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Amna Nawaz: In China's vast Northwest Xinjiang Province the U.S. says more than a million Uighur Muslims are being held in detention camps. The Chinese government says the goal of this detention is what they call reeducation of extremists.
Tonight in her first television interview a Uighur dissident describes this Chinese repression as a repeat of the Holocaust.
Asiye Abdulahat admits leaking Chinese government documents published in international media that revealed details of the campaign against the Uighurs.
And she recently met with special correspondent Malcolm Brabant.
Malcolm Brabant:
Asiye Abdulahat is at the top of China's most wanted list. Although she has decided that publicity and hiding in plain sight are her best protection, we met at a secret location in the Netherlands to maximize her security.
Asiye Abdulahat (through translator):
One day I received death threats via Facebook Messenger. In the message this person said: If you don't stop what you are doing right now, people will find your dismembered body inside the black trash can in front of your House. We will kill you and chop you into pieces and throw you in the trash.
Malcolm Brabant:
These top-secret documents are the reason Asiye is in peril.
The documents reveal how Uighur inmates of the camps are locked up, brainwashed and punished. They contain instructions to step up discipline and ensure there are no escapes. The papers were leaked to a consortium of investigative journalists and published in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times in November.
For human rights campaigners the so-called China Cables were confirmation that the camps were effectively prisons conducting psychological torture.
Asiye has lost contact with her source. She fears the worst because the sentence for leaking such documents is death.
How concerned are you for your safety?
Asiye Abdulahat (through translator):
When I decided to reveal myself I forced myself to forget the word worry. And that's because the person who sent me these documents has sacrificed his life.
The act of passing these documents cost him his life. So for me, talking about worries is not really applicable.
Malcolm Brabant:
Asiye used to be a government employee in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, the Uighurs' home province 1,700 miles northwest of Beijing.
She left China for the Netherlands in 2009 after violent clashes between Uighurs and the Han Chinese majority. Asiye was granted asylum in the Netherlands where she is now studying the Dutch language.
Her revelations have generated some of the most intense international condemnation of China in recent years.
Are you being courageous about this, or are you being foolish?
Asiye Abdulahat (through translator):
I don't think that I'm brave or I have done something wrong. I am sure that I have done the right thing.
I don't think I'm different from anyone else. I'm simply a human being, the same as they are, although in this situation the Uighur community is experiencing horrible things. Millions of Uighurs are detained in concentration camps.
In these circumstances the responsibility of being a whistle-blower landed on my shoulders. I had to do it. It was my responsibility. It was essential because of the situation facing the Uighurs. So it has nothing to do with my bravery or courage.
Malcolm Brabant:
The internment camps were established in 2017 as part of President Xi Jinping's so-called war against terror.
Critics believe a campaign of ethnic cleansing is under way, with the Uighur being replaced by majority Han Chinese. Beijing insists that camps like this in Xinjiang are nothing more than reeducation centers.
But the House of Representatives is in no doubt about their true purpose.
Congressman Chris Smith: Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.:
The mass internment of millions of people on a scale that has not been seen since the Holocaust, children ripped from the warm embrace of their families to be indoctrinated in communist ideology and forced to renounce their religious culture and language, rape, sexual abuse and forced abortions.
Malcolm Brabant:
In early December the House overwhelmingly passed a bill requiring President Trump to toughen action against China until it reverses the Uighur crackdown.
The bill, triggered by Asiye's revelations, also demands sanctions against senior Chinese officials. It has yet to be passed by the Senate.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo believes the documents revealed by Asiye could be a turning point.
Mike Pompeo:
These reports are consistent with an overwhelming and growing body of evidence that the Chinese Communist Party is committing human rights violations and abuses against individuals in mass detention.
We call on the Chinese government to immediately release all those who are arbitrarily detained and to end its draconian policies that have terrorized its own citizens in Xinjiang.
Malcolm Brabant:
But the Chinese are standing firm.
Shohrat Zakir is the governor of Xinjiang province.
Shohrat Zakir When it comes to issues about Xinjiang, the people of Xinjiang have the most say. Any attempt to destabilize Xinjiang will be doomed. Any accusation and slander from the U.S. won't be able to hide the truth of the development of human rights in Xinjiang, cannot stop the progress in unification of people of all ethnic groups and won't stop Xinjiang's prosperity and development.
Malcolm Brabant:
Do you fear that because the Uighur are Muslims that the West will turn a blind eye to their persecution?
Asiye Abdulahat:
The Uighur genocide is a repeat of the Jewish Holocaust from World War II. And they promised it would never happen again. The world has begun to slowly realize that Chinese oppression of the Uighurs has nothing to do with other identities. It's a crime against humanity. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/this-dissident-leaked-explosive-documents-depicting-chinas-brutal-treatment-of-uighurs
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November 24, 2019 https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/watch-china-cables-exposes-chilling-details-of-mass-detention-in-xinjiang/
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