Xinjiang has launched a vocational education and training program according to the law,” Mr. Zakir said. “Its purpose is to get rid of the environment and soil that breeds terrorism and religious extremism.”
Mr. Zakir did not say how many Muslims had been sent to the camps, but he appeared to acknowledge for the first time that people were being held against their will in the facilities for months or years at a time.
He said the program dealt with people suspected of wrongdoing that fell short of requiring criminal convictions, and that they received “graduation certificates” only after signing agreements and meeting certain criteria. Some detainees, he said, were being prepared for release and assignment to jobs at the end of 2018.
Omurbek Eli, a businessman who has described his time held in a camp in 2017, scoffed at Mr. Zakir’s description of the indoctrination centers as “colorful” places where students play basketball, watch movies and join in singing contests. His experience, he said, was far harsher, involving long days of marching, singing patriotic Chinese songs and memorizing Chinese laws.
“They’re full of nonsense,” Mr. Eli, who is originally from Xinjiang and obtained Kazakh citizenship, said by telephone. “They say that these camps are to eradicate terrorism, but inside I saw lawyers, doctors, intellectuals, even officials who had nothing to do with extremism,” he said. “They call these vocational training centers, but it was really a prison.”
Mr. Zakir’s comments appeared to be part of China’s preparations for an international meeting that could put the camps under further scrutiny. At a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in early November, foreign governments will have a chance to question officials from Beijing about the detention program and other intrusive security measures affecting Muslim minorities.
and, not without it's own pinch of irony...
“In China, the government is engaged in the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities that is straight out of George Orwell,” Nikki Haley, who recently stepped down as the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said on Monday, according to Fox News. “It is the largest internment of civilians in the world today.”
Past discussions: https://tildes.net/~news/5o0/china_is_treating_islam_like_a_mental_illness https://tildes.net/~news/66f/china_is_detaining_muslims_in_vast_numbers_the_goal_transformation...
and, not without it's own pinch of irony...
Past discussions:
https://tildes.net/~news/5o0/china_is_treating_islam_like_a_mental_illness
https://tildes.net/~news/66f/china_is_detaining_muslims_in_vast_numbers_the_goal_transformation
https://tildes.net/~misc/4lc/gene_a_bunin_how_the_happiest_muslims_in_the_world_are_coping_with_their_happiness