a new report from a u.s based think tank
claims
authorities in china's northwest are
forcing hundreds of thousands of ethnic
minorities
to work in the region's cotton fields
xinjiang in china's
northwest produces about 20 percent of
the world's cotton
cotton that is potentially making its
way into the manufacturing chains
of major world retailers now you'll
probably remember xinjiang from the
numerous times
we have reported on chinese re-education
camps
where experts believe some one million
ethnic
uyghur kazakh and other muslim
minorities
have been interned as a
counter-terrorism measure
inmates who've been released have
complained of torture
beatings and indoctrination in chinese
communist party thought
here's more
scenes of a family outing
her husband tursunjan and their little
daughter bayan are in turkey
a safe location for now
but for guzira a normal life is still
far away
she says she does not feel safe anywhere
i still wake up from nightmares in which
i see myself in a chinese internment
camp again
the images and memories of the
interrogations of the beatings
and the things they did to women there
haunt me i then feel sick for a few days
and i can't sleep
i argue with my family i even think
about hurting myself
in 2017 gozira aolhan was arrested in
xinjiang china's westernmost region
she's an ethnic cousin born in china and
was living in kazakhstan at the time
on a trip back to china she was detained
by police and then held for a year
in several re-education camps
they tortured us they had cameras
everywhere you were not allowed to pause
scratch your head or cry if they saw
that they would force you onto a metal
chair
they would make you sit there for 12
hours 24 hours
you were tied to the chair and if you
tried to move it would get tighter
then they make you repeat chinese words
that you didn't know
if you forgot them they used an
electroshock device on your head
back in kazakhstan her family did not
know where she was
at the same time authorities in china
suddenly started to detain large numbers
of the region's muslim minorities the
local government sought to portray the
camps as vocational training centers
the training centers are not at all like
some media have described them
students are not mistreated and their
personal freedoms are not limited
these are schools that help improve
people's personal qualities
i traveled to the region to look for
myself one of the camps kozira was taken
to
was middle school number four of guljah
county
satellite imagery shows how in 2018 a
high wall was built around the school
and huts were built in the courtyard
today the school is back to what it was
china has declared that all trainees had
graduated
a claim that is hard to verify
another facility where she was held sits
just around the corner
it is officially called a vocational
technical school
it was built in 2017 a high wall was
later taken down
and replaced with a fence its name is
not found on educational websites
official reports highlight that all
trainees were farmers and herdsmen from
surrounding villages
in this area that means mostly ethnic
minorities
it is impossible to know under what
circumstances they attend the school
and while this does not look like a high
security prison
the gates are closed the young men walk
quietly in lines
before entering the building they
undergo a quick body check
i am stopped by my minders you can't
stick a foot with this
guzira also told us that many of her
former inmates were later transferred to
regular prisons on the outskirts of
gulja
are two more facilities
there are now five policemen following
me
a prison with watchtowers and another
camp were both built in 2017
when the campaign against ethnic
minorities took off
stop stop
if you film here we will have to take
measures against you
this place is a state secret
kozira stayed more than a year in the
camp but even after she was officially
released her ordeal continued
on our way back we pass an industrial
complex
gazero was sent to work here after her
release
state tv showcases the factory as a
model
of successful poverty eradication
i'm getting free food and accommodation
it is very good
these videos are a show off to the
outside world their message is
our nation is good people are being
helped to make a living
but no one works there voluntarily many
women inside cried a lot there is no
freedom
there are cameras everywhere they
threaten you
if you refuse to work here you will go
learning
we were working there because of fear
to go learning means being sent back to
the camp
was told she was detained because she
had been to kazakhstan
that was seen as a sign of being
disloyal to china
more and more observers are now calling
what is happening in the region
a genocide after reports of forced birth
control
sterilization and abortions in the camp
gauzier recalls
the inmates were administered injections
of an unknown substance
after the injection some women stopped
having their periods
those who still had it were given one
pad they had to use it for two or three
days
if their period would come it would come
if not not we stopped being ashamed
about it
at some point we even stopped thinking
of home most of us had stopped crying by
then
is one of the lucky ones she was finally
allowed to leave
after her husband had campaigned for her
in kazakhstan
she has no news from her relatives in
the region
and for more i'm joined by dolkhun issa
he's president of the world
uighur congress mr isa china's
actions in these re-education camps have
been reported on
and well documented for many years now
do you think the world has acted
sufficiently against this
well uh as you said evidence of
genocide is increasingly recognized uh
by the white republic and the several of
the report
but unfortunately is yes there is
some international reaction just
speaking
talking but we haven't seen any real
action to stop this wiggle genocide it
