Australia Seeks UN Probe Into New China Uighur Abuse Claims
Australia has called for a United Nations investigation into allegations of human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region. In the statement, Australia also urged China to allow international observers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, to be given immediate and unfettered access to Xinjiang
Former detainees and a guard said they experienced or witnessed systematic rape and torture inside China’s so-called re-education camps where the UN says anywhere from tens of thousands to “upwards of 1 million” Uighurs have been detained.
Source: Bloomberg #Feb04
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2021-02-04/australia-asks-for-un-probe-into-new-china-uighur-abuse-claims
#Uighur #Xinjiang #Re-educatonCamp #HumanRightsAbuses
Australia has called for a United Nations investigation into allegations of human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region. In the statement, Australia also urged China to allow international observers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, to be given immediate and unfettered access to Xinjiang
Former detainees and a guard said they experienced or witnessed systematic rape and torture inside China’s so-called re-education camps where the UN says anywhere from tens of thousands to “upwards of 1 million” Uighurs have been detained.
Source: Bloomberg #Feb04
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2021-02-04/australia-asks-for-un-probe-into-new-china-uighur-abuse-claims
#Uighur #Xinjiang #Re-educatonCamp #HumanRightsAbuses
'Their goal is to destroy everyone': Uighur camp detainees allege systematic rape
Tursunay Ziawudun spent nine months inside China's vast and secretive system of internment camps in the Xinjiang region. She fled Xinjiang after her release and is now in the US.
Ziawudun said women were removed from the cells "every night" and raped by one or more masked Chinese men. She said she was tortured and later gang-raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men.
The BBC also interviewed a Kazakh woman from Xinjiang who was detained for 18 months in the camp system, who said she was forced to strip Uighur women naked and handcuff them, before leaving them alone with Chinese men. Afterwards, she cleaned the rooms, she said.
The Chinese men "would pay money to have their pick of the prettiest young inmates", she said.
Asked if there was a system of organised rape, she said: "Yes, rape."
Qelbinur Sedik, an Uzbek woman from Xinjiang, was among the Chinese language teachers brought into the camps and coerced into giving lessons to the detainees. Sedik has since fled China and spoken publicly about her experience.
The women's camp was "tightly controlled", Sedik told the BBC. But she heard stories, she said - signs and rumours of rape.
Source: BBC #Feb02
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071
#Uighur #Xinjiang #ReEducaitonCamp #DetentionCamp #China #Rape
Tursunay Ziawudun spent nine months inside China's vast and secretive system of internment camps in the Xinjiang region. She fled Xinjiang after her release and is now in the US.
Ziawudun said women were removed from the cells "every night" and raped by one or more masked Chinese men. She said she was tortured and later gang-raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men.
The BBC also interviewed a Kazakh woman from Xinjiang who was detained for 18 months in the camp system, who said she was forced to strip Uighur women naked and handcuff them, before leaving them alone with Chinese men. Afterwards, she cleaned the rooms, she said.
The Chinese men "would pay money to have their pick of the prettiest young inmates", she said.
Asked if there was a system of organised rape, she said: "Yes, rape."
Qelbinur Sedik, an Uzbek woman from Xinjiang, was among the Chinese language teachers brought into the camps and coerced into giving lessons to the detainees. Sedik has since fled China and spoken publicly about her experience.
The women's camp was "tightly controlled", Sedik told the BBC. But she heard stories, she said - signs and rumours of rape.
Source: BBC #Feb02
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071
#Uighur #Xinjiang #ReEducaitonCamp #DetentionCamp #China #Rape
BBC News
'Their goal is to destroy everyone': Uighur camp detainees allege systematic rape
In new testimony, former detainees of China's detention camps describe systematic rape and torture.
UK must fix modern slavery laws to help protect Uighurs in China, say MPs
The government introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 “The Modern Slavery Act is out of date, has no teeth, and we do not accept that businesses should be excused from doing basic due diligence to guarantee that their supply chains are fully transparent and free from forced labour and slavery,” the report by MPs said.
