A report released by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation revealed leaked information from the files of the Xinjiang Police in China that contain “absolutely shocking” proof of the persistent abuse and cruelty inflicted upon the Uyghur population. This bears greater weight given that it comes from Andrew Bremberg, the organization’s president and a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Bremberg called the leaked files, referred to as the “Xinjiang Police Files,” a “substantial information cache that is extraordinary of its kind” the group said in a May 23 statement, which went on to explain the contents of the files in more information. The files claim to expose countless pictures of Uyghur detainees, from kids to senior males and females, and images of the law enforcement officers and guards putting handcuffs and shackles on detainees in the course of drills.
The files present “extensive incriminating details from inside China’s internment camp system,” the foundation stated in a May 23 statement, which went on to describe the contents of the files in more detail. The files purport to reveal thousands of images of Uyghur prisoners, from children to elderly men and women, and pictures of police officers and guards placing handcuffs and shackles on prisoners in the course of drills.
The images of guards and detainees, the files claim to consist of the text of top-level instructions and orders from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities relating to the category and treatment of the put behind bars Uyghurs. One such instruction, according to the structure, is the admonition of Chen Quanguo, previous Xinjiang CCP celebration secretary, that authorities and authorities ought to deal with those of various ethnic cultures as violent wrongdoers.
The files likewise provide a speech from an unnamed “central government official” specifying that Chinese leader Xi Jinping released orders to broaden the financing and variety of guards readily available for the extremely crowded prisons of Xinjiang and to expand the internment system within the area.
Talking to EpochTV’s “China Insider” program, Bremberg stated that much of what the files have actually exposed follows what observers of the human rights scenario in Xinjiang understood to be going on, however, that it’s still stunning to see the images of really young detainees and those of advanced age. Among the detainees is a teenage girl photographed at 14 and imprisoned at 15, he noted.
“Those photos were just shocking and horrifying to see. I’d also say some of the other photos that show not just those that have been imprisoned, but show the actual security forces inside those internment facilities and how they operate,” Bremberg said.
The former ambassador expressed a highly critical view of the visit by Michelle Bachelet, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, to China, the very first journey by such an official since 2005.
“The visit by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to China right now is very troubling. I’ve spoken with her many times in the past. We’ve long advocated the role that her office can play in bringing to light and addressing the human rights abuses happening in Xinjiang, but it’s very disappointing that she chose to go at this time, in a way that limits her ability to have any sort of independence or do any sort of investigation,” he said.
According to Bremberg, neither Bachelet nor the Chinese regime considers her visit as an examination of the abuses occurring in China or in Xinjiang particularly, and Beijing has the ability to utilize the timing of the visit to hinder any inquiries that Bachelet may make. The continuous pandemic and the lockdown of Shanghai and other areas of China keep Bachelet in what Bremberg calls “a very tightly controlled, closed-loop with no press moving around.”
If the regime demanded such limitations as a condition of Bachelet’s tour, the suitable reaction would have been to decline to go to China at all, on the grounds that the mandatory preconditions were not in place, Bremberg argues.
“She’s there right now, and the public has been told that she’ll have a press conference right before she leaves. I’m very concerned about this visit,” he said.
Aside from his immediate reservations about Bachelet’s journey, Bremberg explained a bigger issue that he feels about an absence of openness about the United Nations office’s relations with the CCP over other concerns and human rights.
“What is the communication they’ve had with the government of China? And what response have they had? They don’t need to condemn China or pass judgment, they just need to be transparent,” he said.
“It’s up to other countries to then speak out and say to China, why have you refused to meet the conditions that office has asked for? But by keeping all of that secret, she doesn’t allow the United States or European countries, or other governments around the world, to actually support the work of her office,” Bremberg said.
The former ambassador called the visit an error and stated that a transparent examination of the concerns exposed in the Xinjiang Police Files is difficult in these situations. He went on to reveal issues about how CCP authorities will spin the visit in their public statements.
“You cannot control what other people say about you. But it’s very concerning to imagine how the Chinese government will portray this visit from a domestic or international message or propaganda perspective. And if they make portrayals that suggest that she had this wonderful visit, she really bears a moral responsibility to immediately and publicly respond and say what were the conditions on this trip, what was allowed and what was not,” Bremberg argued.
In reaction to an e-mail inquiry from The Epoch Times about whether Bachelet’s journey to Xinjiang will be an independent examination, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres stated that was “an essential condition.”.
Bremberg made an enthusiastic case for ending the human rights abuses and repression going on in Xinjiang.
“We are acutely aware of the 100 million victims of communism over the course of the last century, under various communist regimes. And we know that the only way that the victimization ends is when the other countries in the international community stand up and press regimes, like the Chinese Communist Party today, and demand that they change their behavior.”
