Uighur treatment by China amounts to 'Genocide' says formal legal text - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15155567
The Independent wrote:Accusations levelled at the Chinese government of genocide against the Uighur Muslim minority in the far western Xinjiang region are “very credible”, according to a formal legal opinion produced in the UK.

The text published by London-based Essex Court Chambers states there is a “plausible” argument that the country’s president, Xi Jinping, is himself responsible for the action, which has seen more than a million people, including Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups, imprisoned in a vast network of concentration camps, human rights groups say.

Commissioned by the Global Legal Action Network, the World Uighur Congress and the Uighur Human Rights Project, the legal opinion – first reported by the BBC – describes how the minority group has been subject to “enslavement, torture, rape, enforced sterilisation and persecution”.

Victims have been "forced to remain in stress positions for an extended period of time, beaten, deprived of food, shackled and blindfolded”, it said.

“On the basis of the evidence we have seen, this Opinion concludes that there is a very credible case that acts carried out by the Chinese government against the Uighur people in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region amount to crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide.

"China as a State may be accused of being criminally responsible for genocide. There would be a high threshold for establishing such responsibility. The most significant barrier will be proving the requisite special intent."

The legal team state they have seen “prolific credible evidence” of sterilisation procedures carried out on women, including forced abortions, saying they “clearly constitute a form of genocidal conduct”.

And the text says there is a “credible case” against President Xi as well as Chen Quanguo, party secretary in Xinjiang, and Zhu Hailun, the deputy secretary of Xinjiang's people's congress.

“Mr Xi controls the overall direction of state policy and has made a range of speeches exhorting the punitive treatment of the Uighurs,” the opinion states.

“Mr Chen and Mr Zhu have acted upon that overall policy by devising and implementing the measures ... including mass detention and surveillance.

“We consider that there is a credible case against each of these three individuals for crimes against humanity.

"China is a tightly controlled single-party state. It is therefore highly unlikely that an attack on the scale of that which the evidence reveals, and especially systematic detention on such a scale, would be carried out by state authorities other than on the orders of senior state officials."

The opinion, which took six months to produce and considered a vast array of evidence including from survivors and leaked government papers, could be used by British judges in any future case relating to the treatment of Uighurs in China.

The outgoing Trump administration ruled last month that China's policies on Muslims and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang constituted a “genocide” and introduced further sanctions.

Last week the State Department – this time under the Biden administration – said it was “deeply disturbed” by reports of sexual abuse against women in internment camps in Xinjiang.

People have been subjected to torture, sterilisation and political indoctrination in addition to forced labour as part of an assimilation campaign in a region whose inhabitants are ethnically and culturally distinct from the Han Chinese majority.

China has denied all the charges and says the camps are for “re-education” purposes, to promote economic and social development in the region and to stamp out radicalism.

In May, an independent tribunal will be held in the UK to establish whether the Chinese government's alleged rights abuses against Uighur Muslims constitute genocide.

Researchers for the tribunal have been sifting through 1,500 documents and pieces of evidence ahead of a public hearing set to begin on 7 May in central London.

Organisers said they had written to the former and current Chinese ambassadors to London to request the Chinese government's presence and cooperation, but so far received no response.
#15155568
Accusations....legal opinion produced in the UK


Nice they put that in the first sentence. I was all ready to dispute their 'findings', no need now, skimmed the rest. You'd think they'd start with the 'evidence' instead of burying some flimsy claims by the usual suspects they call that way down in the article.

Britain needs to finally let go of its boner for hong kong, it's getting sad.
Last edited by Igor Antunov on 08 Feb 2021 12:27, edited 1 time in total.
#15155569
The Independent wrote:Accusations levelled at the Chinese government of genocide against the Uighur Muslim minority in the far western Xinjiang region are “very credible”, according to a formal legal opinion produced in the UK.

....

Commissioned by the Global Legal Action Network, the World Uighur Congress and the Uighur Human Rights Project

“Mr Xi controls the overall direction of state policy and has made a range of speeches exhorting the punitive treatment of the Uighurs,” the opinion states.

