I have them yet ok and your watching the screen homer it ition well one of the stories that continues to be under reported difficult to report from china is the situation of newtons theyre an ethnic Turkish Group in mostly North Western parts of china now the reason we are doing this story is because one of africas one of our own like unity suggested it to him is going to be the theme for all of these week or this week the stories that you hear the discussions that we have are actually suggested by you so this is for an end and he says and he tweeted to us means of we get detainees at the goats and in chinas prison camps in the wake of and he calls this the who hand virus a virus threat in caps to this is why were having the conversation do you know about this story do you have relatives perhaps in northwest china do you have questions for our expert panel you know what to do just jump into the chat its curated its available to you right now we need to can be in the stream i want you to meet our guests. And our expert panel hello joe her tell us who you are however my name is jerry or harm the daughter of imprisoned professor at home talk to me im an author and humorist activist currently based in d. C. Good to have you write and welcome to the stream tell everybody who you are hi im right handed sec im an attorney banks in d. C. Im also president of the american technique with Association Good to be rip your family is nice to have you a moment jan welcome back to the strain hello tell everybody you are. Thank you for having me help me this is my mentor and juma i am the Deputy Director of we are Service Radio free asia. I have seen a star exactly that the week asceticism radio free asia information concerning corona virus spreading and she is state secrets can you explain what is this secret and john this is very good question and when the it krone of break happened we received some tips that at least 100100 residents are moving in who are already in and we are region and we want to follow up and that we did some investigation on. The local government and officials are guarding this information really really tightly and we couldnt get enough information and according to the Chinese Media there are only 76 confirmed cases 3 deaths but according to what we have are and out at least one cd alone an aftershock in one hotel 99. 00 people from or a current team so far china said nobody was infected in southern part of your region including costco. And that what those parts of the region is mostly we are concentrating in areas. And so far in chinas going this information really tightly and calling in a state secret because when we call the local police the sets its secrets you can share information with us. I would say this is really important for our audience who are watching this right now that we want to include multiple aspects of this story i mean really wanted to include Chinese Government. Official and we did outreach an every part where you can single free email fax telephone number absolutely nothing we were able to get that voice into the stream into this discussion joe how is that a surprise for you. I could hear your question sorry. Salie were trying to get multiple aspects of the story involved into this discussion which is very important in this we cant talk about what is happening to various different we communities documents from the officials is so difficult to do that how we finding out what is happening to various people in an area that is very difficult to get information out of. It is getting harder and harder to get the information up especially very recently that china has expelled wresting journalists from from the chinese region from china and. With. All the all the information we can rely on are the state backed are released from state backed media. And since most of the girls who are overseas have trouble communicating with their families who are still living in inside china its been its been very concerning and i havent communicated with my my of my loved ones my family members 2000 since 2015 and. I was able to communicate with 2 members of my family by 3rd 3rd party is. My other hand chinese friends they had to go personally go to visit my family in order to come to some messages to me and i was not able to communicate with them directly and im sure this is happening to lots of other other girls are lots of other cousins who are living outside of china. Looking at this headline here from al jazeera dot com exiled weakest fear spread of coronavirus in china camps through your family in northwest china what concerns do you have about current violence what are you hearing. Why thing at this point chen is making it very difficult for us to get a solid data and based on the lack of transparency that were seeing at this point we can all still miles what is happening and you know like these i have a brother whos in posts in and i dont know since when and i can not only imagine whats a life like under this Global Pandemic that were experiencing and who are confined in our Comfort Homes but the detainees and prisoners they are in these crowded facilities and you know like Living Conditions of a van the poor quality assured i think those external factors would only exacerbate existing conditions so. I think. We can only surmise that its deeply concerning station as we speak. And im a general im im looking at just doing headlines that you go fast and eat assessment done and yes the us saying yes actually yes there are. 1300 champs confirmed according to researchers and observers in your region across the across the region and as we know the Living Conditions are really really dire and their diet is core and the they live to suffer from unsanitary sanitary a Living Conditions and overcrowded. Cells and the bad treatment and death alone makes this kemps would make a very Fertile Ground should a virus. To be brought in and they could all crave could have and this is a concern of many weve been experts around the world and so far we can come from around and i have 2 brothers at the moment one is in a forced labor kind of facility. Is working in a factory after you serve stayed in the camps for some time 3 years and i have another brother we dont have any information since 2017 and i have a legitimate concern of theory or else let alone across hours operate but the preexisting conditions in the camps make them really really weak and vulnerable or. Who he might swatch of also reported on the conditions in the camps only Education Centers whatever whatever the way that they are described as if you write what you are saying that this is an ok and james one who is a Chinese Government spokesperson addressed this in january so this is very early on in the current a virus crisis and this is what he had to say have a listen to. That china related remarks and reports of always ignored facts and confused right