By Tahreem Shah
Photo by Zainab Lawal
An estimated three million people are dying every three months. Ethnic cleansing is happening among us as we speak, history is repeating itself and nothing is being done to stop it. Approximately 3 million Uyghurs are cruelly detained in concentration camps without trial by the Chinese government. We all know the holocaust to be the biggest ethnic cleansing in history and yet the chapter is reopening and has been reopened since early 2017. The death count of the concentration camps has officially surpassed that of the Holocaust.
Muslims in China are being held captive for reasons like owning a tent, multiple knives, having extra food, grieving the death of a loved one, eating before sunrise and disallowing a government official to enter your residence or denying them access to stay and eat your food. Rahima, mother of four, and a former detainee from the Uyghur camps spoke to China Undercover and said that she was confined and restrained in the camps because she was caught having the messaging app “Whatsapp'' on her phone, despite the fact that it was banned in the country. “You were like a zombie in the camp”, Rahima says, “Like someone who had lost their mind.” (Taddino,2020)
Similar to Rahima, Gulzira, also a former detainee who was kept in a Xinjiang concentration camp, claims to remember being imprisoned within bars and mesh wire. She claims there were surveillance cameras and they were brutally treated. She says that “If you exceeded two minutes in the bathroom they would hit our heads with an electric pod”. (Taddino,2020)
The Chinese Government describes this as “vocational education and training centers” but at a vocational education camp, would people get beat and have their blood drawn without permission? These facilities are located in remote parts of the country, and are under constant surveillance and as for the disposal of bodies there has been proof of cremation facilities near each camp. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have taken a quick glimpse into the life of a detainee in these “educational camps” and describe these conditions as imposed indoctrination centers with high watchtowers, constant surveillance cameras, harsh punishments and dedicated police databases to make escape impossible. This has led to staged visits from Chinese government officials since word of concentration camps let out. According to Rahima and Gulzira, many people also took their own lives as a result of these harsh conditions. The Chinese government, however, claims that “requirements on respecting and safeguarding human rights are strictly followed, the dignity of the trainees are fully respected, and insults and cruelties of any form are strictly prohibited (Taddino,2020).
China Undercover has dug deeper and found out that they are still families of people in these camps waiting to be reunited with their loved ones. It is said that the clampdown on the Chinese Muslim population has involved the testing and use of artificial intelligence technologies and sophisticated surveillance that may have a ripple effect beyond the borders of Xinjiang. Cybersecurity researcher Greg Walton states that we are in the early stages of what is supposed to be “governance controlled advanced predictive algorithmic surveillance.” Eventually, these systems will be exported and cause a “massive setback to human freedom to liberal democracy around the world.” This is slowly becoming an ethnic cleansing and Muslims in China are being robbed of their beliefs.
They are being made to chant “communist party Akbar” (The communist party is the greatest) instead of “Allah Hu Akbar” which translates to “God is greatest and highest authority” which is a Muslim’s way of praising God. This is a cold-blooded massacre. We have to stop this before this deliberate, systemic form of calamity and devastation reaches the rest of the world. Families are incomplete, lives are being lost and the lives of so many are at stake we need to put an end to this destruction and it starts now.
Work Cited
Muslims Detained in Chinese Concentration Camps. (2020, December 10). Retrieved from https://www.saveuighur.org/camps/
Apps, P., & Peter Apps is the executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century. (2019, March 21). China's Uyghur detention camps may be the largest mass incarceration since the Holocaust. Retrieved from https://www.newstatesman.com/world/asia/2019/03/china-s-uyghur-detention-camps-may-be-largest-mass-incarceration-holocaust
Muslims Held in China's Detention Camps Speak Out. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/muslims-held-in-chinas-detention-camps-speak-out/
Work Cited
Photography
Xinjiang internment camps. (2021, March 01). Retrieved March 1, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/xinjiang_internment_camps
Free the Muslims Detained in Chinese Concentration Camps. (2020, December 10). Retrieved March 2, 2021, from http://www.saveuighur.org/
Samuel, S. (2019, March 30). China's crackdown on Muslims is being felt beyond its borders. Retrieved March 2, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/3/30/18287532/china-uighur-muslims-internment-camps-turkey
Samuel, S. (2019, March 30). Understand the News. Retrieved March 2, 2021, from http://www.vox.com/
Thum, R. (2018, May 15). What really happens in china "re-education' camps. Retrieved March 2, 2021, from http://www.nytimes.com/
Campbell, A. F. (2018, October 24). China's reeducation camps for Muslims are beginning to look like concentration camps. Retrieved March 2, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/2018/10/24/18018282/china-reeducation-camps-uighur-muslims
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