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BEIJING – Under growing international criticism, China has given its most comprehensive defense to date for its massive campaign to detain and indoctrinate Muslims. A senior official on Tuesday described his network of camps in the far west as vocational training centers.
Human rights groups, US lawmakers and a UN panel attacked "transformation through education" camps hosting Uyghurs and members of other minority Muslim groups from the Xinjiang region, in the far northwest of China. Hundreds of thousands of people have been detained in the camps – an estimated one million – and former detainees who have fled abroad have described them as virtual prisons that practice brainwashing.
But Xinjiang government president Shohrat Zakir, himself of Uyghur ethnicity, called the camps "human shield" and legitimate against terrorism in an interview published by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. He added that these facilities offered Uighurs and other Muslims Chinese lessons and taught them to be law-abiding citizens. They also receive training in clothing, e-commerce, hairdressing and cosmetology, Zakir said.
Zakir said the "students" on the premises enjoyed free meals, air-conditioned dormitories, movie screenings and access to computer rooms.
"Xinjiang has launched a vocational education and training program in accordance with the law," said Zakir. "His goal is to get rid of the environment and the soil that breeds terrorism and religious extremism."
Mr. Zakir did not specify the number of Muslims who were sent to the camps, but he appeared to recognize for the first time that people were held in detention for months or years.
He added that the program addressed persons suspected of wrongdoing not requiring criminal convictions and that they received "graduation certificates" only after the end of the year. have signed agreements and met certain criteria. Some detainees, he said, were preparing for their release and posting to work by the end of 2018.
Mr. Zakir suggested that the campaign would continue for many years. The program of "de-radicalization" gives results, he said, "but the duration, the complexity and the intensity remain acute, and we must maintain a great vigilance."
Omurbek Eli, a businessman who described his era held in a camp in 2017, mocked Mr. Zakir's description of indoctrination centers as "colorful" places where students play basketball, watch movies and participate in singing competitions. . His experience, he said, was much harder, involving long days of walking, singing Chinese patriotic songs and memorizing the Chinese laws.
"They are full of nonsense," said Mr. Eli, a native of Xinjiang, who obtained Kazakh citizenship. "They say that these camps must eradicate terrorism, but inside, I have seen lawyers, doctors, intellectuals, even officials who had nothing to do with terrorism. extremism, "he said. "They call these vocational training centers, but it was really a prison."
The publication of the interview with Zakir confirmed the transition from China's public relations strategy to the camps, from silence to a no-nonsense defense. Mr. Zakir even cited a UN resolution on the fight against terrorism to justify them.
As criticisms of detentions increased throughout the year, the government remained silent at first. Then he gave an untouched recognition of the existence of the camps. A senior official from the Chinese delegation, who appeared before a UN panel in Geneva in August, defended the government's actions, denying that they amounted to mass detention.
But Mr. Zakir's comments marked the first comprehensive defense of the indoctrination program, which Xi Jinping, president of China and leader of the Chinese Communist Party, is at the origin of this policy.
Last week, the Xinjiang government issued amended rules for its "de-radicalization" program, which for the first time gave clear public permission to indoctrination camps.
"After a year and more of denial, the Communist Party decided to make itself known and to present its own point of view on the legality and the nature of these detention camps", James Leibold, an expert on Xinjiang at the University of La Trobe in Australia, said by email. "The party's central leadership now seems determined to" normalize "and" legalize "its approach."
Mr. Zakir's comments seemed to be part of China's preparations for an international meeting likely to put the camps under closer scrutiny. At a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in early November, foreign governments will have the opportunity to question Beijing officials on the detention program. and other intrusive security measures targeting Muslim minorities.
"This meeting is a very important opportunity to raise the problem of the camp," said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, an exile group based in Germany. (Uighur is an alternative spelling of the Uyghur language.) "China has denied the camps, but now it's something they just can not hide."
Western governments said Xinjiang would be a priority at the meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"We are deeply concerned by credible reports of a serious deterioration of the human rights situation" in Xinjiang, High Representative for the Union Federica Mogherini told the European Parliament European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Last week, a bipartisan group in Washington issued a report condemning the indoctrination camps. The panel's legislators, including Senator Marco Rubio, have proposed a bill punishing China's detention program.
"In China, the government is engaged in the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities that reports directly to George Orwell," said Nikki Haley, United States ambassador to the United Nations, on Monday. according to Fox News. "It's the largest internment of civilians in the world today."
But Mr. Zakir's story indicated that China would maintain that the camps enjoyed strong legal support. Until 2014, China was beset by a series of violent attacks and riots involving unhappy Uighurs.
"Now, Xinjiang is not only beautiful," said Mr. Zakir, "he is also very safe and stable."
Nevertheless, the Chinese authorities did not give access to camps to foreign diplomats or journalists, nor did they tell how many people they held. Hu Xijin, a prominent editor of the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper with fierce nationalism, said Monday that he knew the figure and denied the figure of one million.
Human rights groups have stated that the existence of these camps illustrates the Communist Party's use of legal justification for concealing measures that betray China's rights and protection rights. procedure, as well as international law.
"The clumsy justifications of these camps by the Xinjiang authorities only serve to illustrate what the" rule of law "in China means," he said. Maya Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch. "The party bends it to its will and uses it as a weapon against alleged political enemies."
