A former police officer testified on Monday at the Uyghur Tribunal, an independent inquiry held in London to investigate China’s alleged genocide an

Former Xinjiang police officer describes torture in Uyghur detention centers

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2021-06-08 21:30:08

A former police officer testified on Monday at the Uyghur Tribunal, an independent inquiry held in London to investigate China’s alleged genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. He described how Uyghur Muslims were tortured and treated as “less than human” in the northwestern region’s detention centers and prisons. 

Wang Leizhan — who spoke under a pseudonym via a video link, with his face covered and voice distorted — said he was one of up to 150,000 police recruits who were sent to the territory to “deal with” the Uyghurs. 

Wang spent several months in the region in 2018, tasked with investigating political and religious suspects, including Islamist groups. He recalled that on arrival he was immediately dispatched on arrest rounds. He added that during his short time in Xinjiang 300,000 Uyghurs were detained, including entire villages. 

He stated that he did not know about the existence of so-called “re-education” or “ideology transformation” camps until he arrived. Later, he learned of a special committee that ruled which Uyghurs would be forcibly detained. According to Wang, arrests were made because people “were showing their cultural identity, or they were somehow considered to have a different ideology” to that of the Communist Party of China.

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