free press to closed societies.”


Amid what many analysts see as a worldwide slide toward more authoritarian rule, RFA journalists have been targeted by other illiberal Asian regimes, many of which are close allies of China.


Chen Quanguo's draconian policies


RFA closed its operations in Cambodia in September amid a government crackdown on the media, and two former RFA Khmer Service reporters were taken into custody on Nov. 14. They formally charged with “illegally collecting information for a foreign source.”


Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, who deny the charges, were denied bail from pre-trial detention and face a possible jail term of up to 15 years if convicted of the charges against them.


The RFA Uyghur journalists have produced detailed reports on how Xinjiang Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, who took office in August 2016, has set up numerous detention facilities throughout Xinjiang and imposed harsh policies affecting the 10 million Uyghurs in China.


The camps are variously called “counter extremism centers,” “political study centers,” or “education and transformation centers” and are believed to hold tens of thousands of Uyghurs as well as ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities.


“People are often sent to these detention facilities if they are known religious practitioners, have relations with ‘foreign contacts,’ or have themselves been caught up in social stability campaigns or have relatives who were involved in the same,” said Amnesty International in its appeal for Hoja’s relatives.


“Authorities have detained people who receive phone calls from outside of China. Authorities have also tried to ensure that nobody uses encrypted messaging apps, and instead rely on domestic apps, which have no encryption or other privacy safeguards,” said Amnesty.


Asked about the detentions at a news conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had no information on the cases.


“I suggest you raise your question to the competent department,” he said Wednesday, adding: “We welcome all foreign media to do fair and objective reporting in China.”


RFA, which broadcasts in nine languages in six authoritarian Asian countries, “is the only Uyghur voice in the free world out of the control of the Chinese government,” said Dolkun Isa, president of World Uyghur Congress, an advocacy group in Washington.


“We know that Chinese government has illegally detained hundreds of thousands of innocent Uyghurs in concentration camps. But we had never imagined that Chinese government would go after the loved ones of Uyghur journalists working at RFA,” he added.


Despite China’s rising wealth and growing global clout, the Chinese media languishes near the bottom of most major international rankings of media freedom.


"China continues to be the world’s biggest prison for journalists ... and continues to improve its arsenal of measures for persecuting journalists and bloggers," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual report for 2017.


The Paris-based RSF ranked China 176th in press freedom last year, above only Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyg...018164751.html

Uyghur Teenager Dies in Custody at Political Re-Education Camp

A teenage Uyghur boy detained for traveling overseas has died of unknown causes at a political “re-education camp” in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture, in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, according to local authorities.


Police officers delivered the body of 17-year-old Yaqupjan Naman to his family in Yekshenbe Bazar township, in Kashgar’s Yopurgha (Yuepuhu) county, after the young man died last week, a source recently told RFA’s Uyghur Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Naman’s father, a locksmith named Naman Qari, was not provided with the cause of his son’s death and was forced to bury his body under police supervision, the source added.


In early 2016, at the age of 15, Naman visited Turkey as a tourist with his friends against his father’s wishes. Qari travelled to Turkey days later to bring him home, in a bid to avoid attracting any attention from authorities in Xinjiang, who view such trips overseas as suspicious and a sign of religious “extremism.”


Despite his quick return to China, police placed Naman on a blacklist and arrested him soon afterwards, sending him to one of the many re-education camps throughout Xinjiang where authorities detain Uyghurs accused of harbouring “strong religious beliefs” and “politically incorrect” thoughts.


Family members who ask for the whereabouts of detained loved ones and other members of the community who inquire about those who have been sent for re-education also face arrest for “harboring incorrect ideology,” as part of a bid by local authorities to prevent information about the camps from reaching the outside world.


A local ruling Chinese Communist Party cadre that answered a call to the Bayawat township police station said he wasn’t aware of the case and handed the phone to an officer, who hung up when asked which village Naman’s family lives in.


When RFA called back, another officer who answered the phone said “we don’t know,” when asked what the cause of Naman’s death was, and referred further questions to the chief of the central Public Security Bureau.


But an officer at the Chenren township police station confirmed in a phone call that the name of the 17-year-old who died in detention at a re-education camp was named “Yaqupjan … [from] No. 12 Village” in Yekshenbe Bazar.


The officer, who also declined to provide his name, said the policeman in charge of Naman’s case in No. 12 Village is named “Muradil,” adding that the young man had died “approximately 10 days ago,” without providing further details.


When asked how many people had died in re-education camps in the last month, the officer said he did not know.



Camp conditions


Since April last year, ethnic Uyghurs have been detained in re-education camps throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.


