Leak reveals ‘disturbing’ internment camps in Xinjiang

A human rights organization leaked thousands of documents and pictures on Tuesday of internment camps in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where authorities are holding at least a million members of the Uyghur ethnic minority in prison-like facilities for supposed educational purposes.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation released the trove of documents and images — what it’s calling the Xinjiang Police Files, taken from internal police and government sources in China — and compiled it into a website where users can scroll through what appears to be evidence of unjust detainment of the predominately Muslim Uyghur population for the purposes of a mass internment.

Overall, the Xinjiang Police Files includes more than 2,800 pictures of detainees, more than 300,000 personal records, more than 23,000 detainee records and upward of 10 camp police instructions.

The files also reveal Beijing believes more than 2 million Uyghurs have “extremist thought” and need to be reeducated. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation estimates between 1 million and 2 million Uyghurs are detained in the Xinjiang facilities.

The 2,884 photographs of detainees were taken in the first half of 2018 at police stations and detention centers in the southern region of Xinjiang.

There are also hundreds of images of police guards conducting training drills in Xinjiang facilities that appear to show a brutal enforcement policy against the Uyghurs involving physical violence and violent restraint methods.

Adrian Zenz, a director and senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, analyzed and authenticated the documents before writing a paper published in the Journal for the European Association for Chinese Studies.

In a statement, Zenz said “these findings are significant because they provide us with frank policy implementation directives along with the thought processes and intentions that made them a reality.”

“This gives an unprecedented look into the personal attitudes of Chinese authorities and the personal involvement of Xi Jinping,” Zenz said, naming the leader of the People’s Republic of China. “Documents with this kind of insight have never before been published and their revelations are very disturbing.”

China calls its facilities reeducation “training centers” designed to help nationalize a Muslim population following deadly terrorist attacks, but the facilities and mass detention of a targeted population have long been criticized as violating human rights laws.

The U.S. has accused China of genocide and forced labor in Xinjiang and recently passed measures curbing trade to the region.

The Xinjiang Police Files leak comes as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is set to visit the Xinjiang capital this week as part of a trip to document what is happening.

Also in the files leaked on Tuesday are key documents showing what appears to be Chinese authorities speaking about the campaign to reeducate the Uyghurs.

One document shows that in 2017, the year China began rolling out its reeducation programs, former Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo called to treat ethnic minorities as dangerous criminals and said they should be placed in camps.

Chen also said to shoot anyone who tries to escape from the camps, according to a document of a speech he made that year. Leaked police files show security guards in watchtowers are armed with sniper rifles and are trained to fire a warning shot before opening fire.

Other documents reveal that detainees are cuffed, shackled and hooded when moved or transferred.

In a June 2018 speech, Chen makes clear the camps were authorized by the government in Beijing, according to documents.

Andrew Bremberg, president and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, said the files “prove that China’s so-called vocational training centers are really prisons.”

“These documents conclusively demonstrate that Beijing has been lying about its gross human rights violations in Xinjiang,” Bremberg said in a statement. “The international community must take immediate and concrete action to hold China accountable for these atrocities.”