The UK government must toughen measures to tackle modern slavery, including more penalties to compel businesses to ensure Uighur forced labour is not used in their supply chains.
The report called for more penalties to compel companies to ensure supply chains do not include forced labour.
Source: The Guardian #Mar14
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/uk-must-fix-modern-slavery-laws-to-help-protect-uighurs-in-china-say-mps
#ModernSlaveryAct #UK #Uighur #China #CCP
The government introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 “The Modern Slavery Act is out of date, has no teeth, and we do not accept that businesses should be excused from doing basic due diligence to guarantee that their supply chains are fully transparent and free from forced labour and slavery,” the report by MPs said.
The UK government must toughen measures to tackle modern slavery, including more penalties to compel businesses to ensure Uighur forced labour is not used in their supply chains.
The report called for more penalties to compel companies to ensure supply chains do not include forced labour.
Source: The Guardian #Mar14
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/uk-must-fix-modern-slavery-laws-to-help-protect-uighurs-in-china-say-mps
#ModernSlaveryAct #UK #Uighur #China #CCP
Tiananmen Square, Uyghur Court: Tower Hamlets plans name changes in solidarity
The Chinese embassy is to be relocated to the East End of London, Tower Hamlets.
The councillors said they welcomed the relocation of the embassy from the West End but “we must continue to make clear where our own standards and principles apply”.
The motion which proposed to rename roads and buildings in the surrounding area of the site Tiananmen Square, Uyghur Court, Hong Kong Road and Tibet Hill was passed. This showed “support for the freedom and diversity of our borough”.
The repression of Uighur Muslims is particularly sensitive for Tower Hamlets, which has the highest proportion of Muslim residents (38%) of any borough.
Source: The Guardian #Mar19
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/19/uyghur-court-hong-kong-road-tower-hamlets-plans-name-changes-in-solidarity?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
#TowerHamlets #London #UK #ChineseEmbassy #Uighur #UighurMuslim
The Chinese embassy is to be relocated to the East End of London, Tower Hamlets.
The councillors said they welcomed the relocation of the embassy from the West End but “we must continue to make clear where our own standards and principles apply”.
The motion which proposed to rename roads and buildings in the surrounding area of the site Tiananmen Square, Uyghur Court, Hong Kong Road and Tibet Hill was passed. This showed “support for the freedom and diversity of our borough”.
The repression of Uighur Muslims is particularly sensitive for Tower Hamlets, which has the highest proportion of Muslim residents (38%) of any borough.
Source: The Guardian #Mar19
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/19/uyghur-court-hong-kong-road-tower-hamlets-plans-name-changes-in-solidarity?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
#TowerHamlets #London #UK #ChineseEmbassy #Uighur #UighurMuslim
Germany is supplying Uighur ‘gulag’ in Xinjiang
German companies are supplying the technical backbone for the vast textile industry in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where at least half a million members of the persecuted Uighur minority have allegedly been forced to labour in the cotton fields.
Leaked trade figures from the Chinese customs authority underline the extent of Germany’s commercial entanglement in the region despite numerous claims of human rights abuses and “cultural genocide”.
Source: Times #Feb19
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germany-is-supplying-uighur-gulag-in-xinjiang-n3lqv7vmc
#Germany #Uighur #Xinjiang #HumanRights
German companies are supplying the technical backbone for the vast textile industry in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where at least half a million members of the persecuted Uighur minority have allegedly been forced to labour in the cotton fields.
Leaked trade figures from the Chinese customs authority underline the extent of Germany’s commercial entanglement in the region despite numerous claims of human rights abuses and “cultural genocide”.
Source: Times #Feb19
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germany-is-supplying-uighur-gulag-in-xinjiang-n3lqv7vmc
#Germany #Uighur #Xinjiang #HumanRights
‘We don’t know if he is alive’: Uighur woman speaks out on jailing of father in Xinjiang
The last time Jewher Ilham’s family saw her father, he had lost 40 pounds and his hair had turned grey.
“He used to be a pretty chubby man and now he has nothing. And all his hair turned grey. But other than that he looked okay. He’s a very strong person, I mean a mentally strong person, or at least that is what I knew of my father. And I hope he can remain the same.”
