SHAH ALAM – A United Nations (UN) report released on Aug 31, this year, revealed that there are one to three million Uyghurs detained in concentration camps in Xinjiang.
International Union of East Turkistan Organisation secretary-general Abduresid Eminhaci said China has been denying the existence of concentration camps in Xinjiang until 2019.
He said China’s justification for establishing the camps was to "battle against extremism", however the UN report stated that China did not clarify the term "extremism” specifically.
"All the characteristics said to be "extremism” by China only targets the ethnic Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in East Turkistan.
"It is not about extremism but it is about the cultural and religious identity of that specific group,” he said in an exclusive interview with Sinar Daily on its Fireside Chat programme.
The programme moderated by Zaidi Azmi discussed about the Uyghur-Chinese conflict.
Abduresid said Uyghurs were simply being imprisoned for wearing hijab, having a beard, learning to read the Quran and even returning from performing pilgrimage (umrah) in Makkah.
To him, the concentration camps were China’s strategy of assimilation and genocide so that the Uyghurs and other ethnic groups would abandon their religious and cultural identity.
"China said within these 70 years, we (China) have not assimilated them enough so we will do it in 10 years so that by 2030, there will be no Uyghurs or other ethnic groups,” he said.
He said there had also been accounts of what happened in the concentration camps by survivors which included torture, murder, mass rape of Uyghur prisoners by the police.
Meanwhile, East Turkistan Human Rights Watch Association president Nurmuhammad Majid said the reality of Uyghur Muslims was beyond the comprehension of the simple-minded.
"I’m not making these statements up based on my emotions, but this is based on substantial evidence from findings from the international community as well as leaked Chinese legal documents,” he said.
He said the leaked satellite images have also shown mass abduction of young Uyghur men shackled and blindfolded to be taken to unknown locations.
He also said there was an isle at the Kashgar Airport designated for organ harvesting and transportation purposes.
Adding to the long list of humanitarian crimes committed against the Uyghur community by the Chinese government, Nurmuhammad said there were also reports on female sterilisation, sexual harassment against women and abduction of children.
"That is why I said life over there, (we have) no freedom, no movement, no rights, no travel, no speech.
"It means that we are simply waiting to be slaughtered,” he said.
Nurmuhammad said East Turkistan was located in the Central Asian region housing the Uyghur Muslim natives.
He said they have been under the occupation of the Chinese government since 1949 and the land was renamed to Xinjiang, a Chinese term for the "New Territory".
Until today, he said the Uyghurs and other ethnic groups were believed to be suffering as their human rights were violated under the oppression of the Chinese government through its assimilation policy.
He said the majority of the Uyghur Muslims still resided in East Turkistan but there were also Uyghur diasporas around the world in Central Asia, Turkiye, Middle Eastern countries, Europe, United States, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of Japan.