From camps to factories: Muslim detainees say China using forced labor

1 / 3
Petitioners with relatives missing or detained in Xinjiang hold up photos of their loved ones during a press event at the office of the Ata Jurt rights group in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on January 21, 2019. (AFP)
2 / 3
Gulzira Auelkhan, who spent close to two years trapped in China, speaks during an AFP interview at the office of the Ata Jurt rights group in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on January 21, 2019. (AFP)
3 / 3
Gaukhar Kurmanaliyeva attends an AFP interview at the office of the informal Almaty office of the Atajurt volunteers organisation, which helps victims of China's crackdown in Xinjiang, in Almaty on April 17, 2019. (AFP)
Updated 07 May 2019
Follow

From camps to factories: Muslim detainees say China using forced labor

  • More than a million people from Muslim minorities — mostly ethnic Uighurs, but also Kazakhs like Auelkhan, Kyrgyz and Hui — are being held in internment centers across Xinjiang

ALMATY, Kazakhstan: As Gulzira Auelkhan toiled stitching gloves in a factory in China’s troubled Xinjiang region, her managers made no secret of where her production would be sold.
“They told us openly that the gloves will be sold abroad, so we should do a good job,” Auelkhan recalled of a labor stint she says was enforced by Chinese “re-education” officials.
Auelkhan, a 39-year-old Chinese citizen of Kazakh descent, says she was part of a network of mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang who pass from what China calls “vocational training centers” to factories where they are forced to work for far less than the local minimum wage.
China says the education centers are part of its efforts to fight terrorism and separatism in Xinjiang — a region populated by mostly Muslim minority groups — and denies any use of forced labor.
But rights groups, and former workers like Auelkhan, say the practice used against Chinese minorities is widespread and at least one foreign company has dropped its Chinese supplier over the concerns.
Auelkhan says she was transferred to the glove factory at the Jiafang industrial estate in Xinjiang’s Yining county after spending 15 months in two different “re-education” facilities.
More than a million people from Muslim minorities — mostly ethnic Uighurs, but also Kazakhs like Auelkhan, Kyrgyz and Hui — are being held in internment centers across Xinjiang, according to a United Nations panel of experts.
Auelkhan has residency rights in Kazakhstan but had traveled to China to see family when she was detained and put into a re-education center.
She said life in the camps was brutal, with residents struck over the head with electrified batons for spending more than two minutes in the bathroom.

So even though they were not free to leave, it was an improvement when she and hundreds of other camp inmates were transferred to work at the factory, Auelkhan told AFP in Kazakhstan’s biggest city Almaty.
“Every day we were taken to and from a dormitory three kilometers from the factory,” she said, hugging the five-year-old daughter she didn’t see for nearly two years.
“When we were studying at the camp they told us we would be taught a trade and work for three months,” Auelkhan said.
Auelkhan said she was paid only 320 yuan ($48/42 euros) for close to two months’ work before her time at the factory was curtailed in December and she was allowed to return to her family in Kazakhstan.
Xinjiang’s average minimum wage ranges between 820 and 1,460 yuan per month, according to official statistics.
Beijing and officials in the region have fiercely denied any connection between the camps and under-paid labor.
A representative of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Government Press Office told AFP by email that there was “no labor contract between Education and Training Centers and enterprises” and “no enterprise obtains labor from training centers.”
But rights groups insist the connection exists and some companies have started taking notice.
In January, Badger Sportswear, a firm based in the US state of North Carolina, announced it would stop sourcing clothing from its Xinjiang supplier Hetian Taida over concerns it was using forced labor linked to the “re-education” campaign.
Auelkhan believes she was only released from forced labor because of a public campaign launched by her husband and supported by a Xinjiang-focused rights group in Almaty.

