The Chinese Communist Party has released a video purportedly showing a musician who was believed to have died in a Xinjiang detention camp. In a…
The Chinese Communist Party has released a video purportedly showing a musician who was believed to have died in a Xinjiang detention camp.
In a video posted overnight, popular Uighur musician Abdurehim Heyit states that he is in “good health.”
“I’m in the process of being investigated for allegedly violating the national laws,” he says in the video. “I’m now in good health and have never been abused.”
The footage was released by China Radio International’s Turkish-language service, a government-owned international radio broadcaster after Turkey called on China to close the detention camps following reports of the musician’s death.
But some have cast doubt on the authenticity of the video.
Nury Turkel, chairman of the US-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, described aspects of the video as “suspicious” in a BBC interview.
He called on the Chinese government to certify the video’s authenticity, stating: “The ball is in the Chinese government’s court. They detained Heyit. They detained 10 percent of the Uighur population. They are trying to tell the world there is no abuse and these are just so-called vocational training centers. It’s their responsibility to prove the video is authentic.
“With today’s technology, it is possible to create a video presentation. It’s not that difficult,” he added.
Similarly, Netherlands-based Otkur Arslan, from advocacy group Uighur Aid suggested, he may have been forced to give the statement by officials.
“(Heyit) said he is being investigated, but he was reported to be sentenced to 8 years in prison,” he wrote on Twitter.
“He paused before stating the date and strokes can be heard from the background.”
Earlier, the Turkish government released a statement condemning the government’s camps as a “great embarrassment for humanity,” and claiming detained Uighurs were being subjected to “torture” in “concentration camps.