“Mr Chen and Mr Zhu have acted upon that overall policy by devising and implementing the measures ... including mass detention and surveillance.

“We consider that there is a credible case against each of these three individuals for crimes against humanity.

"China is a tightly controlled single-party state. It is therefore highly unlikely that an attack on the scale of that which the evidence reveals, and especially systematic detention on such a scale, would be carried out by state authorities other than on the orders of senior state officials."
#15155570
'Accusations'.

We can accuse French government of the same thing, the same anti-extremist policies - except there is some actual, documented evidence there.

Chinese government official stance on this circus is to encourage foreigners and tourists to visit xinjiang. No permit or tour group necessary. Of course the first advisory from any western consulate is 'don't go there, it's dangerous...imaginary unrest and genocide'.

Covid notwithstanding, buy a plane ticket and go investigate these schoo... *cough* concentration camps that seem to close down and let everybody out on weekends. Sigh.
#15155571
Interesting & hair-raising stuff, sample just by looking around the Uighur Human Rights Project.

UHRP wrote:The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) has released a new report examining Chinese state-produced proof-of-life-style videos of Uyghur individuals and families in East Turkistan.

In “The Government Never Oppresses Us": China’s proof-of-life videos as intimidation and a violation of Uyghur family unity, UHRP identifies and analyzes observable patterns in state-produced portrayals of missing Uyghurs. The scripts deny any problems or suffering, and many go on to criticize those who have raised their voices demanding information and freedom for their incommunicado Uyghur relatives.

“Coerced proof-of-life videos inflict further anguish on Uyghur families abroad. It is clear the people in the videos are forced to participate under threat of further punishment and brutality. Countless Uyghurs overseas cannot contact our loved ones in East Turkistan,” said UHRP Executive Director, Omer Kanat. “These scripts are absurd.”

The videos are part of a Chinese state media counter-narrative, responding to campaigns by Uyghurs overseas demanding freedom for their missing relatives. In addition, some video scripts also contain specific denials of documented atrocity crimes against Uyghurs, such as forced labor, breakup of families, and religious persecution.

The staged videos also serve as a tool of misinformation, intimidation, and fear directed at the overseas Uyghur community. They remind overseas Uyghurs that their loved ones are subject to totalizing control, pressuring them not to continue speaking publicly.

In 2021, the Chinese government appears to be doubling down on its strategy of coercing Uyghurs to make videos claiming they are not oppressed. Materials shared by AP reporter Dake Kang show instructions sent to Xinjiang government workers, telling them to find Uyghurs in their workplaces and record short video clips denouncing the January 19 U.S. genocide determination.

Orchestrated videos are not valid proof of Uyghur freedom but instead further proof of Chinese state culpability for atrocity crimes. Relatives of the victims featured in the scripted clips are still not able to freely contact any of their family members, neighbors, and classmates.

“The Chinese state is tearing Uyghur families apart,” Kanat continued in a statement. “Our relatives have disappeared or been taken away to concentration camps and long prison terms. Our nieces and nephews are taken away to prison-like state orphanages and boarding schools. Officials punish people who express their Uyghur identity through our language, culture and religion.”

“This research exposes the Chinese government’s staged responses to Uyghurs outspoken about their missing family members. In what world is it acceptable that communication between a parent and child is mediated through a state-produced proof-of-life video?” added Kanat.

Title draws from interviews and media, academic, and NGO reports to analyze the themes, impacts, and implications of Chinese state proof-of-life videos.

UHRP calls on the CCP to free all victims of mass detention, and make public and transparent its records on the treatment and whereabouts of all victims of its genocidal policies, including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other peoples who are being held in detention centers, internment camps, prisons, forced-labor settings, or house arrest.

