Secret documents from the Chinese power apparatus reveal the arbitrary reasons for detaining Uighurs in re-education camps. Wearing a headscarf or beard, applying for a passport, a pilgrimage or relatives abroad can be enough, as the lists show, which a group of international media reported on today.
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.
Human rights activists estimate that hundreds of thousands of Uighurs have been put into re-education camps. China’s government describes the camps as voluntary VET institutions.
An estimated ten million Uighurs live in China, most of them in Xinjiang. They feel economically, politically and culturally oppressed by the ruling Han Chinese. After taking power in 1949, the Communists had incorporated the former East Turkestan into China. The Beijing government accuses Uyghur groups of separatism and terrorism.
