In response to such reports, China has not issued any denial of the specific allegation that Muslims in large numbers are being held in re-education camps or stripped of civil rights. Instead China has only responded by saying that Muslims in China enjoy economic progress and rising living standards. Last year, following similar allegations by international rights groups, the Xinjiang regions deputy foreign publicity director, Ailiti Saliyev, had written a piece in the official Xinjiang Daily, claiming that The happiest Muslims in the world live in Xinjiang� and blaming all allegations on misinformation by extremists� in collusion with Western� forces. Such rhetorical statements are not at all reassuring or convincing.
At a time when countries like the US and Israel and fascists in European countries and India too have been unleashing an Islamophobic offensive in the name of a war on terror, such reports of severe and arbitrary suspensions of civil liberties of an ethno-religious minority in China, also on the pretext of curbing extremism are deeply disturbing. Such a policy - on any pretext - cannot ever be consistent with socialist principles.
A UN team should urgently be allowed access to the Xinjiang region of China to survey the situation, visit re-education camps if any, and meet and speak to Muslims to prepare a first-hand report backed by detailed evidence. China will always have the right to rebut such a report - likewise backed by detailed evidence.
