Videos purportedly showing hundreds of prisoners in China with their heads shaved, their hands bound behind their back and blindfolds over their faces prisoners in a mostly Muslim region of China is believed to be authentic, a European security source confirms
The videos, posted anonymously on Twitter and YouTube Tuesday, appears to show hundreds of prisoners believed to be from China’s minority Uighur Muslims, Sky News reported.
It is not known how the footage was taken – possibly by a drone – but in an accompanying post on Twitter, the account holder wrote: “The people of today’s society always live under the supervision of the government with high technology. Now we use technology to show the modern society of Xinjiang. People lose their freedom. No hope for future.”
Human rights organisations accuse China of holding one million people, mostly ethnic Uighurs, at sprawling detention camps in Xinjiang province – a charge Beijing strongly denies.
the footage, posted anonymously on Tuesday on Twitter and YouTube, shows lines of men, heads shaved, hands bound behind their back, sitting in lines on the floor or being moved by guards at a station in the city of Korla in Xinjiang, northwest China.
The European security source said: “We’ve examined the footage and believe it to be genuine.
“It shows up to 600 prisoners being moved; they’re shackled together, have shaved heads, are blindfolded and have their hands locked behind their backs. This is typical of the way the Chinese move this type of prisoner.”
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The images were thought to have been taken earlier this year, the source added.
Beijing has in the past repeatedly denied all allegations of abuse against the Uighur community and other ethnic minority groups in China.
China insists the alleged detention sites are “vocational” centres aimed at training and skills development. In a report earlier this year to counter criticism, the government said it had arrested nearly 13,000 people it described as “terrorists” and had broken up hundreds of “terrorist gangs” in Xinjiang since 2014.
The issue of the Uighurs could come up during the United Nations General Assembly next week when world leaders gather in New York.
Five human rights organisations have called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to condemn the Chinese government’s detention of more than a million Muslims in the Xinjiang region and call for the immediate closure of government detention camps.
In a letter to the UN chief released on Tuesday and reported by the Associated Press, the rights groups said these actions would be an important contribution to addressing “one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time”.
It was signed by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Uighur Conference.
Criticism has grown over China’s internment of the Uighurs and members of other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.