Ilham Tohti, Jewher’s father (Jewher is an Uighur, a Turkic ethnic group whom take their father’s first name as their surname), is a former economics lecturer from Minzu University, Beijing.
Source: Irish Times #Apr29
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/we-don-t-know-if-he-is-alive-uighur-woman-speaks-out-on-jailing-of-father-in-xinjiang-1.4551124
#Uighur #Xinjiang #China #Beijing
The last time Jewher Ilham’s family saw her father, he had lost 40 pounds and his hair had turned grey.
“He used to be a pretty chubby man and now he has nothing. And all his hair turned grey. But other than that he looked okay. He’s a very strong person, I mean a mentally strong person, or at least that is what I knew of my father. And I hope he can remain the same.”
Ilham Tohti, Jewher’s father (Jewher is an Uighur, a Turkic ethnic group whom take their father’s first name as their surname), is a former economics lecturer from Minzu University, Beijing.
Source: Irish Times #Apr29
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/we-don-t-know-if-he-is-alive-uighur-woman-speaks-out-on-jailing-of-father-in-xinjiang-1.4551124
#Uighur #Xinjiang #China #Beijing
Fraud, force and genocide: An extraordinary day in the annals of Australia’s national life
Genocidal? Who, us? It was an extraordinary day in the annals of Australia’s national life. China’s representative in Australia opened his home to reporters on Wednesday to persuade them that the Beijing government wanted only the best for its Uighur ethnic minority in the northwestern province of Xinjiang.
The government of the US, the parliaments of Canada and the Netherlands and Britain’s House of Lords have damned China’s treatment of its Uighur people as the gravest possible crime against humanity – genocide. Neither Australia’s government nor Parliament has done so. Yet.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald #Apr10
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/fraud-force-and-genocide-an-extraordinary-day-in-the-annals-of-australia-s-national-life-20210409-p57hyy.html
#Australia #Beijing #Uighur #Xinjiang
Genocidal? Who, us? It was an extraordinary day in the annals of Australia’s national life. China’s representative in Australia opened his home to reporters on Wednesday to persuade them that the Beijing government wanted only the best for its Uighur ethnic minority in the northwestern province of Xinjiang.
The government of the US, the parliaments of Canada and the Netherlands and Britain’s House of Lords have damned China’s treatment of its Uighur people as the gravest possible crime against humanity – genocide. Neither Australia’s government nor Parliament has done so. Yet.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald #Apr10
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/fraud-force-and-genocide-an-extraordinary-day-in-the-annals-of-australia-s-national-life-20210409-p57hyy.html
#Australia #Beijing #Uighur #Xinjiang
#WolfWarrior #Disinformation
Chinese #ForeignMinister tells Germans ‘you know what #genocide looks like’
//It is estimated that 1 million Uighurs have been detained in so-called re-education camps in Xinjiang.
China’s Foreign Minister #WangYi rejected academic research detailing the abuses, including forced labour and forced sterilisations of women.
#Uighur women who have been detained in the camps have detailed systemic rape, abuse and torture. China has refused to allow independent investigators into the camps and denies any abuses are taking place.
“There is no forced labour in China,” Wang said. “There’s no such thing [as] concentration camps in #Xinjiang.”
“And there’s no such thing as genocide - our European friends know what is genocide,” he said, referring to the Holocaust when Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews during World War II.
#Buetikofer, who leads the European Parliament’s China delegation, was one of the politicians sanctioned.
Buetikofer described as reckless Wang’s attempts to use the Holocaust to dismiss claims of crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.
“Wang Yi basically tells us ‘shut up, you shouldn’t talk’.
“The Holocaust should not be used as a diplomatic football for rhetorical gains,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“The fact of the matter is that it has been precisely because of our wretched history that we have built our democracies and European Union on the basis of adherence to human rights and the rule of law. For us it is an historic obligation.
