WASHINGTON – Amnesty International calls on China to end its campaign of "systematic crackdown" and to reveal the whereabouts of nearly one million mostly "arbitrarily detained" Muslim people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The organization issued a report Sunday night including interviews with more than 100 people outside China whose relatives were reportedly tortured, detained or forced to participate in "re-education camps" in a rural area. northwestern China.

The human rights organization called on world leaders to end the "vicious Chinese government campaign against ethnic minorities".

"Governments around the world must hold the Chinese authorities to account for the nightmare unfolding in the UARA region," said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's East Asia director, in a statement released on Sunday.

Even before Amnesty's report, the fate of the Uyghurs had drawn the attention of some Republicans to Congress.

Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., And Representative Chris Smith, RN.J, urged the Trump administration to sanction the Chinese government, as well as any private companies involved or complicit in human rights abuses in the country. XUAR. Region. They said the Chinese government had created a "high-tech police state" at XUAR that allowed citizens to spy in an intrusive and widespread manner.

"Muslim ethnic minorities are subject to arbitrary detention, torture, gross restrictions on religious practice and culture, and a digital surveillance system so pervasive that aspects of daily life are controlled," wrote the authors. two legislators of the GOP.

"Given the seriousness of the situation, the seriousness and the scope of the rights violations, we urge you to apply … sanctions and to consider additional measures against the senior officials of the Chinese government and the Communist Party of XUAR party secretary Chen Quanguo.

In April, State Department officials met with six Uyghur journalists based in the United States who reported on the Chinese crackdown. Agency spokeswoman Heather Nauert said US officials had expressed "deep concern" about the situation with the Chinese government.

"We call on China to end its counterproductive policies and release – and release all those who have been arbitrarily detained," Nauert said.

And last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke of the persecution of Uyghurs in a speech to religious conservatives.

"Hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of Uyghurs, are held against their will in re-education camps, where they are forced to undergo severe political indoctrination and other abuses," said Pompeo.

But Pompeo did not specify what other actions the State Department could take against China.

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