is the problem
so that's why we call them to the
internationally particularly
western governments to establish
investigation
to ensure that appropriately legal
determination regarding the natural
and allegations atrocity
but yes we have seen only the u.s
government did some concrete action some
sanction against the chinese government
uh
high-level official chinese communist
party high-level official who
has direct lead for the this will
genocide
first level of this concentration camp
but
uh as so far we haven't seen any
concrete action from the
particular european countries or some
other country it
is the problem that's like chinese
government continue
uh continually and implement this
uh atrocity and the genocide against
ubers
earlier on you said that the genocide
against the uyghur people has been
internationally recognized
yet despite that the international
criminal court
has said it can't pursue a case against
china
for the internment of weakers and other
ethnic minorities
do you think that legitimizes china's
claims that these camps are just
vocational training centers
well ict international criminal code
yes this is a very disappointed decision
very pity this is decision but this is a
process of
international court legal process china
uh is not a member of the international
account this is the reason so so we can
understand this
but other international uh body
international organization should be
take action
politically and legal action so that's
why there is a one if there is
only option this public uh
independent people's tribunal will be
accountable for the china
so no and then september beginning of
the september this year
uh we will try good all was established
in
london uh international lawyer
jeffrey knights he set up the
independent people's tribunal so we hope
this is the only way you know that
independent tribunal can
take accountable of chinese atrocities
against rivers meanwhile there are also
now new revelations that
ethnic minorities in xinjiang are being
forced into picking cotton
in the region and cotton that is making
its way into global supply chains
is this something that requires action
from the international community
yeah sure this is this is the link
between modern
day slavery and the genocide some cannot
be separately
this is one of the evidence of
what agency chinese government doing
genocide today
and hundreds of thousands of weavers
used to force
labor in so many western companies
continue use the ubers and
we were detainer to use the first labor
and the chief level modern slavery
so that's why we call the whole
government
and the particularly western government
and the company should not
be support should not be supported
chinese
this crime against humanity genocide
genocide
so but uh so far so many investment
companies continue to make business it
is not correct time to business as usual
so that's why uh the company should be
stopped the business with china
and they should to stop the uh use the
first labor of the uber
so it is the only way to stop china
dolconisa we'll leave it there thank you
so much for joining us
i thank you for having me and joining me
now is matthias bolinger who you heard
from in that report in fact matias
you've just returned from the region
what were your impressions
it's very difficult to work in that
region you are trailed all the time by
playing
police in some cities they would just
follow you at a distance and
interfere as we have seen also in this
report
when you approach a site that they don't
want to see you in other places they
will really follow you
like very closely like standing right
next to you watching your phone all the
time
preventing you from even filming
innocent scenes on the street
um so it's very difficult when you
talk to somebody they will also talk to
these people at one point i
a man on the street saw me filming and
he waved at me and
and and showed the chinese flag and said
that he was a patriot and then asked me
inside his shop
a small restaurant and when i left this
shop
the police immediately went in and asked
him what he had been
uh telling me so very much uh signs that
the message is being controlled also the
movement is being controlled um
we we saw a family in your piece who is
now
in turkey how unusual is that for people
to be able to leave
there are about 12 million ethnic
minorities muslim ethnic minorities
in the region mostly uyghurs and kazakhs
and
very few of them have been able to leave
the region especially in the past
three years since the campaign started
their passports have been confiscated
there are about a few dozen people who
have been to the camps
who are now abroad very few of them talk
to western media because
they have relatives abroad and they fear
that their relatives might endure
repercussions
if they talk to the media so
most of those who have been able to
leave the country are people like
gulzira who
had family in kazakhstan and whose
family
had campaigned for her meantime
we've heard the international criminal
court will not take up
the case over treatment of uyghurs
because china is not a signatory
but the pressure is growing on beijing
how is it affecting policy in the
country
it's very hard to say how it's affecting
policy it is affecting
let's say public relations work of
beijing in the beginning they denied
that the camp existed at all
then they called them vocational
training centers they have also closed
some or
desecuritized others so they look more
like
schools like what they are saying they
are but it's very hard
to uh uh conclude from that or we cannot
conclude from that
that the oppression against the
minorities
is over we still hear a lot of reports
about uh
repression we see while while some of
the camps have been closed we see
prisons have been
expanded matthias bollinger reporting
from
china thank you so much for bringing us
that report
you