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BEIJING – A senior Chinese official has so far presented the most comprehensive defense of the government regarding its massive detention program for Muslims in the far west of China, claiming that it was a bulwark for the social stability and suggesting that detentions are voluntary.
In a lengthy interview published Tuesday by the Xinhua News Agency of the Chinese government, Shohrat Zakir, president of the Xinjiang Chinese Region, described the camps as professional schools with generous equipment and essential to fight against religious extremism. He said the crackdown had put an end to terrorism and decreasing crime in the region.
"The facts proved that vocational education and training corresponded to the reality of current efforts in the fight against terrorism, maintaining stability and eradicating extremism in Xinjiang" , did he declare.
An escort serves tea to Shohrat Zakir, president of China's Xinjiang region, during a discussion session with a provincial group held in Beijing earlier this year.
Photo:
Associated press
The interview, published in Chinese and English, is part of China's evolving strategy to explain the campaign. US officials and UN experts say hundreds of thousands of Muslims, mostly from the Uyghur ethnic group, have been arrested in the past two years. Although the detentions initially attracted little attention, criticisms – from the United States, Europe and some Muslim groups – have developed in recent months.
Chinese authorities have been ambiguous about mass detentions before a UN panel in August, saying that Xinjiang juvenile criminals have been sent to vocational schools to learn how to reintegrate into society. Revisions to Xinjiang's anti-terrorism legislation, made public last week, recognized for the first time that vocational training centers were being used for "de-radicalization" work.
"They clearly want to go down in history after a year of trying to deny it," said James Leibold, an expert in Chinese ethnic politics at La Trobe University in Australia. Part of the ongoing effort, he said, is likely to avoid further criticism during a US review of China's human rights record, scheduled for November.
Reports by specialists outside China and interviews with former detainees and their relatives by foreign media, including the Wall Street Journal, have documented the expansion of the detention program and the intrepid indoctrination. policy of detained persons. They said they were detained against their will, forced to sing patriotic songs and forbidden to pray.
A protester wearing a mask painted in the colors of the East Turkestan flag attends a demonstration denouncing China's treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims in front of the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul in July this year.
Photo:
France France / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
In the interview with Xinhua, Mr. Zakir contradicted this information, suggesting that registration in the institutions was voluntary. He added that facilities sign "training agreements" with each trainee.
Chinese law does not permit unlimited detention without trial. The Xinjiang camps can only be legal if they volunteer, according to Jeremy Daum, senior researcher at Paul Tsai China Center of Yale Law School at Yale Law School. If they are, he added, the independent experts should be allowed to inspect the facilities, which the authorities have refused so far.
The offices of the Xinjiang Communist Party Committee refused to comment or did not respond to a request for comment sent by fax.
China's use of mass detentions comes after a long government campaign to quell a sometimes violent Uighur separatist movement, which Beijing says has links with extremist religious groups abroad. The Islamic State has produced videos aimed at recruiting Uyghurs, some of whom have left China to fight with the organization in Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups and Uyghur activists living abroad report that the violence is motivated by the extreme restrictions imposed on Uyghur religious and cultural activities and by the policies sanctioned by the Uighurs. State that benefit the Han Chinese at the expense of Xinjiang minorities.
A Wall Street Journal investigation reveals what is happening in the growing network of internment camps in China, where hundreds of thousands of members of the Uyghur ethnic group have reportedly been arrested. Screen / video capture: Clément Bürge
In the interview, Mr. Zakir cited several laws and regulations that he said justified the campaign. He reiterated the government's earlier statements that the centers are intended to rehabilitate underage criminals.
He described the vocational training centers as resorts with volleyball courts, ping-pong tables and movie theaters, respecting ethnic customs, offering "free" nutritious meals and their own air-conditioned room. TV.
According to interviews with former detainees and members of their families, living conditions in the centers vary considerably. While some look like vocational schools, others seen by the Journal are more like jails, surrounded by thick razor-wounded walls and guarded by armed police in watchtowers.
Several former detainees told the Journal that they had been subjected to political indoctrination on a daily basis and had been forced to denounce Islam. One of them said that he had been tied to a chair for hours, his hands tied behind his back, and questioned about his ties to religious groups abroad, what he denied having. The authorities refused to comment.
Mr. Zakir stated that the training program contributed to the prevention of religious extremism by teaching Mandarin trainees, which "gives them a basis for accepting modern scientific knowledge and for recognizing history, the culture and the national conditions of China ".
Mr. Leibold, an expert from Xinjiang, said that much of Mr. Zakir's description appeared to be "an aspiration". He and other critics said the program was more likely to exacerbate ethnic resentment than to promote harmony.
"I think it's doubtful that this can be effective in the long run," said Leibold.
-Kersten Zhang contributed to this article.
Write to Josh Chin at [email protected]