In January, the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) said it had learned of the death of prominent Uyghur Islamic scholar Muhammad Salih Hajim in Chinese police custody, some 40 days after he was detained in the Xinjiang regional capital Urumqi along with other relatives, though it was unclear if he was being held in a prison or a re-education camp at the time.


Earlier that month, sources told RFA that amid a campaign of arrests that had led to serious overcrowding in re-education camps, authorities in Xinjiang were neglecting the health of Uyghur inmates, causing them to develop medical conditions.


Since Xinjiang party chief Chen was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called “two-faced” Uyghur officials—a term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of “disloyalty.”


China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.


While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.



https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyg...018154926.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misskit

A teenage Uyghur boy detained for traveling overseas has died of unknown causes

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Has he been to any countries that have serious germ warfare / murder epidemics going on, bitten by a spider in Oz, attended a Boris for PM rally or was seen drinking water from a plastic bottle........ ?

Xinjiang Authorities Detain Uyghurs ‘Wanting to Travel Abroad’

Chinese authorities in Ili Kazakh (in Chinese, Yili Hasake) Autonomous prefecture have added “interest in travel abroad” to the list of reasons they are detaining ethnic Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region’s vast network of political “re-education camps” and prisons, according to an official source.


Since April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” views have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.


Official announcements have stated that those who are sent to the camps include former prisoners, suspects and anyone who has travelled overseas, and say the camps will “cleanse” them of ideology that endangers state security.


But the security chief of No. 2 Village in Bayanday township, in Ili Kazakh’s Ghulja (Yining) county, recently told RFA’s Uyghur Service that “nearly 30” of the township’s Uyghur residents had been detained since the middle of 2017, “mainly because they were suspected of wanting to travel abroad.”


“They are not related [and were not part of a group planning a trip], however, after we uncovered three to four people [in our village], the rest came forward” from other villages in the township to admit their wrongdoing and seek leniency, he said.


“First, I informed the township’s [Communist] party secretary, through whom the information was passed to the Public Security Bureau. After that, they were arrested, and … placed in re-education.”


Some of the detainees “have already been sentenced and sent to prison,” he said, adding that he did not know what they were convicted of or how long their jail terms are, while others remain in the camps.


The security chief, a Communist Party member who told RFA he had held his appointed position in No. 2 Village for six years, said that rooting out those who intend to travel abroad and other “bad elements” in the population “is my job, and I did it voluntarily.”


Other security chiefs in the area are also actively informing on the residents of their villages, he said, adding that he had been rewarded by higher-level authorities on three separate occasions for his efforts.


He noted that five members of his seven aunts’ and uncles’ families are currently being held in re-education camps, but said he would never allow his personal relationships to undermine his loyalty to the party and state.


“One of the sons of my father’s sister is in a re-education camp,” among other relatives, the chief said, adding that he had not attempted to use his influence as an official to obtain their release.


“If they have failings, they need to go for re-education.”


In an earlier interview, the chief told RFA that authorities in Bayanday are also using age as one of the criteria to determine whether to detain Uyghurs in re-education camps, as those born after 1980 are considered “violent” and “untrustworthy.”


He, and the head of women’s affairs in Bayanday’s No. 3 Village, confirmed that some of the roughly 250 people detained in camps from each of their villages had been pre-emptively targeted for re-education simply because they were younger than 40 years of age and “susceptible” to influence by dangerous elements.



Camp network


Chinese authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in Xinjiang, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret, but Uyghur activists estimate that up to 1 million Uyghurs have been detained throughout the region since April 2017, and say nearly every Uyghur household has been affected by the campaign.


Since Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called “two-faced” Uyghur officials—a term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of “disloyalty.”


China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.


While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.



https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyg...018162009.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misskit

In an earlier interview, the chief told RFA that authorities in Bayanday are also using age as one of the criteria to determine whether to detain Uyghurs in re-education camps, as those born after 1980 are considered “violent” and “untrustworthy.”


He, and the head of women’s affairs in Bayanday’s No. 3 Village, confirmed that some of the roughly 250 people detained in camps from each of their villages had been pre-emptively targeted for re-education simply because they were younger than 40 years of age and “susceptible” to influence by dangerous elements.

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WTF ????

Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit international broadcasting corporation and propaganda apparatus of the United States that broadcasts and publishes online news, information, and commentary to listeners in East Asia while "advancing the goals of U.S. foreign policy."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Asia

Noteworthy is the fact that RFA has no representation or coverage in Thailand, a military dictatorship in which over 200 people have been killed in political violence since 2006, and the only two governments elected by an absolute majority have been ousted by military coup. Thailand's "re-education camps" are of course well known, except apparently to RFA.

