Press Releases

07/09/2018

Human rights campaign in Berlin: German-Chinese intergovernmental consultations

Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and Kazakhs illegally imprisoned – Chancellor Merkel must demand closure of reeducation camps! (Press Release)

Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and Kazakhs are imprisoned in reeducation camps where they are brainwashed according to the ideology of the Communist Party. Picture: Hanno Schedler for STP

In the context of a colorful human rights campaign in Berlin, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to use the German-Chinese intergovernmental consultations on Monday to demand a closure of the Chinese reeducation camps in the Uyghur region of Xinjiang. Many Tibetans and Uyghurs who are living in Germany took part in the campaign, which featured intense pictures and accessories. For example, an activist put on an oversized detergent box of “brainwashing powder”, and there were computer monitors showing pictures of President Xi Jinping – symbolizing the total surveillance of the Uyghur population in northwestern China, which will most probably be extended to the rest of the country soon.

According to the STP, hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and Kazakhs are imprisoned in reeducation camps – without a trial – where they are brainwashed according to the ideology of the Communist Party. The detainees have no idea when they will be released, and some of them are even kept in solitary confinement without food and water. According to Radio Free Asia, they are forced to wish President Xi Jinping good health and thank the Communist Party before they get anything to eat. There are reports about prisoners who were tortured or beaten to death.

“We expect the Chancellor to openly and publicly address the Chinese government’s illegal and inhumane policy towards these people,” stated Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director. “70 years after the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Beijing is establishing an unscrupulous and totalitarian rule of arbitrariness and violence – under the eyes of the international community. Germany has a moral obligation to advocate for the imprisoned Uyghurs and Kazakhs and to demand the camps to be closed down. 

“Other governments should denounce Beijing’s repressive policy and remind the Communist Party that the Chinese constitution guarantees religious freedom and protection against arbitrary arrest,” the human rights activist emphasized. In their hometown of Xinjiang, Uyghur people are not allowed to follow their religious rituals and traditions regarding marriage, divorces, or funerals. Thus, weddings have to be supervised by a representative of the CP and a religious representative appointed by the authorities. In September 2017, Muslim families were forced to hand over their copies of the Qur’an and their prayer rugs to the Chinese authorities.