MONITORING (SW) – A report by the New Zealand Herald has revealed that a disturbing policy has been implemented in the northwest region of China – a forced-living arrangement between Han Chinese men and Uighur women that's been likened to "mass rape".
According to the report, satellite images revealed the Government destroying scores of traditional burial grounds belonging to Uighurs in northwest Xinjiang; drone footage revealed hundreds of blindfolded and shackled men being transferred to detention camps; and just last month, secret Chinese Government documents revealed how the regime was instructed to deal with the ethnic minority.
As part of the "Pair Up and Become Family" programme, Han Chinese men stay with and sleep in the same beds as Uighur women. According to the Chinese Government, the programme is designed to "promote ethnic unity".
But to Rushan Abbas, a Uighur activist whose family members have been detained in the Xinjiang camps for more than a year, it's nothing more than systemised rape – part of the Government's brutal ongoing crackdown against the country's ethnic minority, said the report.
While the Chinese Government claims the program is about promoting unity, it also allows officials to keep a close eye on the Uighurs who have spent decades living under increased surveillance.
Human rights organisations have slammed the program, saying there is "no evidence that families can refuse such visits" and describing it as "deeply invasive forced assimilation practices".
The camps in Xinijang are given various names in the media. Some refer to them as "mass internment camps". Others call them "surveillance facilities", "re-education camps" or simply "detention centres".
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