Mute response from rights defenders as minister condemned over Xinjiang camps

Barbed wire outside a detention centre to ‘re-educate’ dissidents in Xinjiang, as seen in a BBC documentary aired this month.

PETALING JAYA: Usually vocal human rights activists and groups have avoided comment when queried about remarks by a federal minister which appeared to endorse Chinese propaganda on a controversial camp set up to “re-educate” dissidents in the restive Xinjiang province.

Barring Amnesty International which openly criticised Mujahid Yusof Rawa for his use of the phrase “training centre”, China’s parlance for what has been condemned worldwide as concentration camps, other prominent human rights organisations and activists approached by FMT have refused comment.

This comes after Muslim activist Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa accused Mujahid of repeating Beijing’s propaganda.

Echoing him was Amnesty International, who said damning reports on the camps were corroborated by its own investigations.

“In those camps, they are subjected to forced political indoctrination, renunciation of their faith, mistreatment, and, in some cases, torture.

“They are hardly the ‘vocational and training institution’ that the minister seems to have visited,” said Amnesty Malaysia executive director Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu.

Mujahid, the minister in charge of Islamic affairs, recently led a government delegation to Xinjiang where Beijing has for decades been accused of cracking down on Uighur Muslims who have resisted the ruling communist party’s policies, including restrictions on religious practices.

“This centre carries out industrial training activities and teaches a variety of skills such as sewing, legal class, arts and flower arrangement,” he wrote on Facebook in a post accompanied by pictures of his visit.

The post drew strong comments from Facebook users.

A group of inmates at a ‘training centre’ in Xinjiang visited by Mujahid Yusof Rawa. (Facebook pic)

“By publicly acknowledging the so-called vocational institution, you are also acknowledging the cruelty behind it. Have some balls YB,” said user KA Ramli.

Others shared a recent BBC documentary which offered a rare glimpse into indoctrination programmes conducted by government officials on detainees, who are housed in buildings surrounded by high walls and barbed wire.

“This is shameful. That easy to trust them? Why only Uighur then? What is with the #rahmatanlilalamin?” asked user Maryam Jameelah, mocking Mujahid’s hashtag of a slogan he has been promoting since being appointed as the minister in charge of Islamic affairs.

Meanwhile, at least two activists who did respond to FMT’s queries gave differing views on Mujahid’s visit.

Lawyer Lim Wei Jiet, an active human rights advocate, cautioned Malaysian leaders to be more careful when it comes to the predicament of Uighurs in China.

“There are credible international bodies, including the the United Nations, which have reported human rights abuses suffered by around a million Uighurs held in these ‘re-education camps’,” he said.

“We have a duty to speak out against human rights oppression, and not seek to legitimise the same – unintentionally or otherwise.”

Activist Chandra Muzaffar, meanwhile, said the Xinjiang issue was complex, adding that it has been exploited by both Western and Chinese propaganda.

“People must remember that just as there is Chinese propaganda, there is also Western propaganda,” he said.

He said there is a need for China to be more open in allowing independent observers into the centres.

“But this doesn’t automatically mean they are detention camps.”

Rights bodies have long accused China of cracking down on dissent in Xinjiang under the guise of fighting Muslim extremism.

Beijing denied recent revelations of the existence of such concentration camps, but later said they were “vocational centres” to help “save” people from extremist influences. - FMT