One wrong click on the Internet, critical relatives abroad, headscarf or beard: It doesn't take much to end up in a re-education camp as a Uigure in China, as confidential lists reveal.
Beijing (dpa) - Secret documents from the Chinese power apparatus reveal the arbitrary reasons for the detention of Uighurs in re-education camps.
Wearing a headscarf or beard, applying for a passport, relatives abroad, a pilgrimage or religious books are mentioned in the lists, which a group of German and international media reported on Tuesday. Among them are the NDR, the WDR, the Deutsche Welle and "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
Accordingly, families of the Muslim minority in the northwest China region of Xinjiang are classified as "trustworthy" or not, their attitude "as good" or "ordinary" or the atmosphere in the family as religious to substantiate suspicions. It also takes into account how many relatives are already in the camp.
The lists with personal information on monitored persons come from the Karakax district (Hotan region). They comprise around 140 pages and include detailed information on more than 300 people who were or were interned in camps. Not all entries could be timed, but the most recent entry is from March 2019, the NDR reported.
Human rights defenders estimate that hundreds of thousands to one million Uighurs have been put into such re-education camps. China's government speaks of vocational training facilities that inmates would voluntarily attend. Already the "China Cables", which were similarly unveiled in November, showed that the stay in the strictly guarded facilities is compulsory.
Like the "China Cables", the exile Uighur Asiye Abdulaheb, who lives in the Netherlands, passed on the internal papers to the journalists, according to the British BCC. Experts have checked the authenticity. According to NDR, researcher Rian Thum from the University of Nottingham said the lists show "an enormous act of collective punishment" that was ultimately racially motivated.
An estimated ten million Uighurs live in China, most of them in Xinjiang. They are ethnically related to the Turks and feel economically, politically and culturally oppressed by the ruling Han Chinese. After taking power in Beijing in 1949, the Communists had incorporated what was formerly East Turkestan into China. Beijing accuses Uyghur groups of separatism and terrorism.
The lists list numerous reasons why people were brought to the camps. Most often, according to the NDR, there is a violation of China's birth control laws. Further reasons are also: "This person has a long beard", "Person who was on the [Islamic pilgrimage] Hajj".
According to the information, it was also said: "Website clicked on, which contains links to undesirable foreign websites" or "stays away from flag raising for no reason". Keeping the restaurant closed during the Islamic month of fasting Ramadan is also mentioned. "Veiling the wife" and "relatives of a person who is being searched for abroad" are further reasons.
According to this information, individuals are also suspected of being members or sympathizers of Islamist terror groups. According to the NDR, the list also shows that Uyghurs of certain birth years have been categorized as particularly dangerous - especially young men.
NDR
New York Times
BBC
Guardian
ICIJ China Cables
