China accused of “crimes against humanity”

• Hundreds of thousands of Muslim minority men and women subjected to mass internment and torture 
• Millions of Muslims subjected to systematized mass surveillance 
• Muslim ethnic groups forced to abandon their religious traditions, cultural practices and local languages

China is committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, the north-western region that is home to the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

Amnesty is calling on the UN to investigate, and says China has subjected Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslims to mass detention, surveillance, and torture.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard is accusing Chinese authorities of creating “a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale”.

“It should shock the conscience of humanity that massive numbers of people have been subjected to brainwashing, torture and other degrading treatment in internment camps.”

Secretary General Agnès Callamard

In a 160-page report based on interviews with 55 former detainees,

Amnesty says there is evidence the Chinese state has committed “at least the following crimes against humanity: imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty.”

The report documents how, since early 2017, huge numbers of men and women from predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang have been arbitrarily detained.

They include hundreds of thousands who have been sent to prisons in addition to hundreds of thousands – perhaps even a million or more – who have been sent to internment camps.

Other than being escorted under armed guard to and from canteens, classes or interrogation, detainees practically never leave their cells and rarely see sunlight or have outdoor access or exercise.

“China must immediately dismantle the internment camps, release the people arbitrarily detained in them and in prisons, and end the systematic attacks against Muslims in Xinjiang.”

SECRETARY GENERAL AGNÈS CALLAMARD

Systematic torture

Every former detainee Amnesty International interviewed suffered torture or other ill-treatment.

This included the cumulative psychological effect of their daily dehumanization, as well as physical torture in the form of beatings, electric shocks and solitary confinement.

China denies those accusations, and says its camps in Xinjiang are voluntary vocational and de-radicalisation programmes for combating terrorism in the region.