“If this People’s Republic of China had nothing to hide, they would open up and allow a full independent investigation; no amount of aggressive wolf-warrior diplomacy will obscure the fact that they still have not done so,” he said.//
Read the article:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/chinese-foreign-minister-tells-germans-you-know-what-genocide-looks-like-20210526-p57vdy.html
Source: Sydney Morning Herald #May27
Chinese #ForeignMinister tells Germans ‘you know what #genocide looks like’
//It is estimated that 1 million Uighurs have been detained in so-called re-education camps in Xinjiang.
China’s Foreign Minister #WangYi rejected academic research detailing the abuses, including forced labour and forced sterilisations of women.
#Uighur women who have been detained in the camps have detailed systemic rape, abuse and torture. China has refused to allow independent investigators into the camps and denies any abuses are taking place.
“There is no forced labour in China,” Wang said. “There’s no such thing [as] concentration camps in #Xinjiang.”
“And there’s no such thing as genocide - our European friends know what is genocide,” he said, referring to the Holocaust when Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews during World War II.
#Buetikofer, who leads the European Parliament’s China delegation, was one of the politicians sanctioned.
Buetikofer described as reckless Wang’s attempts to use the Holocaust to dismiss claims of crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.
“Wang Yi basically tells us ‘shut up, you shouldn’t talk’.
“The Holocaust should not be used as a diplomatic football for rhetorical gains,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“The fact of the matter is that it has been precisely because of our wretched history that we have built our democracies and European Union on the basis of adherence to human rights and the rule of law. For us it is an historic obligation.
“If this People’s Republic of China had nothing to hide, they would open up and allow a full independent investigation; no amount of aggressive wolf-warrior diplomacy will obscure the fact that they still have not done so,” he said.//
Read the article:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/chinese-foreign-minister-tells-germans-you-know-what-genocide-looks-like-20210526-p57vdy.html
Source: Sydney Morning Herald #May27
The Sydney Morning Herald
Chinese foreign minister tells Germans ‘you know what genocide looks like’
During the Munich Security Conference, Wang Yi said sanctions imposed by the European Union over human rights violations in Xinjiang made China feel bullied.
Bachelet seeks Xinjiang trip amid reports of Uighur persecution
UN human rights chief Michele Bachelet has said she hopes to agree terms for a visit this year to China, including its Xinjiang region, to look into reports of serious violations against the Uighur minority.
“I continue to discuss with China modalities for a visit, including meaningful access, to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” Bachelet said on Monday, addressing the opening of a Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
Source: Aljazerra #Jun21
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/21/bachelet-seeks-2021-xinjiang-visit-amid-alleged-rights-abuses
#China #Bachelet #Xinjiang #Uighur
UN human rights chief Michele Bachelet has said she hopes to agree terms for a visit this year to China, including its Xinjiang region, to look into reports of serious violations against the Uighur minority.
“I continue to discuss with China modalities for a visit, including meaningful access, to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” Bachelet said on Monday, addressing the opening of a Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
Source: Aljazerra #Jun21
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/21/bachelet-seeks-2021-xinjiang-visit-amid-alleged-rights-abuses
#China #Bachelet #Xinjiang #Uighur
China ‘threatens families to silence Uighur exiles in Britain’
Uighurs in the UK are being intimidated into silence by Chinese authorities as the “long arm” of the repressive regime reaches exiles in Europe, a report has found.
Thousands of members of the minority group who left China to live in western democracies are feared to be censoring themselves out of concern for the safety of their families. Those who dare to speak out about human rights abuses in their home country say they face threats from officials as well as pressure to inform on their expatriate communities.
Source: The Times #Feb10
https://t.co/e7Rx2MRJMF
#China #UK #Uighur #Longarm
Uighurs in the UK are being intimidated into silence by Chinese authorities as the “long arm” of the repressive regime reaches exiles in Europe, a report has found.
Thousands of members of the minority group who left China to live in western democracies are feared to be censoring themselves out of concern for the safety of their families. Those who dare to speak out about human rights abuses in their home country say they face threats from officials as well as pressure to inform on their expatriate communities.
Source: The Times #Feb10
https://t.co/e7Rx2MRJMF
#China #UK #Uighur #Longarm