According to an in-depth report by CNN which analyzed hundreds of satellite images, over a hundred cemeteries appear to have been destroyed by Beijing in just the last two years
The Beijing administration has been systematically destroying traditional Muslim Uyghur graveyards for years, satellite images appeared to show, as part of its ongoing persecution of the ethnic minority in East Turkestan.
According to an in-depth report by CNN which analyzed hundreds of satellite images, over a hundred cemeteries appear to have been destroyed by Beijing in just the last two years.
China’s Xinjiang region is home to around 10 million Uyghurs. The Turkic Muslim group, which makes up around 45 percent of Xinjiang’s population, has long accused China’s authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.
Notices by the Chinese government regarding the “relocation” of cemeteries appear to back up this claim.
Satellite imagery analysts Earthrise Alliance had previously discovered 45 cemeteries that have been destroyed since 2014.
Reporters from Agence France Presse (AFP) found several bones during visits to various sites of destroyed cemeteries.
The CNN report included several before and after images that appeared to show entire cemetries that have been completely destroyed.
China is accused of carrying out repressive policies against the Turkic Muslim group, and restraining its religious, commercial and cultural rights.
Up to 1 million people, or about 7 percent of the Muslim population in the Xinjiang region, have been incarcerated in an expanding network of “political re-education” camps, according to U.S. officials and UN experts.
Human Rights Watch accused Beijing of carrying out a “systematic campaign of human rights violations” against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, in a report last September.