China: Human rights action in Berlin - Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and Kazakhs illegally imprisoned

In the scope of a colorful human rights campaign, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) will ask Chancellor Angela Merkel to use the German-Chinese intergovernmental consultations next Monday to demand a closure of the reeducation camps in the region of Xinjiang, which is mainly inhabited by Uyghurs.

The STP’s vigil – which will be supported by Tibetans and Uyghurs living in Germany – will feature intense pictures and accessories. For example, an activist will put on an oversized detergent box of “brainwashing powder”, and computer monitors with pictures of President Xi Jinping will symbolize the total surveillance of the Uyghur population in northwestern China.

“Currently, hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and Kazakhs are locked up in reeducation camps, where they are brainwashed. The government doesn’t seem to care that detention centers like this are against the Chinese laws. This is inhumane!” warned STP-employee Hanno Schedler. Further, he warned: First, a police state was established in Tibet. Now, Xinjiang is installing an apparatus of total surveillance. This will intensify the tensions between the Uyghurs, the Kazakhs, and the majority population of the Han Chinese.”

In the scope of the vigil, the human rights activists will also emphasize that the Chinese constitution guarantees religious freedom in Tibet. “The Dalai Lama will turn 83 on July 6, and many Tibetans want to honor their spiritual leader,” says Schedler. “However, the Chinese authorities are taking measures against this: it is still forbidden to show pictures of the Dalai Lama – and there are harsh punishments.”

Header Picture: Gustavo Jeronimo via Flickr