Uighur researchers say China running more camps than known

Uighur activists have said y have documented nearly 500 camps and prisons run by China to detain ethnic group, alleging that China could be holding far more than commonly cited figure of one million people. East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, a Washington-based group that seeks independence for mostly Muslim region kwn to China as Xinjiang, gave geographic coordinates of 182 suspected "concentration camps" where Uighurs are allegedly pressured to reunce ir culture.

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imry from Google Earth

Researching imry from Google Earth, group said on Tuesday it also spotted 209 suspected prisons and 74 suspected labor camps for which it would share details later.

"In large part se have t been previously identified, so we could be talking about far greater numbers" of people detained, said Kyle Olbert, director of operations for movement. "If anything, we are concerned that re may be more facilities that we have t been able to identify," he told a news conference in suburban Washington.

Anders Corr, an analyst who formerly worked in US intelligence and who vised group, said that around 40 percent of sites h t been previously reported. Rights vocates have generally estimated that China is detaining more than one million Uighurs and members of or predominantly Muslim Turkic ethnicities. But Randall Schriver, top Pentagon official for Asia, said in May that figure was "likely closer to three million citizens" -- an extraordinary number in a region of 10 million people.

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Consistent patterns of camps

Olbert said that archive imry from alleged camp sites showed consistent patterns -- steel and concrete construction over past four years along with security perimeters. He said that group tried to verify nature of each site with on--ground accounts but declined greater detail, citing need to protect sources. Activists and witnesses say China is using torture to forcibly integrate Uighurs into Han majority, including pressuring Muslims to give up tenets of ir faith such as praying and abstaining from pork and alcohol. Olbert described China's policy as "gecide by incarceration," fearing that Uighurs would be held indefinitely.

"It's like boiling a frog. If y were to kill 10,000 people a day, world might take tice," he said. "But if y were just to keep everyone imprisoned and let m die off naturally, perhaps world might t tice. I think that's what China is banking on," he said.

China has justified its policy after first denying camps, saying that it is providing vocational training and coaxing Muslims away from extremism. Hundreds died in 2009 riots in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi that largely targeted Han Chinese. United States has likened China's treatment of Uighurs to Nazi Germany's concentration camps but an increasingly strong Beijing has faced limited criticism outside West. China last month secured a statement at United Nations by nations including Russia, Pakistan and Egypt -- which have all faced criticism of ir own records -- that praised Beijing's "remarkable achievements in field of human rights."

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Uighur activist group said it periodically ded data including on destruction of cemeteries in Xinjiang, which was documented in an investigation last month by AFP using satellite imry. movement said it h unsuccessfully asked State Department for satellite data in hopes of improving its information sources.

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