So why the inordinate interest in Xinjiang? I suggest that may have something to do with the fact that, as a major region of central Asia, Xinjiang is an important part of the "Belt n Road" initiative, linking China to Europe, Africa and the Gulf states. The US would only see this as unwelcome competition, and influence spreading.

Prognosis- take with a grain of salt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sabang

Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit international broadcasting corporation and propaganda apparatus of the United States that broadcasts and publishes online news, information, and commentary to listeners in East Asia while "advancing the goals of U.S. foreign policy."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Asia

Noteworthy is the fact that RFA has no representation or coverage in Thailand, a military dictatorship in which over 200 people have been killed in political violence since 2006, and the only two governments elected by an absolute majority have been ousted by military coup. Thailand's "re-education camps" are of course well known, except apparently to RFA.

So why the inordinate interest in Xinjiang? I suggest that may have something to do with the fact that, as a major region of central Asia, Xinjiang is an important part of the "Belt n Road" initiative, linking China to Europe, Africa and the Gulf states. The US would only see this as unwelcome competition, and influence spreading.

Prognosis- take with a grain of salt.

---

The Great Game continues, today, in a different fashion and referred participants.
Empire building from the respective parties is cyclical in nature and leads to eventual downfall of the chosen powers.

Few pundits comprehend the real historiology of the broader region and the contributions and influence of these ancient people of The Steppes.
History rewritten for the convenience of the time.

^^ US Lawmakers Call For Investigation of Mass Incarcerations, Surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang

Two U.S. lawmakers have called on U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to visit northwest China’s Xinjiang region and gather information on senior officials responsible for the mass surveillance and detention of ethnic Uyghurs to determine whether Washington should level sanctions against them.


In a letter dated April 3, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and U.S. Representative Chris Smith, the chair and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said Branstad should investigate the situation, as well as the detention of family members of six RFA Uyghur Service reporters, for possible implementation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.


“We urge you to visit the XUAR (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), including the ‘political education centers,’ and to prioritize the situation in the XUAR in your interactions with Chinese government and Communist Party interlocutors, including the plight of the family members of these U.S.-based RFA journalists,” the letter said.


“Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the XUAR have been subjected to arbitrary arrest, egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture, and a digitized surveillance system so pervasive that every aspect of daily life is monitored—through facial recognition cameras, mobile phone scans, DNA collection, and an extensive and intrusive police presence.”


Since April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” views have been jailed or detained in political “re-education camps” throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.


China's central government authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in Xinjiang, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret, but local officials in many parts of Xinjiang have in RFA telephone interviews forthrightly described sending significant numbers of Uyghurs to the camps and even described overcrowding in some facilities.


Maya Wang of the New York-based Human Rights Watch told The Guardian in January that estimates of Xinjiang residents who had spent time in the camps went as high as 800,000, while at least one Uyghur exile group estimates that up to 1 million Uyghurs have been detained throughout the region since April 2017, and some Uyghur activists say nearly every Uyghur household has been affected by the campaign.


Among those in custody are dozens of family members of RFA Uyghur Service reporters, whose detentions Rubio and Smith said serve to “intimidate the families of U.S. government employees and undermine some of the most effective reporting from within the XUAR.”


“We urge you to personally lead diplomatic efforts to prioritize these cases, seek clarity as to the whereabouts and well-being of these individuals, and press for their release. If there is no immediate resolution to these cases, we ask that the State Department consider denying visas to executives or administrative staff of Chinese state-run media operating in the United States.”


The lawmakers also called on the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to begin compiling “relevant information regarding specific XUAR officials responsible for the arbitrary mass detention and abuse of Uyghurs for possible sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act.”


The Magnitsky Act enables U.S. officials to freeze any U.S. assets held by those sanctioned, and to bar them from entry into the United States.



'A powerful message'


Nury Turkel, a Uyghur-American attorney and former president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association (UAA) exile group, told RFA's Uyghur Service that the letter "demonstrates the growing interest of the U.S. Congress in the worsening human rights situation for Uyghur people in China."


"Requesting our embassy in Beijing to collect information on the human rights abusers and to sanction them under the Global Magnitisky Act would send a powerful message to those Chinese officials orchestrating and implementing the cruel and degrading treatments that the Uyghur people have been subjected to," he said.


"Ambassador Branstad should fulfill the promises that he made during his confirmation hearing, that he would work to improve the human rights situation in China.”


Since Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called “two-faced” Uyghur officials—a term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of “disloyalty.”


China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.


