Uighur Repression Continues in Western China

A Uyghur girl is stopped by a line of riot police officers as she watches the parade of paramilitary police officers in Urumqi, western China’s Xinjiang province, Thursday, July 9, 2009. Security forces kept a firm grip on the tense Xinjiang capital Thursday after days of ethnic violence that killed over 150 people, and alarmed Chinese leaders who vowed to deal firmly with those behind the attacks.
A Uyghur girl is stopped by a line of riot police officers as she watches the parade of paramilitary police officers in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Thursday, July 9, 2009. Security forces kept a firm grip on the tense Xinjiang capital Thursday after days of ethnic violence that killed over 150 people, and alarmed Chinese leaders who vowed to deal firmly with those behind the attacks. Eugene Hoshiko / AP Photo
A Uyghur girl is stopped by a line of riot police officers as she watches the parade of paramilitary police officers in Urumqi, western China’s Xinjiang province, Thursday, July 9, 2009. Security forces kept a firm grip on the tense Xinjiang capital Thursday after days of ethnic violence that killed over 150 people, and alarmed Chinese leaders who vowed to deal firmly with those behind the attacks.
A Uyghur girl is stopped by a line of riot police officers as she watches the parade of paramilitary police officers in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Thursday, July 9, 2009. Security forces kept a firm grip on the tense Xinjiang capital Thursday after days of ethnic violence that killed over 150 people, and alarmed Chinese leaders who vowed to deal firmly with those behind the attacks. Eugene Hoshiko / AP Photo

Uighur Repression Continues in Western China

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Despite China’s announcements that it has closed “re-education” camps in its western province of Xinjiang, reports from human rights organizations and journalists document their continued existence. The camps have housed an estimated one million of China’s Muslim-majority Uighur ethnic minority population and reports argue that Uighurs in the camps are forced to perform hard labor, renounce Islam and swear allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party. China at first denied the existence of the camps, but after satellite imagery proved their existence, the Chinese government described them as centers for de-radicalizing Islamic extremists.

Louisa Greve, Director for External Affairs for the Uyghur Human Rights Project, joins the show to discuss Uighur repression in China. She’s joined by Yosef Roth, a co-organizer of the Uighur Rally at the United Nations