“Denial of private and unfettered contact between family members is a denial of basic humanity and an integral part of its genocidal policies. We urge governments and global human rights bodies to demand an end to the genocide, and accountability and restitution for these crimes.” said UHRP’s Omer Kanat.


https://docs.uhrp.org/pdf/POLVReportFin ... -01-29.pdf


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In February 2019, Chinese government officials released the first ever proof-of-life video featuring a Uyghur. The recording was an
attempt to discredit international news reports that renowned musician Abdurehim Heyit had died in state custody. Hostage-style proof-of-life videos featuring Uyghur subjects have proliferated in the two years since. This report identifies and analyzes observable patterns in these state-produced portrayals of missing Uyghurs, arguing that heavily orchestrated proof-of-life videos are not valid proof of Uyghur freedom but instead further proof of Chinese state culpability for atrocity crimes.

The subjects of these proof-of-life videos are often, though not always, the family members of Uyghur activists who live outside their
homeland, East Turkistan (AKA “Xinjiang”). What these diaspora activists often have in common is that they are all campaigning or have in the past campaigned for missing relatives in East Turkistan, whom they fear have disappeared into some form of extralegal, extrajudicial state custody. Uyghur activists are motivated by a desire to demand information about the safety, wellbeing, and whereabouts of their relatives and friends. Chinese state media has responded to the activism of some Uyghurs with a proof-of-life video, often as a tool of misinformation, intimidation, and fear.

This report draws from videos and interviews, as well as media, academic, and NGO reports to describe and analyze the themes, impacts, and implications of proof-of-life videos. The introduction (p. 2) describes the features of proof-of-life videos in further detail. Section II (p. 6) describes and analyzes these features in close detail, showing that many of the videos follow observable patterns, which suggests that they are heavily scripted and dictated not by the subjects of the videos themselves. Section III (p. 17) explores the development of these videos over time, noting how the characteristics have evolved in reaction to diplomatic events. Section IV (p. 25) amplifies the stories of those Uyghur activists whose family members have been depicted in proof-of-life videos, exploring the impacts of the videos on the very people they are meant to silence. Finally, Section V (p. 32) situates the deployment of the videos by the Chinese government in Chinese and international law.

The report concludes with targeted recommendations to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), international political actors, and Uyghur activists themselves (p. 39). We ask that the CCP make public and transparent its records on the whereabouts of detainees, including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other peoples who are being held in detention centers, internment camps, prisons, forced-labor settings, or under house arrest. This simple step would allow Uyghur activists to know where their loved ones are while also satisfying international norms regarding the safe treatment and well-being of detained individuals.

We recommend that members of the international community take proof-of-life videos seriously as hostage-style videos that attempt to libel and discredit Uyghur activists abroad. In its goal to be a world superpower, the CCP has initiated a drive to present its policies in East Turkistan as positive. The CCP cares about its international reputation, and the international community must leverage this fact to promote positive change.


Imagine being an Uyghur and trying to contact your family back home and not being able to, while at the same time suffering the inability to go back and do something about it.

It must be terrible being a Uyghur.
#15155579
noemon wrote:Interesting & hair-raising stuff, sample just by looking around the Uighur Human Rights Project.

The "Uyghur Human Rights Project" is a Washington DC-based lobby group that effectively acts as an arm of the US State Department. 30 seconds looking at its "about us" page reveals that its senior people primarily come from Radio Free Asia and the National Endowment for Democracy. The same goes for the "World Uyghur Congress", which also receives funding from the NED.

I do wish you'd think a little more critically about the sources you cite.

As for how important it is that they paid some barristers to produce a "formal legal opinion" backing them up, so what? That's quite literally the entire point of barristers. They represent the people who are paying them. :lol:
#15155580
The UHRP's report documents real people, real Uyghurs.

Something being 'Washington-based' does not undo the findings of the report.

It's funny how after most countries are buckling under the weight of China and are refusing to report anything negative, washington-based has become the only avenue for the Uyghur people to express themselves without hindrance of censorship.

It should be noted though that the World Uyghur Congress who also commissioned the report is in Munich, Germany.

https://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/

What is happening to the Uyghurs is an atrocity.
#15155581
noemon wrote:The UHRP's report documents real people, real Uyghurs.

Something being 'Washington-based' does not undo the findings of the report.

