Despite appalling abuses of the Uighur people, the world remains quiet. We must unite to voice our outrageMore than 12 million Muslims have effectively been taken prisoner in their own homeland, an area of north-west China officially referred to as Xinjiang, which means `New Dominion`. For tens of thousands, some estimate as many as one million, the imprisonment is literal. Concerned Xinjiang scholars, such as myself, have helped document and expose the crisis unfolding there through simple but tedious research requiring hundreds of hours scouring Chinese government documents and satellite imagery. Partly as a result of these efforts, a network of huge `concentration re-education centres` in the desert has been revealed. Government officials - who until recently angrily denied their existence - now insist those centres are providing essential vocational training for individuals influenced by the so-called `three evil forces` of extremism, radicalism, and terrorism said to threaten stability in the region. Related: China needs to hear from its peers it cannot commit ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang | Frances Eve Related: `My soul, where are you?`: families of Muslims missing in China meet wall of silence Related: The Guardian view on China´s detention camps: now we see them | Editorial Continue reading...
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