Free 1 million Uighurs

United Nations' human rights experts voiced alarm on Thursday over alleged Chinese political re-education camps for Muslim Uighurs and they called for the immediate release of those detained on the "pretext of countering terrorism".

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination cited estimates that up to one million Uighurs may be held involuntarily in extra-legal detention in China's far western Xinjiang province.

Its findings were issued after a two-day review this month of China's record, the first since 2009.

China's foreign ministry rejected the allegations at the time, and said anti-China forces were behind the criticism of Beijing's policies in Xinjiang.

It has never officially confirmed the existence of detention centres there.

China has said Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tension between the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and the ethnic Han Chinese majority.

But the panel decried China's "broad definition of terrorism and vague references to extremism and unclear definition of separatism in Chinese legislation".

This could be used against those peacefully exercising their rights and facilitate "criminal profiling" of ethnic and religious minorities, including Uighurs, Buddhist Tibetans and Mongolians, it said.

In its conclusions, the panel said it was alarmed by "Numerous reports of detention of large numbers of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities held incommunicado and often for long periods, without being charged or tried, under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism."

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying yesterday said the UN experts' comments had "no factual basis", adding that people's satisfaction with Xinjiang's security and stability had risen dramatically.

During the review the experts said they had received many credible reports that around a million Uighurs are held in what resembles a "massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy". Panel member Gay McDougall described it as a "no-rights zone".

The panel expressed concern over reports of "mass surveillance disproportionately targeting ethnic Uighurs", such as frequent police checks and scanning of mobile phones at checkpoints.

It also cited reports that many Uighurs who had left China had been forced to return to the country, and called on Beijing to disclose their whereabouts and status.

McDougall cited allegations that more than 100 Uighur students who returned to China from countries including Egypt and Turkey had been detained, with some dying in custody.

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers on Wednesday urged Washington to impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for rights abuses of Muslims in Xinjiang, saying the region was being turned into a "high-tech police state".