Not necessarily undo, but it should give us grounds to proceed with extreme skepticism and caution. We've already seen in the other thread how these reports are typically based on the work of Adrian Zenz, and evangelical Christian lunatic with a somewhat idiosyncratic approach to the truth.

And there's important context here. The US is currently in a bit of an embarrassing bind because of Pompeo's accusation of "genocide" against China on his way out of office. The Biden administration can't simply disavow it outright (even though it was a transparent bit of sloganeering with no content), because that would involve admitting that the US government often uses bullshit emotive language. But at the same time, I think it's unlikely that Biden really wants to pursue the "genocide" accusation to its logical conclusion, because that would require the US to (at the very least) cut off all diplomatic relations with China, or even go to war, based on its own alleged "principles".

So, getting some State Department front organisations to commission a sympathetic report in an allied country, with the important caveat that "There would be a high threshold for establishing such responsibility. The most significant barrier will be proving the requisite special intent" seems like an attempt to get around this.

The effect of the report is to allow the US to say: "We weren't talking out of our arses, this UK law firm agrees! But they also recognise there's nothing we can really do".

As with all similar cases, when the side producing the atrocity propaganda has an obvious agenda, we should proceed with caution. It's also why you should never trust everything that comes out of a war zone.
#15155600
noemon wrote:The Uyghur people's suffering is independent of conspiracy theories about the US and the UK.

Sorry, what's the "conspiracy theory" here? You use that term very liberally when people disagree with you. Apparently, in this case, it is a "conspiracy theory" to think that an organisation which receives funding from the US State Department might exist to advance the interests of the US State Department.

Believe it or not, sometimes state-funded NGOs have an agenda, and use the media to advance that agenda. Dismissing people who point this out as "conspiracy theorists" is babyish.
#15155604
noemon wrote:What is happening to the Uyghurs is an atrocity.


I do sympathize with the Uyghurs mass "reinstitutionalization", altho I think as such is way less brainwashing than in guantanamo, at least from what could be seen, tho in gitmo maybe harsher coz less will for longer humane rebranding [1][1] this said we can see that there is no exception in the approach of the modern empires when they stumble on some national treat ... now if we compare the relative size of China with Turkey this Uyghur destiny is similar to the Kurd one "Murat Celikkan, Director of Hafiza Merkezi, stated, ‘The HDP are a legal Kurdish party, with around 10,000 members imprisoned." [1]

I am not saying this so I can relativize the Uyghur suffering, but just point that the chinese are not some special case exemption but just proof of the rule If You Are Becoming Dissident Dont Object what will happen as response to the freedome-fighting will, not that they are executed en-masse like corruptioners or drug dealers on stadiums, but even forceful conditioning is wrong tho as dissidents in such huge empire they should be aware that the chinese response is not at all strange, even mild probably because China is interdependent on the foreign investment so think even have loosen its earlier way of calming social risks, and for sure its not even close to the stiff japanese prison resocialization [1][1]

https://youtu.be/WmId2ZP3h0c

what is terrifying smell in the air from all this, which is result of the current prowestern mindset among Uighurs [1] is blueprint for reshaping of any future nwo dissidents, that think will be reconditioned even in more harsh manner probably lobotomized with nanobots or similar eeg stimulations what some say even now to some extent is happening on west as forcible involuntary experimental NeuroLinguistic Programming [1]
#15155608
Heisenberg wrote:Believe it or not, sometimes state-funded NGOs have an agenda, and use the media to advance that agenda. Dismissing people who point this out as "conspiracy theorists" is babyish.


Believe it or not the Uyghur people are suffering.

Conspiracy theories about the US and the UK do not change this fact.
#15155612
noemon wrote:Believe it or not the Uyghur people are suffering.

Conspiracy theories about the US and the UK does not change this fact.

I guess it fell on deaf ears last time, so I'll try again.
Heisenberg wrote:Sorry, what's the "conspiracy theory" here? You use that term very liberally when people disagree with you.