and wrong there is no objectivity at all so it is not worth refuting at all so you can the brutal evil. From within you know the current human rights situation in china is at its best periods in history where you are sick guess were getting some curiosity from our online audience a new chain jassi ford says have any greek activists but just a representative to have a conversation with any Chinese Government officials is that why has there been dialogue at all about the week of conditions he saw 1st have you been able to talk to anybody. No i have been. You know my brother came to the United States in tennessee 16 as part of the state departments internationalists as they disapprove and just to give you a very quick background hes a tech entrepreneur and im so sorry tech skills and his love for his culture he created the social media platform and then inside the Chinese State media and multiplications and i. Give him these beautiful labels hes a Bridge Builder a pounce the ways and a bright star in the Digital Media but after he participated in this international this is the dish of program he was detained in 26 days in march after returning from the United States but i heard since then i havent had any contact from him i had no idea if you want situation camps or was he in prison like i just had no idea and its really sad because this program in particular you know many World Leaders participate in this Program Including yes and already in the u. N. Current u. N. Secretary general and such are. This question of how do you get in touch with anybody officially to tell you what is happening to your family what is happening to your friends is happening to other week this is a dialogue just not think. Since 2014 i have been trying to reach out to the Chinese Government officials in order to get information about where my father was. By corporator with the Us Government for a few months the Chinese Government finally released a notice about where they were where they held my father. Since then my father disappeared again for after another few months. Without giving any notification i had my father was sentenced for for life imprisonment for life imprisonment. And i for the past past 6 years ive been trying to reach out multiple times but the chance the men have denied responding. We have also sent to multiple letters but it was all sent back without even opening being old and. And so far i have i dont know if my father is still alive i dont know if my father is still being held in the same prison i dont know my mother has been transferred to to another to a cam or to another prison or to another city so youre not going. Yes grandma had good place to start. You know obviously it was very difficult for me to obtain any information about my loved ones specially my brother but his host. Who you know became his friends during the United States also wrote multiple letters to the chinese see here and ask what is fair and i dont even dare request this any response from the chance. This is about history. Yeah. Sorry just to end. Where we are so far we only have 3 people on this show but there are so many hundreds of thousands of people who are experiencing the exact same thing not being able to contact their family members and this is this is i would considered as the. List smallest smallest pain because there are so many others their families have been tortured to death to death and some of them been locked up for for more than 10 years some of them are sentenced to to more than 20 years some of them have not even received a trial but they just disappeared and nobody knows where they are at least a few of us when we know we cant give up the names but there are so many so many they dont have family members outside of china and they cant even tell the world that this is happening to them and this makes my heart burns even more i want to bring in fakih who she is and an analyst for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute one of the things that institute has been doing is just looking to see what is happening with weakness in northwest china one of the allegations is that they are being forced to work against their will being used as forced labor this is what vicky told us. But theres the publication of the report as you can imagine there has been quite a bit of backlash. As some of the companies we named have threatened legal action and were denied any wrongdoing and the Chinese Government has repeatedly refeed said our allegations and the Foreign Ministry have had to make if i remember correctly. 3 deny us over 2 months which is a very strong case of you know trying really really hard to deny something. But you know since the publication of our report a. P. And South China Morning Post have written on the same topic independent from us and they have been able to confirm that weve written and claimed. So a moment john im im just looking at c g t and that state media in china as a change and refuse untruthful a. S. P. I. Report. How do you even get to the truth of this what do you know what story are you reporting this is a very good question a city 1st of all comers party backed and Government Official media which is spreading according to the experts lies about chinese policy according to. China moved transferred 80000 people in 20092000. 20 it during or before and after of the court hours of road to the chinese coastal cities to work. Prison like factories and theres some factories big brands like amazon. Or you name it and the r. F. A. Alone we confirmed the last 10 days of february which is in the midst of highest outbreak happening in china and people are in place like dot every city china moved 11000 we are you from 14. 00 and cost car to china which is a very close city to 2. 20 city where the. Ground 0 of the are well and. Virus outbreak so. Actually china according to human rights activists china disregard we are life we are else because at the time many trainees workers were. Kind of for a lot of the theyve been willing to they didnt want to go back to the factories and china pushed weavers to work there so the city and report it could at least according to our findings it is a lie and say. Im just looking at some of the reporting not just that radio free asia has been to doing but Human Rights Watch this is the week a human rights project might hear a new briefing released the u. S. Has released its new briefing local residents in danger of starving in east turkistan as a full briefing there and then i think its really important to actually hear you just press they say they say you know what i know was there was behind this and you can see whats behind the little blue arrow they have a look back here so you can see some of the reports that are coming out of east turkistan for instance and whats happening in egypt thats people are asking us what is being done why is International Pressure working