A smaller subset of this data — known as the Xinjiang Police Files — was published last May. Further examination of the files then revealed their full extent, uncovering approximately 830,000 individuals across 11,477 documents and thousands of photographs.
The police files were hacked and leaked by an anonymous individual, then obtained by Adrian Zenz, a director of China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a US-based non-profit. Zenz and his team spent months developing the search tool, which they hope will empower the Uyghur diaspora with concrete information about their relatives, after years of separation and silence.
Using the new online search tool, CNN tracked down the records for 22 individuals after…
2023-02-11 02:00:02 Leaked Chinese police data is giving Uyghurs answers about missing family members
Link from www.cnn.com
Recently, reports of leaked Chinese police databases have emerged which are providing Uyghur families with crucial answers about the whereabouts of their missing loved ones.
According to reports, the Chinese police databases contain personal information and the current whereabouts of Uyghur Muslims who have gone missing since 2017 in China’s Xinjiang region. This vast region is home of the largest concentration of Uyghur Muslims in mainland China and has been the site of a systematic repression by the Chinese government from as early as 2014 until today.
Detainees have not been allowed to contact their family members and there is documented evidence of torture as well as other inhumane treatment of the Uyghur population by the Chinese authorities.
Through these leaked databases, Uyghur families are finally getting answers to questions about their missing family members and in some cases, even hints of possible freedom from the government. This news is a welcome respite from the shady circumstances plaguing the Uyghur Muslims and is the first step in unravelling the fate of thousands of such individuals who have been illegally detained in the region.
The Chinese government has denied the presence of any massive detention camps in the Xinjiang region, however reports of these leaked databases have debunked China’s claims and sparked an international outcry. The real challenge now lies in verifying the authenticity of everything included in the databases and finding ways to contact these Uyghur families.
It is clear that this is only the beginning of a long and arduous journey towards a just resolution of the issue at hand. Nevertheless, these developments provide much-needed answers to the thousands of pleading families who have longed to know the fate of their missing loved ones.