“Have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness, but rather expose them”
[May.27.2022] New evidence has emerged supporting the allegation that the Chinese government-operated detention centre to rid the Uyghurs of the Muslim minority in Xinjiang, the BBC reported on 23 May (local time).
The BBC claimed that they obtained a large amount of data related to the Uyghur detention centre which was leaked after the police database of Xinjiang Weiul autonomous region in China was hacked. The data, compiled between January and July 2018, included thousands of photographs of detainees and key facilities, as well as guidelines for police for centre management.
The BBC said they obtained the file earlier this year and after consulting with experts has it been able to authenticate the files. According to the report, at least 2,884 inmates were identified through photographs. The prisoners ranged from elderly persons in their 70s to 15-year-old girls and the reasons for their imprisonment were often unclear.
According to the BBC, many were detained for visiting countries with a large Muslim population or for expressing their Islamic beliefs. A woman was detained under suspicion of probable violence tendency in her family history. A mother was detained with her son who doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke but jailed for 10 years on a terrorism charge.
BBC pointed out that in this context, the detention centres are organizations that shake up the entire Uyghur society by oppressing individuals, not the voluntary educational centres that China insists.
“The education and training centres in Xinjiang are schools that help people free themselves from extremism,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in 2019. Western government officials and think tanks see Xinjiang training centres as organizations that seek to wipe out Uyghur history, culture, and religion.
In particular, the US administration, Joe Biden, has even called the controversy over China’s oppression of Uyghurs ‘genocide’ with the meaning of national annihilation. Such circumstances were more clearly revealed in the detention centre facility information and police management guidelines.
The BBC pointed out that the camp was structured like a prison for felons, contrary to China’s claim that it was an ideological education centre or vocational training centre. It is reported that those being transferred were blindfolded with their hands cuffed and their feet shackled.
There is a set of internal police protocols that describes the routine use of armed officers in all areas of the centres, the positioning of machine guns and sniper rifles in the watchtowers, and the existence of a shoot-to-kill policy for those trying to escape. The document also revealed that the Chinese government used the detention centres for similar purposes, sending thousands of people to formal prison on a wide range of terrorism charges.
The BBC said the data provide “some of the strongest evidence to date in support of a policy that targets almost every Uyghur identity, the culture of Islamic faith to assert control(Source: Yeonhap News).
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.(Ephesians 5:11-13)
Father God, please guide the process of the international community investigating the allegations that the Chinese government planned to annihilate the Uyghurs. When the circumstances are revealed in the light, may the hearts of the authorities involved, who have done evil against their neighbors, have the pangs of conscience and turn from their fruitless deeds of darkness and seek forgiveness. Also, may You hear the groan of the oppressed, and reveal Christ to the Uyghurs, that they may receive the LORD who rescues them from trouble and answers them with eternal life.
Prayer 24·365
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