A United Nations human rights panel said Friday it has received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China are being held in what resembles a "massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy."
Gay McDougall, a member of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, cited estimates that 2 million Uighurs and Muslim minorities have been forced into "political camps for indoctrination" in the western Xinjiang autonomous region.
"We are deeply concerned at the many numerous and credible reports that we have received that in the name of combating religious extremism and maintaining social stability (China) has changed the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembles a massive internship camp that is shrouded in secrecy, a sort of 'no rights zone,' " she told the start of a two-day regular review of China's record, including Hong Kong and Macau.
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