Originally, re-education officials had told her and other center residents that they would be “at (their) disposal” for at least six months, she said.
Oil-rich Kazakhstan’s government is a Beijing ally that positions itself as “the buckle” in China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road trade and investment agenda, a strategy for infrastructure and development projects throughout Asia, Europe and Africa.
Kazakh diplomats have entered into a dialogue with Beijing over Xinjiang, without publicly mentioning the re-education centers or criticizing China’s policies.
In December a representative of Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said during a briefing that China had allowed more than 2,000 ethnic Kazakhs to travel to Kazakhstan as “a kind gesture.”
The ministry refused repeated requests from AFP to clarify the remarks, which lent hope to many in Kazakhstan that they would be able to bring Xinjiang-based relatives over the border to safety.
For most, however, this has been a crushing false dawn.
During a recent visit to the Almaty office of the Ata Jurt rights group dedicated to supporting relatives of the Xinjiang missing, AFP spoke to several Kazakhs who claim their relatives have merely swapped “re-education” for other forms of confinement.
One of them, Aibota Janibek, 34, said her sister Kunikei Janibek telephoned her from Xinjiang in January after months without contact to confirm she had been “assigned a job” by the state at a carpet factory in Shawan county.
Aibota Janibek has since lost touch with her sister, but heard from other relatives that she was transferred from the carpet factory to another position.
“A relative told me she is now at a factory that makes paper towels for airplanes,” Janibek said.


Heavy gunfire erupts in South Sudan’s capital Juba

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Heavy gunfire erupts in South Sudan’s capital Juba

The gunfire began around 7 p.m. local time and continued sporadically for more than an hour before dying down
Analysts said the sacking of Akol Koor reflected a power struggle at the highest levels of government

NAIROBI: Heavy gunfire erupted in South Sudan’s capital Juba on Thursday evening after security forces moved to arrest the former head of the intelligence service, according to Reuters reporters and an alert sent to United Nations staff.
The gunfire began around 7 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) and continued sporadically for more than an hour before dying down, Reuters reporters said.
A UN safety alert to staff members in Juba, seen by Reuters, said the shooting was related to the arrest of the former head of the National Security Service (NSS). It urged UN staff to shelter in place.
In early October, President Salva Kiir dismissed Akol Koor Kuc, who had led the NSS since the country’s independence from Sudan in 2011, and appointed a close ally to replace him.
Reached by telephone, a military spokesperson said he was trying to establish what was going on.
Analysts said the sacking of Akol Koor reflected a power struggle at the highest levels of government. It came weeks after the transitional government that Kiir leads announced that elections expected in December would be postponed for a second time.
Rival factions loyal to Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar fought a civil war from 2013 to 2018 that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The two have governed together since then as part of a transitional government. There has been relative peace, but the opposing forces clash periodically in addition to frequent fighting among a patchwork of armed groups in rural areas.

Putin says hit Ukraine with new mid-range ballistic missile

Updated 35 min 24 sec ago
Follow

Putin says hit Ukraine with new mid-range ballistic missile

  • Putin said in a televised address that Russia carried out “testing in combat conditions of one of the newest Russian mid-range missile systems”
  • Russia struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a barrage of missiles early Thursday

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the country’s forces had hit Ukraine with a new mid-range ballistic missile.
Putin said in a televised address that Russia carried out “testing in combat conditions of one of the newest Russian mid-range missile systems... Our engineers named it Oreshnik,” which means hazel tree in Russian.
Russia struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a barrage of missiles early Thursday.
The Ukrainian air force and President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of apparently using an intercontinental ballistic missile, while Ukrainian experts were still examining the evidence to ascertain the type of missile used.
Putin said in his address that Russia launched a combined strike on a defense industry target in Ukraine.
He described Oreshnik as a “ballistic missile” that was deployed in this case “in a non-nuclear hypersonic configuration,” saying that the “test” had been successful and had hit its target.
Air defenses cannot intercept the Oreshnik, which attacks at a speed of Mach 10, or 2.5-3 kilometers per second, Putin said.
“Modern air defense systems... cannot intercept such missiles. That’s impossible,” he said.
“As of today there are no means of counteracting such a weapon,” the president boasted.
He said Russia was testing the Oreshnik in combat conditions “in response to the aggressive actions of NATO countries toward Russia.”


UK urged to honor ICC’s arrest warrants against Israeli leaders

Updated 21 November 2024
Follow

UK urged to honor ICC’s arrest warrants against Israeli leaders

  • Warrants issued on Thursday against Israel’s ministers, officials of Hamas

LONDON: The British government has been urged by the Council for Arab-British Understanding to immediately honor International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The ICC issued the warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, Gallant, and an official of Hamas, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza and the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory.

