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In China, last year, one in five people were arrested in Xinjiang, an autonomous western territory that, according to critics, has been turned into a police state plagued by human rights abuses. 39; man.
Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), found that 21% of all arrests in China in 2017 were in Xinjiang, accounting for about 1.5% of the Chinese population. The indictments in Xinjiang accounted for 13% of all charges laid in the country last year.
"For arrests and indictments, sudden increases in 2017 from 2016 are staggering," the organization said. a Chinese group, the Equal Rights Initiative, Wednesday. "Given that China's conviction rate is 99.9%, almost all the defendants are likely to be convicted."
This report precedes the UN review, beginning August 10, of the Convention on Racial Discrimination. This week, the US State Department holds the country's first religious freedom summit and a congressional committee holds a hearing on the situation in Xinjiang
"These data, coming from the Chinese government itself, must force the international community to act, "said CHRD researcher Frances Eve.
Xinjiang, home to about 12 million Muslims, mostly Uighurs and Kazakhs, was the scene of a government campaign. aimed at eradicating religious extremism and potential separatist movements.The region, almost half the size of India, experienced outbreaks of ethnic violence in the 1990s and again in 2009. [19659002] Human rights groups say repression has gone too far Controls over religious and cultural expression have increased under the leadership of the communist secretary rad ical Chen Quanguo, sent to Xinjiang in 2016. People under 17 years old are not allowed to enter mosques or to make unauthorized pilgrimages to Mecca. Islamic names, beards, veils and long skirts would have been banned.
Lawyers and researchers say that at least tens of thousands of minorities, mostly Uyghurs, have been detained in "re-education" camps where they can be detained. indefinitely. In April, a group of US lawmakers called the camps, "the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today."
No matter what, reading from foreign sites to conversations with parents abroad. A Uyghur state told CHRD that his uncle had asked a friend to help him download songs on his cell phone. When he lent the phone to someone to play music, he was reported to the police and sentenced to seven years in prison for broadcasting banned content.
Another said that one of his neighbors had been detained for taking courses on the Qur'an. . A Uighur told CHRD that his brother had been sentenced to prison after detaining one of his former classmates. The classmate detailed a video that the two boys had inspired to strengthen and provoke an "ethnic incident".
"My brother was sentenced to seven years in prison for abusing a dozen years. said the family member. "It was only a 10-year chat by teens, and they never did anything."
According to the CHRD report, arrests in Xinjiang between 2013 and 2017 increased by 306 percent over the previous five years. The arrests cover all types of criminal cases, but CHRD said this dramatic increase is likely due to the strike campaign.
"The world can not sit still while Uighurs and Xinjiang minorities are imprisoned and prosecuted for no reason, only their ethnicity and Islamic faith," said Eve.
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