thats such a good point let me put that facility job like you an activist what are you seeing being done from the International Community who have been hearing about these stories for years now. Definitely the we have received more and more attention for the past 2 years before 2017 sad lugars have not. Been receiving enough acknowledgement from the world people dont even you didnt even know who that we were as were and by the sad way finally people that we just by the concentration camp a still there are so many rumors there so many actions can be done the of course the city see the United Nations think it definitely sent teams if the check if the Chinese Government allows exists and teams to china to the region to ringback analyze the actual situation instead of just sit there and listen to the reports by the Chinese Government officials and im deeply concerned about those conditions. By those inmates we know that china has been trying to boost the economy. Of the entire wills economy has been fact at including china and now china is using those images from the concentration camps to boost their economy exploiting by exploiting them they maximize employment they minimize the payments and use. The use of abuse and this is deeply concerning to me and. My i have not only my father i have other family members who also been detained and there are probably in one of those caps those labor camps theyre probably locked up in somewhere and being tortured in any moment and i really urge not only the u. S. Government but also other Government Officials from Different Countries could join joined join the fight and i defy i would call the United Nations to to to work with china to help to help its this is actually helping china with with their. Their situation china should not be denying denying it refusing it. To how we started this conversation to hear about whether we are there is an underreported story always but also some concern about the current virus pandemic which is your biggest concern whats happening to your family anyway which is a constant nagging. And unknown always happening plus the coronavirus pandemic can you split the. Oh my another concern is. Lets hope not my family members have been factored with coronavirus but the government couldnt use that excuse of coronavirus to actually harm my family members or so many other we were just to cover up their crime is someone we know that a lot of the weavers have been tortured to death to death and now later next year after a few months they could blame it all on the covert 19 they claim that oh those people died because they were in fact and this is one of my biggest concern that we never know how those people disappeared we never know how those people. Died. For me and i and one more point on this topic. Go ahead randy i think its a wonderful question you know i want to watch a race i think oftentimes corrupt governments and by corrupt governments but they can never buy the hearts and minds of people theres a beautiful where your expression which is right common in across all took a culture in english maybe somebody bless you on the responses thank you but you know you go we wish somebody good health now while the whole world is struggling this Global Pandemic and this isolated in our come about 7 for the past 2 months i really have everybody good holes because i dont want anybody expensive very experienced but at the same time as the struggle to fight for our loved ones i hope all will show you are they are with us not just bear witness asked are up to take action because you should not and when 300 make such a ok point and its a point just echoed by a kita moment and i he just just let me just try to keep up because youve been talking about family members and akita. This is what a key to had to share with aljazeera audiences have a look have a listen this is my mother i learned so words shes a professors and she joined her singing and her International Scholars she has been teaching by the Chinese Government years and she didnt commit any crimes there isnt for her education these bone marrow and i havent talked to her for more than 2 years and i miss her every day during this pandemic im afraid and she doesnt have the freedoms to take precautions and institutions who are insisting im worrying about her being and house. International community and Human Rights Organizations to consult independence d investigations into camps and prisons. So what a key to assess them a john is exactly what we got scientists says he sent us a tweet a very long tweet which starts we have closed the camps immediately release all the innocent people he wants an independent team of International Investigators could any of this even happen if it hasnt happened now when would it happen. Its a very good question and this is something that we are Human Rights Organization a Center NationalHuman Rights Organizations are calling for even the u. N. Body wanted to go in there and. Do an independent investigation and china has always refusing it and so far i recently read up on thursday u. S. Senate passed a human rights bill its called were human rights policy act of 2020 so this should be a very. Important response of legal perspires trying us crimes against leaders so if if this legislation passed the from the house and it could bring a lot of. Of power to the u. S. Government it to take and he suggested and other governments would follow through and take similar steps and make some similar else. It is remarkable john joe how a hand how similar all of the conversations that we have about the way he has communities in milf rest in china. And now we have cohen a virus to worry about as well but we have to same trick or that week we come up against every time that thank you so much for contributing to russia today thank you for your questions and your concerns and this again next time on the street became. A. World. Business leaders as well to buy no prospal. Business leaders as well to buy no prospal. One of the last remaining ancient forests in Southeast Asia is a lifeline to hundreds of lumber jacks and drive as. We follow that treacherous journey as they walk through extreme conditions. To gather and transport this dangerous but precious cargo risking it all. On aljazeera. There is no channel like world news like we do we revisit places stake holders are really invests in that and thats a privilege as a journalist. Hello im Barbara Starr in london these are the top stories on aljazeera the 194 Member States of the World Health Organization have voted unanimously to hold an independent inquiry into the International Response to the corona Virus Outbreak the scribed as a comprehensive evaluation it will include an examination of the w h os role the organizations the rector general welcomed the resolution our own ways that majority remains fully committed to transparency accountability