Women in China’s system of detention camps for ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang were subject to rape, sexual abuse and torture, according to a BBC report on Wednesday.
The British broadcaster said “several former detainees and a guard have told the BBC they experienced or saw evidence of an organized system of mass rape, sexual abuse and torture.”
Women were removed from the cells “every night” and raped by one or more masked Chinese men, the report said. Some of the women who were taken away from the cells at night were never returned.
More than a million men and women have been detained in Xinjiang camps, which China says exist for the “re-education” of the Uighurs and other minorities.
Beijing denies accusations of abuse in Xinjiang, and has said the complexes it set up in the region provided vocational training to help stamp out Islamist extremism and separatism. Those in the facilities have since “graduated”, it says.
Asked on Wednesday about the BBC report, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said it “is wholly without factual basis” and the people interviewed by the BBC have been “proved multiple times” to be “actors disseminating false information.”
‘Deeply disturbed’: US
The United States is “deeply disturbed” by reports of systematic rape and sexual abuse against women in China’s internment camps.
Asked to comment, a state department spokeswoman said: “We are deeply disturbed by reports, including first-hand testimony, of systematic rape and sexual abuse against women in internment camps for ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang.”
The spokeswoman reiterated US charges that China has committed “crimes against humanity and genocide” in Xinjiang and added: “These atrocities shock the conscience and must be met with serious consequences.”
The official said China should allow “immediate and independent investigations by international observers” into the rape allegations “in addition to the other atrocities being committed in Xinjiang.”
The United States accuses China of committing genocide against Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Last year, a report by German researcher Adrian Zenz published by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation think tank accused China of using forced sterilisation, forced abortion and coercive family planning against minority Muslims.