While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.




https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyg...018141926.html

Exactly how do these re-education camps re-educate people, anyhow ?

Being banned from fartbuuk, twatts etc., Waterboarding , electric shock treatment, chemical sterilisation, frontal lobotamy ...... have been proven successful I hear.

Don't forget Chinese Burns, a favourite when I was a lad.

Xinjiang Authorities Detain Uyghur Pro Footballer For ‘Visiting Foreign Countries’

https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...id=11750&stc=1

Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang region have detained 19-year-old Uyghur Erfan Hezim—a former member of China’s national youth football team—in a “political re-education camp” for “visiting foreign countries” after he traveled abroad to train and take part in matches, according to local sources.


Hezim, also known by his Chinese name Ye Erfan, is a top soccer forward in the Chinese Super League who began playing professionally at the age of 15, and in July last year inked a five-year contract with Jiangsu Suning F.C.


Two months ago, during winter break, Hezim returned home to visit his parents in Dorbiljin (in Chinese, Emin) county, in Xinjiang’s Tarbaghatay (Tacheng) prefecture, and was detained by police while visiting a market in the county seat, an official from the Dorbijin Police Central Command told RFA’s Uyghur Service.


“Erfan Hezim was detained by officers from the Dorbiljin Market Police Station,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.


“Currently, he is being detained at the Jiaochu township reeducation center. He was detained two months ago for visiting foreign countries.”


An officer who answered the phone at the Dorbiljin Market Police Station told RFA he “can’t say where Hezim is currently being held,” and referred further inquiries back to the Dorbijin Police Central Command.


A neighbor of Hezim’s parents confirmed to RFA that he had been detained and said his family was in shock.


“They have not been able to see Erfan once over the past two months,” the neighbor said, adding that as an only child, his detention had been particularly hard on Hezim’s mother.


“Erfan’s mother is ill. She has been crying nonstop for the past two months since Erfan was detained. She is losing herself—she cries and murmurs, so it is difficult to know what she is saying.”


A Jiangsu Suning F.C. supporter told RFA that Hezim had visited Spain from Jan. 10-30 and Dubai from Feb. 3-15, adding that his travel was “not for personal reasons, but for training and match purposes.”


Since April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” views have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.


Official announcements have stated that those who are sent to the camps include former prisoners, suspects and anyone who has travelled overseas, and say the camps will “cleanse” them of ideology that endangers state security.


Last month, sources told RFA that authorities in Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous prefecture, where Tarbaghatay prefecture is located, have added “interest in travel abroad” to the list of reasons they are detaining Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region’s vast network of re-education camps and prisons.



Call for information


Reports of Hezim’s detention emerged as the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) exile group issued a call for information about “disappearances or arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs” in Xinjiang’s re-education camps.


In a statement issued on Thursday, the WUC said it is creating a list bearing the names, dates of birth, city of residence, and dates and circumstances of detention, of individuals held in the camps, which it plans to submit to various institutions of the European Union, and “demand that the EU take action to push for their immediate release.”


China's central government authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in Xinjiang, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret, but local officials in many parts of Xinjiang have in RFA telephone interviews forthrightly described sending significant numbers of Uyghurs to the camps and even described overcrowding in some facilities.


Maya Wang of the New York-based Human Rights Watch told The Guardian in January that estimates of Xinjiang residents who had spent time in the camps went as high as 800,000, while at least one Uyghur exile group estimates that up to 1 million Uyghurs have been detained throughout the region since April 2017, and some activists say nearly every Uyghur household has been affected by the campaign.


Earlier this month, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and U.S. Representative Chris Smith—the chair and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China—called on U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to visit Xinjiang and gather information on senior officials responsible for the mass surveillance and detention of Uyghurs to determine whether Washington should level sanctions against them.


In a letter to the Ambassador, the lawmakers called the camp network in Xinjiang “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.”


Since Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called “two-faced” Uyghur officials—a term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of “disloyalty.”


China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.


While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.


https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyg...018162312.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misskit

While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.

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This is probably the essence of it. China may be trying to provoke an outburst of protest, and then stamp down hard on it on the pretext of stamping out terrorism.

...Han Chinese are a lot like caucasians when it comes to treatment of minorities...

Some caucasians, anyway. Depends on which lot you're descended from...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Latindancer

Depends on which lot you're descended from...

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...*trying to think of Caucasians who treated minorities kindly...fail*...

The Irish, perhaps ? Or the Scots ? They were usually downtrodden by the English...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tomcat

...Han Chinese are a lot like caucasians when it comes to treatment of minorities...

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The historic similarities are quite striking...