China has 500+ Uighur camps and prisons and is holding far more than one million, activists say
On Tuesday, advocates for human rights for China's Uighur minority said they have documented 500 camps and prisons in China run by the government to detain people identified as belonging to that targeted ethnic group.
The activists say that when you add up the number of detention facilities they've identified, it means China must be holding a total number of Uighur people that far exceeds the commonly cited figure of one million people.
From AFP via Yahoo News:
The East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, a Washington-based group that seeks independence for the mostly Muslim region known to China as Xinjiang, said it assessed images from Google Earth and found 182 suspected "concentration camps" which it listed by coordinates.
The group, which said it matched its findings with on-the-ground information, said it also spotted 209 suspected prisons and 74 suspected labor camps which it would share later.
"In large part these have not been previously identified, so we could be talking about far greater numbers" of people detained, said Kyle Olbert, the director of operations for the movement.
"If anything, we are concerned that there may be more facilities that we have not been able to identify," he told a news conference in suburban Washington.
Anders Corr, an analyst who formerly worked in US intelligence and who advised the group, said that around 40 percent of the sites had not been previously reported.
China uses torture and sexual abuse to "forcibly integrate Uighurs into the Han majority, including pressuring Muslims to give up tenets of their faith such as praying and abstaining from pork and alcohol," the report continues.
Follow East Turkistan National Awakening Movement on Twitter.
"Visit NationalAwakening.org/coordinates to download our Google Earth data file detailing China's Concentration Camps in Occupied East Turkistan (so-called "Xinjiang")."
We are releasing the findings of our year-long open-source satellite imagery project at 9:30 AM today & revealing the location of China's system of concentration camps, prisons, & labor camps.
You may tune into the livestream by following us on Facebook.https://t.co/tnBfB5Xx90 pic.twitter.com/NKuzMhU3IZ
- East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (@ETAwakening) November 12, 2019
DATA RELEASE
Visit https://t.co/BYsNUks04R to download our Google Earth data file detailing #China's #ConcentrationCamps in Occupied #EastTurkistan (so-called "#Xinjiang").
More coordinates (of prisons & labor camps) forthcoming.
- East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (@ETAwakening) November 12, 2019
Uighur researchers say China running hundreds more camps https://t.co/ipQ0MmhdaG
- Gen (Ret) Rob Spalding (@robert_spalding) November 12, 2019
Uighur activists said they have documented nearly 500 camps and prisons run by China to detain the ethnic group, alleging that China could be holding far more than the commonly cited figure of one million people https://t.co/TDs1pqUCwf
- AFP news agency (@AFP) November 12, 2019
Outside the Capitol building @ETAwakening is gathering to bring attention to Uyghur repression in #Xinjiang
and to commemorate the anniversary of the establishment of the First and Second East Turkistan Republic pic.twitter.com/2u7PhMeT8L- Emily Molli (@MomesMolli) November 12, 2019
Salih Hudayar of the US @ETAwakening speaks to #ETGE2019. He says, don't fall for China's lies. China is projecting fascism worldwide. Autonomy is a lie. Call East Turkistan by its proper name. Not #Xinjiang. pic.twitter.com/8y1IiXzabj
- Anders Corr, Ph.D. (@anderscorr) November 10, 2019
God knows where are they taking these detained Uyghurs. To kill? Organ harvesting? Slavery labor? Anything could be. pic.twitter.com/AwUzvnXaNg
- Rukiye Turdush (@parlabest) November 7, 2019
Salih Hudayar is a Uyghur-American from East Turkistan. He founded @ETAwakening and shares his own experiences on the growing human rights crisis in China since 9/11. Learn more in this @camforum discussion: https://t.co/9e4kvWZvjj pic.twitter.com/SPxmPh0F7K
- Forum Network (@ForumNetwork) November 7, 2019
In Orwell's 1984, Big Brother is watching you. In China-Occupied #EastTurkistan (what #China calls "#Xinjiang"), big brother is not only watching but he is also sleeping with you. The fictional dystopias which we read about is a reality for the #Uyghurs.pic.twitter.com/rPrWXN6y0R
- Salih Hudayar (@Salih_Hudayar) November 6, 2019
#Xinjiang: Eight @CECCgov Commissioners send bipartisan and bicameral letter to @CBPMarkMorgan seeking import restrictions on forced labor made goods. #Uyghurs https://t.co/pFRXPo3YYB pic.twitter.com/zmcXEYLzlV
- China Commission (@CECCgov) November 5, 2019