The authorities of the Xinjiang region of China have introduced into their legislation the use of centers “to educate and transform people influenced by religious extremism”, in which human rights organizations denounce that there are currently one million Muslims arrested.
The legalization of these centers, reported by the independent daily South China Morning Post on Wednesday, comes after last August China denied the existence of reeducation camps in the United Nations housing Uyghurs and other minorities of Muslim confession. the region, located in the northwest of the country.
Article 17 of the new revised regulations, which entered into force on Tuesday, states that (regional governments) “can establish education and transformation organizations and supervise departments such as vocational training centers to educate and transform people who have been influenced by extremism. ”
It is the first time that China speaks openly of these centers in Xinjiang, where it recognizes that it applies “measures”, although without specifying which ones, to fight religious extremism, at the same time that it defends that religious freedom exists.
The new clause is included in a regulation that came into force in March 2017 with the aim of “curbing religious extremism” and that prohibits some practices such as wearing an “abnormal” veil or beard, considering that they encourage it.
Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, in recent months the Chinese Government has launched an aggressive government campaign with arbitrary arrests and political indoctrination against Muslims, who suffer “brainwashing” in these centers, where they are tortured and killed in custody. , according to Amnesty International.
Some ex-detainees have even warned of suicides in these centers, where people remain detained without being formally accused of any crime and without contact with their family or lawyers.
Leaders of the Communist Party in Xinjiang publicly encourage officials to fight “to death” the expansion of Islamic practices in the region, where they recognize that an ideological battle is taking place.
In the Asian country it is estimated that there are about 23 million Muslims, approximately 1.7 percent of the population, among them ethnic minorities such as the Hui (spread throughout the country) or others linked to the peoples of Central Asia, such as Uighurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz or Tajiks.
