The below article was published by Domani and translated from Italian into English via Google Translate, photo credit: Foto Chinatopix via A

• It is the third dossier that the team of lawyers led by Rodney Dixon, who collaborates with the East Turkestan government in exile , has sent to The Hague from 2020 to today and aims to demonstrate that a genocide is underway to the detriment. of the Uyghur minority at the hands of the Beijing authorities.
• Once deported to China, Uighurs are locked up in camps and detention centers, where they are subjected to forced labor as well as degrading treatment and torture.
• According to the recent ” Xinjiang police files ” investigation published in May 2022, the Chinese repressive strategy is decided and approved directly by President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

A new dossier of evidence against China has been submitted to the International Criminal Court. It is the third that the team of lawyers led by Rodney Dixon, who collaborates with the East Turkestan government in exile , has sent to The Hague from 2020 to today and aims to demonstrate that a genocide is underway against the Uyghur minority at the hands of the Beijing authorities.

Legal experts are gathering evidence to bring even states that adhere to its statute ( such as Tajikistan  , Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) to the International Criminal Court and which, according to the indictment, deport Uighurs to China under pressure from the Beijing authorities. . Once in the country, Uighurs are locked up in camps and detention centers, where they are subjected to forced labor as well as degrading treatment and torture.

This is Beijing’s repressive policy, denounced by the European Parliament and various international organizations in defense of human rights, against the Turkish-speaking minority of Islamic origin in Xinjiang. Repression disguised as a fight against radicalism but which actually ends up affecting about one million people, who according to the European Parliament are locked up in forced labor camps and detention centers.

According to the recent ” Xinjiang police files ” investigation published in May 2022, the Chinese repressive strategy is decided and approved directly by President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

THE INTERROGATIONS AND TORTURE

The new evidence is largely based on testimony from a Uyghur who managed to escape from detention and forced labor camps in 2018. He told lawyers that he and other detainees were subjected to lengthy interrogations as well as forced treatment with prescription drugs. they did not know its content and effects. NGOs and lawyers have for years accused the Beijing authorities of controlling births by administering Uyghur women and men to drugs that cause infertility.

The witness also said that he was immediately tortured with electric shocks and was subjected to the “tiger chair”, one of the most used forms of torture and which consists in immobilizing suspects during interrogation in a chair with handcuffs on the legs for several hours or days.

Inside the detention centers, daily announcements threatened detainees that if they escaped abroad, they would not be able to escape state control. On the screens of the detention centers, witnesses say that the images and names of Uyghurs “wanted” outside the country were broadcast. The inmates are promised rewards for any information needed to locate and track down the wanted. Many of these were in Tajikistan, demonstrating, according to lawyers, that China is carrying out deportations from neighboring countries.

PERSECUTION ABROAD

For those who managed to leave the country before being locked up in detention centers, life is not that simple. There is an obsessive scrutiny by Beijing’s secret services who are attempting in various ways to return Uyghurs in exile to their country of origin. “The informants are looking at you. They know where you go, what you buy, how you pray and send messages to China about you, “a source told the lawyers.

The Chinese authorities move according to a precise pattern: first of all the relatives of the victim are contacted and asked to put pressure on their loved ones to return; after which the renewals of passports and visas are refused by consular authorities abroad; and finally, family members in China are also threatened.

Two other Uyghurs who fled Tajikistan and fled to Uzbekistan described the modus operandi of Chinese officials to put pressure on border agents who control airports in Tajikistan and other neighboring states. “We bring you back because you are Uyghurs. It doesn’t matter if you have a valid visa, we must necessarily repatriate you », are the statements of a Tajik policeman reported by the witness heard by Rodney Dixon.

THE ACCUSATIONS

According to the legal team, “this ‘grouping’ strategy is typical of state authorities seeking to destroy all or part of another racial, ethnic or religious group. The strategy has parallels with the plans of other genocides in which victims were rounded up from where they lived and deported to the territory of the perpetrators, where they lived and deported to the territory of the perpetrators, where they would be targeted. “

On June 8, the European Parliament published a motion for a resolution condemning the fact that “the Uyghur community in the People’s Republic of China has been systematically oppressed with brutal measures, including mass deportation, political indoctrination, the separation of families, restrictions on religious freedom, cultural destruction and extensive use of surveillance ».

Hundreds of evidence has been gathered in the last two years, now it is up to the International Criminal Court to find out if it can proceed against Beijing. But it is not easy, given that China has not ratified the statute of the Court and therefore cannot be subjected to its judgment. But by showing that the crimes, in this case deportations, take place in other states that are subject to the judgment of the International Criminal Court, China can be prosecuted. 

“Our time is running out. If the International Criminal Court does not act soon to open this investigation, there may be no more Uighurs to save, ”said the prime minister of the Uyghur government in exile Salih Hudayar.