An article by Bruce Pannier posted on Radio Liberty’s website says lawyers for Uyghur groups have given new evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) that allegedly shows the Tajik government is cooperating with Beijing to send Uyghurs to China, where they face detention and often much worse.
Tajikistan is not the only country targeted in the complaint submitted to the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor. Cambodia is reported to be another country that allegedly succumbed to Chinese pressure to detain and illegally extradite Uyghurs.
Numerous reports have claimed that the Chinese authorities have put more than 1 million Uyghurs and thousands of other mostly Muslim indigenous minorities in so-called reeducation camps, located mainly in the Uyghurs' traditional homeland in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China.
The Chinese say the camps are for vocational training and deny mistreatment of its occupants, despite testimony of detainees and other evidence suggesting otherwise.
Critics say such facilities are being used as mass internment camps.
Tajikistan and Cambodia are included in the official complaint because they are members of the ICC.
China is not an ICC member and so is outside the ICC's jurisdiction. “China is not a signed-up member of the ICC…[and believes it] cannot be investigated for what is happening,” says Rodney Dixon, one of the lawyers handling the legal process for the Uyghur groups. “The fact is that we are now in a position where there is a very clear legal pathway to allow for the ICC to commence its investigations.”
One of the places this investigation could begin is in Tajikistan.
According to a press release from the East Turkistan Government in Exile, “Chinese authorities have committed unlawful acts including arrests, enforced disappearances, abductions, and deportations in Tajikistan, an ICC State Party.”
The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile (ETGE) is a parliamentary based exile government established and headquartered in Washington, D.C. by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other peoples from East Turkistan (Xinjiang). The ETGE claims to be the sole organ representing East Turkistan and its people on the international stage. The People's Republic of China has sternly opposed ETGE's creation since September 2004.
The evidence that legal consul for the East Turkistan Government in Exile, the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, and individual Uyghur victims handed to the ICC prosecutor on June 10 reportedly purports that "members of the Chinese Public Security Bureau who are present in Tajikistan direct local Tajik police to carry out raids on the areas where Uyghurs live and work." It adds that those Uyghurs who did not have "correct paperwork" were "then deported back into China by Chinese authorities in small groups of up to 10 to avoid international attention."
The press release also states that “evidence gathered to date shows that over the past 10-15 years the number of Uyghurs living in Tajikistan has been reduced from an estimated 3,000 to approximately 100” and that most of these Uyghurs left Tajikistan “from 2016 to 2018.”
The legal team for the Uyghur groups originally submitted their complaint to the ICC prosecutor in July 2020, but it said it required further evidence to initiate an investigation.
According to the East Turkistan Government in Exile's website, the new evidence handed over on June 10 establishes "that the court has jurisdiction to open an investigation into the crimes being committed against Uyghurs by Chinese authorities."
