News Post 3: Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide?

BBC, “Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide?” (Video)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037

Although we already talked about the genocide of Uyghurs in class, I felt the documentary and readings focused mainly on the detention camps. This news report gives a brief overview of how unwelcome media is in XinJiang as well as how far China takes censorship. There are several different human rights being violated in XinJiang. The detention camps violate number 10 (Right to Trial) and 9 (Unfair Detainment). The right to not be tortured (number 5) could also be argued as being broken. The censorship and intense security policies such as searching phones violate the right to privacy (number 12). The overall treatment of Uyghurs violates rights 1, 18, and 30. (These are the right that everyone should be treated equally, right to religion, and the right to human rights, respectively.) In the video, a man refuses to talk to the BBC reporters, but police still show up to question him afterwards. The reporters also note that they are monitored and followed throughout their time in XinJiang and people even attempt to block the camera lenses when they are filming. All of the citizens are on edge and refuse to talk to the foreigners. They manage to interview a man who has already escaped to Turkey who informs them of some of the horrors of the camps. His mother and wife are trapped there, but he doesn’t know if his wife is alive or where his children are. He does know that his mother has to sleep on the ground and sit in a hard, plastic chair all day.