Shortly before UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s visit to Xinjiang province, an international media consortium published further evidence of the mass internment of Uyghurs in China. Photos, speeches and official instructions proved that the camps are not “professional training institutes” as the Chinese government claims, media involved in the investigation said Tuesday.
According to Bayerischer Rundfunk and German news magazine Der Spiegel, the dataset includes a previously unknown speech by the former leader of the Xinjiang Communist Party from 2017, saying that any prisoner who could get even a few Escaping steps would be “shot”.
The photos show security forces with assault rifles. A photo also shows a prisoner in a so-called tiger chair – a torture device in which the legs are stretched out. The Chinese embassy in the US said the measures in Xinjiang were aimed at countering terrorist activities and were not about “human rights or a religion”.
According to the announcement, the dataset was leaked to German anthropologist Adrian Zenz. This is a well-known Chinese researcher in the US who early pointed out the alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang and was sanctioned by Beijing in 2021. He shared the data with a total of 14 Western media outlets.
“Images of horror”
The head of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, German Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens), called on BR and “Spiegel” to introduce new sanctions against China. The “images of horror” should lead the EU to take a clear position.
Bachelet is expected to visit the Xinjiang cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on Tuesday and Wednesday. Beijing’s government is accused of holding more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in “re-education camps” in the far west of the country. Beijing is accused of, among other things, forced sterilization and forced labour.
In addition, the authorities must raze cultural sites to the ground. The entire region is under strict surveillance. The US speaks of a genocide. They had also expressed doubts that Bachelet would get an “unmanipulated” picture of the situation. China strongly denies the allegations.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
