have babies, which they did by forcing them to have a removable intrauterine devices by having abortions, by having their wounds removed, whether they liked it or not. so that is the basis on which genocide was found in this tribunal and it has not been found on that basis before. the chinese government denies all accusations of abuses in xinjiang. the chinese embassy in london has issued this statement, while this tribunal doesn t have any power of enforcement, it still has significance on the international stage as caroline hawley explains. i think it does have some moral authority in the sense that sir
this is a first hand witness of china s oppression of turkic muslims in xinjiang. he s an ethnic kazakh, one of dozens of former detainees who gave evidence at hearings in london about what they went through. he was arrested in 2017, accused of installing whatsapp, which is blocked in china, and of watching videos about islam. the first prison was the worst. he says he was once punished for complaining he was hungry, and remembers being put in something called a tiger chair.
a country with such rigid hierarchies as the prc. xianjiang is china s biggest region. 12 million uyghurs live there that s roughly half the population. they speak their own language, which is similar to turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to central asian countries. many fear in xinjiang and abroad that their culture is under threat of being erased. so activists requested this tribunal in london. this is the president of the world uighyr congress. this is very significant. you know, china s government has been committed of genocide against the uighur people since 2016, but no countries, no international legal justice system have called china to account for their crimes, so today we have a an independentjudicial body, so this decision is very significant. i lost contact with my whole family since 2017. my mother died in the concentration camp. a
experts tell us a million uyghurs are being held in extra judicial camps or in prisons, which you can see in these satellite images. the us calls them concentration camps. china calls them re education camps designed to combat separatism and islamist militancy. we know the tribunal disagrees. and sir geoffrey was explicit. the tribunal is satisfied that president xijinping and other the tribunal is satisfied that president xi jinping and other very senior officials in the prc and ccp bear primary responsibility for acts that have occurred in xinjiang. the tribunal recognises that the perpetuation of individual criminal acts that may have occurred, rape or torture, will not have been carried out with a detailed knowledge of the president and others, but the tribunal is satisfied that they have occurred as a direct result of policies, language and speech is promoted by president xi jinping and others. furthermore, that these policies could not have happened in
have since followed. howard zhang, head of the chinese service. to what degree does this tribunal matter to the big heavyweights in chinese politics? hat matter to the big heavyweights in chinese politics? matter to the big heavyweights in chinese politics? not that much. it will brin: chinese politics? not that much. it will bring a chinese politics? not that much. it will bring a certain chinese politics? not that much. it will bring a certain level chinese politics? not that much. it will bring a certain level of - will bring a certain level of international pressure, but i think now with covid at home and still quite a few areas locked down, this will be a secondary consideration and also xinjiang, for them it is the gateway to their flagship belt and road project. they want xinjiang to be like hong kong to the financial world. xinjiang will have to be the peaceful, controllable, 100% under control type of gateway, so that is the type of strategic decision they have made, to