CAABU director Chris Doyle emphasized the gravity of the situation, accusing the UK government of failing to hold Israel accountable for its actions in violation of international law.

Doyle said: “This decision highlights how woefully the UK government has handled the situation of Israeli atrocities and war crimes.

“It now must demonstrate, with concrete action, that this government will honor its pledge to uphold respect for international law and the ICC by abiding in full with the ICC decision.”

Doyle also called for immediate measures, including a full arms embargo on Israel, the cessation of military and security cooperation, and an end to arms sales while atrocities were allegedly being carried out in Gaza.

CAABU warned that failure to comply with the ICC’s warrants could severely damage the UK’s international standing, making it complicit in alleged crimes against humanity, including forced displacement, apartheid, and genocide.

“The UK’s reputation globally would be trashed,” Doyle cautioned.

The organization stressed that the ICC’s warrants represented a crucial step toward justice and accountability for Palestinians. However, Doyle stressed the need for swift action.

He said: “There is no time to wait; justice delayed is justice denied. The UK needs to uphold international law, accountability, and ensure justice with immediate effect by complying with these arrest warrants.”

The UK government has yet to issue a formal response to the ICC’s decision.


UK says it respects ICC independence as court issues arrest warrants

Updated 21 November 2024
Follow

UK says it respects ICC independence as court issues arrest warrants

  • PM Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said: “We remain focused on pushing for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the devastating violence in Gaza”

LONDON: Britain respects the independence of the International Criminal Court, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said on Thursday, after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his ex-defense chief and a Hamas leader.
“We respect the independence of the International Criminal Court, which is the primary international institution for investigating and prosecuting the most serious crimes of international concern,” the spokesperson told reporters.
“There is no moral equivalence between Israel, a democracy, and Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, which are terrorist organizations. We remain focused on pushing for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the devastating violence in Gaza.”


Russia fires what appears to be intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Kyiv says

Updated 21 November 2024
Follow

Russia fires what appears to be intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Kyiv says

  • Western officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, later told Reuters their initial analysis showed it was not an intercontinental ballistic missile
  • Regardless of its classification, the latest strike highlighted rapidly rising tensions in the 33-month-old war

KYIV: Ukraine said Russia fired what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro on Thursday, in what would be the first use in war of a weapon designed to deliver long-distance nuclear strikes.
Western officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, later told Reuters their initial analysis showed it was not an intercontinental ballistic missile, though they left open the possibility that conclusion could change.
Regardless of its classification, the latest strike highlighted rapidly rising tensions in the 33-month-old war.
Ukraine fired US and British missiles at targets inside Russia this week despite warnings by Moscow that it would see such action as a major escalation.
Security experts said that if Thursday’s strike involved an intercontinental ballistic missile, it would be the first use of such a missile in war. ICBMs are strategic weapons designed to deliver nuclear warheads and are an important part of Russia’s nuclear deterrent.
“Today there was a new Russian missile. All the characteristics – speed, altitude – are (of an) intercontinental ballistic (missile). An expert (investigation) is currently underway,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video statement.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry urged the international community to react swiftly to the use of what it said was “the use by Russia of a new type of weaponry.”
The Ukrainian air force said the missile was fired from the Russian region of Astrakhan, more than 700 km (435 miles) from Dnipro in central-eastern Ukraine. It did not specify what kind of warhead the missile had or what type of missile it was. There was no suggestion it was nuclear-armed.
Asked about the air force statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters to contact Russian military for comment.
Ukrainska Pravda, a Kyiv-based media outlet, cited anonymous sources saying the missile was an RS-26 Rubezh, a solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,800 km, according to the Arms Control Association.
The RS-26 was first successfully tested in 2012, and is estimated to be 12 meters (40 ft) long and weigh 36 tons, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). It said the RS-26 can carry an 800-kg (1,765-pound)nuclear warhead.
The RS-26 is classified as an ICBM under a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia, but it can be seen as an intermediate-range ballistic missile when used with heavier payloads at ranges below 5,500 km, CSIS said.