:)
#15155623
this logic of mine its not so accurate, and Turks are not even nearly comparable with Chinese ... still such oppression is not humane, altho QatzelOk has point in both cases as minorities they are misused coz geopolitical agendas, thus the solution lies elsewhere, in case of Uyghurs western spinn so it would be challenged China to be more cooperative on global level, not that someone will steal their Coal golden Valley somehow ...

    Odiseizam wrote: now if we compare the relative size of China with Turkey this Uyghur destiny is similar to the Kurd one "Murat Celikkan, Director of Hafiza Merkezi, stated, ‘The HDP are a legal Kurdish party, with around 10,000 members imprisoned." [1]

maybe possible solution would be chinese bilateral treaty with Turkey Turkmenistan Kazakhstan or Afghanistan for resettlement of uyghgur-separatists, logically with economic support for new settlements and local economy, but in that case what would say the rest of the residents in the "vocational education camps" all around China, so this is partial solution and just wishful idea , maybe similar global deal could become more doable, but again who will guarantee who indeed is criminal or separatist and who just folklorist!?
#15155625
Heisenberg wrote:Ah, so you can't even tell me what my "nonsensical conspiracy theory" is.


Your "conspiracy theory" is that basically all Western media are fooled by a single biased source or are outright fabricating this stuff. Unlike some people here I trust certain newspapers I read. I don't think the journalists there are stupid or controlled by evil America.
#15155629
@QatzelOk why I have started to think like You, this is called unconscious self'brainbashing!

    Odiseizam wrote:maybe possible solution would be chinese bilateral treaty with Turkey Turkmenistan Kazakhstan or Afghanistan for resettlement of uyghgur-separatists, logically with economic support for new settlements and local economy, but in that case what would say the rest of the residents in the "vocational education camps" all around China, so this is partial solution and just wishful idea , maybe similar global deal could become more doable, but again who will guarantee who indeed is criminal or separatist and who just folklorist!?
#15155633
Rugoz wrote:Your "conspiracy theory" is that basically all Western media are fooled by a single biased source or are outright fabricating this stuff. Unlike some people here I trust certain newspapers I read. I don't think the journalists there are stupid or controlled by evil America.


Effective propaganda doesn't require journalists to be "controlled by evil America" (a silly caricature of my position). It works much more subtly: the treatment of obviously biased sources (UHRP, WUC) as not only unbiased, but above criticism; and the assumption that recycling those sources' claims in a western newspaper automatically gives them credibility.

To give one example I came across recently in the Guardian, a 50-year old Uyghur woman, claiming to be an "escapee", said among other things that she had been given a "sterilisation injection" under the guise of a vaccine. Unless I've missed some massive medical breakthrough in the last couple of years, "sterilisation injections" literally do not exist, so this claim cannot possibly be true. And yet there it is, in an article in a reputable newspaper, unquestioned, and will no doubt be cited as evidence of China's "genocidal" intent.

We saw exactly the same thing happen in the run-up to the Iraq war, when the Bush administration fed its talking points to Judith Miller, who uncritically reported them in the New York Times, only for the Bush administration to then cite the New York Times when making its case for war.

Her infamous "aluminium tubes" story was a lie when her sources fed it to her; it was a lie when it was plastered on the front page of the New York Times, and it was a lie when Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld subsequently appeared on TV to cite it in support of their case for war. But the fact it had been reported by a "reputable" newspaper like the New York Times made it appear credible. We're seeing the same thing happen with the Xinjiang "genocide" claims, but this time the newspapers often aren't even pretending to do the reporting themselves. Dig beneath the surface, and the original source almost always seems to be a State Department-backed NGO, Radio Free Asia, or God forbid, Adrian Zenz.

So when I say "proceed with skepticism and extreme caution" in reference to US State Department-backed sources, it's for good reason. I don't think it's fair to dismiss it as a "nonsensical conspiracy theory", especially when the US government is actively using these allegations to ramp up a new Cold War against China, which it wants to pursue regardless of China's policy in Xinjiang.

When it comes to this stuff, I always remember Noam Chomsky's response to Andrew Marr when Marr asked him if he thought journalists were told what to think by their bosses.

“I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying. But what I’m saying is that if you believe something different, you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re sitting.”
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