U.N. says it has credible reports that China holds million Uighurs in secret camps

[rooster59]

U.N. says it has credible reports that China holds million Uighurs in secret camps

By Stephanie Nebehay

 

FILE PHOTO: The United Nations emblem is seen in the U.N. General Assembly hall during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights panel said on Friday that it had received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China are held in what resembles a "massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy."

 

Gay McDougall, a member of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, cited estimates that 2 million Uighurs and Muslim minorities were forced into "political camps for indoctrination" in the western Xinjiang autonomous region.

 

"We are deeply concerned at the many numerous and credible reports that we have received that in the name of combating religious extremism and maintaining social stability (China) has changed the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembles a massive internship camp that is shrouded in secrecy, a sort of 'no rights zone'," she told the start of a two-day regular review of China's record, including Hong Kong and Macao.

 

China has said that Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tensions between the mostly Muslim Uighur minority who call the region home and the ethnic Han Chinese majority.

 

A Chinese delegation of some 50 officials made no comment on her remarks at the Geneva session that is scheduled to continue on Monday.

 

The U.S. mission to the United Nations said on Twitter that it was "deeply troubled by reports of an ongoing crackdown on Uighurs and other Muslims in China."

 

"We call on China to end their counterproductive policies and free all of those who have been arbitrarily detained,” the U.S. mission said.

 

The allegations came from multiple sources, including activist group Chinese Human Rights Defenders, which said in a report last month that 21 percent of all arrests recorded in China in 2017 were in Xinjiang.

 

Earlier, Yu Jianhua, China's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said it was working towards equality and solidarity among all ethnic groups.

 

But McDougall said that members of the Uighur community and other Muslims were being treated as "enemies of the state" solely on the basis of their ethno-religious identity.

 

More than 100 Uighur students who returned to China from countries including Egypt and Turkey had been detained, with some dying in custody, she said.

 

Fatima-Binta Dah, a panel member, referred to "arbitrary and mass detention of almost 1 million Uighurs" and asked the Chinese delegation, "What is the level of religious freedom available now to Uighurs in China, what legal protection exists for them to practice their religion?"

 

Panelists also raised reports of mistreatment of Tibetans in the autonomous region, including inadequate use of the Tibetan language in the classroom and at court proceedings.

 

"The U.N. body maintained its integrity, the government got a very clear message," Golok Jigme, a Tibetan monk and former prisoner living in exile, told Reuters at the meeting.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-11

[Ketyo]

China has held off the mind virus of religion for many years. It knows how to do it.

[from the home of CC]

wouldn't surprise me in the least.

[simple1]

9 minutes ago, Ketyo said:

China has held off the mind virus of religion for many years. It knows how to do it.

The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html

 

[Redline]

If nobody noticed, the culture lacks values.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they were killing them off

[dexterm]

China is a country that has no respect for human rights.

 

China is a totally repressive regime in Xinjiang.

 

It needlessly forbids the most basic of the majority Muslim religious observances such as fasting and reading the Koran, engaging in daily prayer, and fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. It deliberately allows the access of of immodestly dressed non Muslims to sacred mosques against the wishes of the resident Muslim population [witnessed it myself] , and forbids even the growing of beards. In other words, you cannot practise your religion.

 

The irony is that if the Han Chinese colonialists allowed some degree of local political and religious autonomy to respect local tradition in the disputed territory of Xinjiang, legislated cradle to grave health and education care for a relatively tiny  minority easily affordable , the restriction of Han immigration swamping the local culture just allowing Han immigrants who would enhance local culture through health/education/joint business ventures, they would have the local Uighur population [same as in Tibet] eating out of their hands and looking at all the repressive regimes in neighboring countries, and glad that they are a minority living under a benign Chinese governance. 

Instead it's just the same old story ..occupation and repression..in the hope that the occupied may ultimately conform to the occupiers' way of thinking.

[Sir Dude]

China needs reigning in on a fair few issues but no-one has the nuts to do it, as they are all worried about their trade with an awful regime. The spineless cowards in charge of most countries (certainly western ones) put their greed before principles, and then spout off on issues of rights and liberal attitudes as if they are some moral touchstone of justice/righteousness etc. But then, when it comes to the average country that is misbehaving, they are made an example of by the hypocrites that are in power to show their superior values. So bad that even Stevie Wonder can probably see it. China is a huge violator of every kind of decent value of anything you can probably think of but gets continually left alone on it all...total BS and pass the barf bag please. 

[car720]

33 minutes ago, dexterm said:

China is a country that has no respect for human rights.

 

China is a totally repressive regime in Xinjiang.

 

It needlessly forbids the most basic of the majority Muslim religious observances such as fasting and reading the Koran, engaging in daily prayer, and fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. It deliberately allows the access of of immodestly dressed non Muslims to sacred mosques against the wishes of the resident Muslim population [witnessed it myself] , and forbids even the growing of beards. In other words, you cannot practise your religion.

 

The irony is that if the Han Chinese colonialists allowed some degree of local political and religious autonomy to respect local tradition in the disputed territory of Xinjiang, legislated cradle to grave health and education care for a relatively tiny  minority easily affordable , the restriction of Han immigration swamping the local culture just allowing Han immigrants who would enhance local culture through health/education/joint business ventures, they would have the local Uighur population [same as in Tibet] eating out of their hands and looking at all the repressive regimes in neighboring countries, and glad that they are a minority living under a benign Chinese governance. 

Instead it's just the same old story ..occupation and repression..in the hope that the occupied may ultimately conform to the occupiers' way of thinking.

I usually hold to your opinions on most things and what you say here may also be quite true.  However, to deny the undeniable power of he who holds the biggest stick is a little naive.

One has only to go into an unemployment centre anywhere in the world and try to sign on for welfare to realize just how multi faceted the world really is.

I always try to remember that the little German corporal didn't kill millions on his own.  He had help from his own.

I wonder if Alexander or Genghis Khan were really any different.

Sheep need wolves.

[the guest]

UN is just a bunch of cronies who represent countries which have violated human rights. Time to dismantle the organization, it has no value. It's like asking a convicted bank robber to guard a bank!