H BLOCKS reappear a world away!

The infamous H Block type prison has made a remarkable return in the Dabancheng Valley of the Uighur people in an area occupied by the Chinese government which has embarked on a severe programme of repression. A BBC in depth report published today focuses on detention centres in the country in which an estimated 130,000 Uyghur are imprisoned for what is euphemistically termed re-education:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/China_hidden_camps

It is by all accounts a brutal form of detention without trial and the intent of the policy is to destroy the Uighur religion and culture.

What grabbed my attention however were the aerial photographs of the Dabancheng camp. This shows a construction between April and October 2018 which almost doubles the size of the concentration camp. The old camp is designed with a traditional barrack block style but the new section photographed by SENTINEL shows a design of eight H-Blocks. This type of constructions became infamous in Northern Ireland in the now demolished Maze Prison.

The world is quietly looking the other way as this monstrous persecution goes on but as the article concludes history has a precedent for this sort of thing. The Nazis started with small detention centres for re-education and we ended up with vast complexes where people were worked to death or just exterminated.

No one knows what is happening in camps like Dabancheng but the fact that it and others are doubling in size in a matter of months points to an attempt to systematically destroy the Uyghur people - or those at least who will not cooperate.

The Isle of Man government thinks its a good idea to promote business ties with this ghastly regime.

Image: Sentinel image of the Dabancheng camp with the H Block structures recently built.

Bernard Moffatt