'Break their lineage, break their roots': Report details Chinese authorities’ torture, rape of Uighur Muslims

Human Rights Watch has said in a new report that China is committing crimes against humanity in its treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority and other Turkic Muslims in the northwest region of Xinjiang, with Beijing responsible for “policies of mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution, among other offences”.

“Since at least 2014, the Chinese government has subjected Turkic Muslims to various crimes against humanity, including mass arbitrary detention, torture and deaths in detention, and enforced disappearances,” said Human Rights Watch and the Stanford Law School Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic.

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The report, titled 'Break Their Lineage, Break Their Roots' documented a range of abuses including enforced disappearance; torture; murder; and alleged inhumane acts intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to mental or physical health, notably forced labour and sexual violence.

There were reports of rape being used repeatedly as punishment and torture by authorities, including the use of electric batons. There are disturbing reports of sexual violence against Turkic Muslim women in detention.

According to the report, "The Chinese government’s oppression of Turkic Muslims is not a new phenomenon, but in recent years has reached unprecedented levels. As many as a million people have been arbitrarily detained in 300 to 400 facilities, which include “political education” camps, pretrial detention centres, and prisons. Courts have handed down harsh prison sentences without due process, sentencing Turkic Muslims to years in prison merely for sending an Islamic religious recording to a family member or downloading e-books in Uyghur. Detainees and prisoners are subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, cultural and political indoctrination, and forced labour."

(With inputs from agencies)