Abstract:

Since the mass incarceration in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region began in 2017, access to the region has been extremely limited. The dearth of information limited our understanding of the atrocities that unravelled and still are ongoing in the region and opened way for speculation and distorted accounts. Even as information began to seep out in the form of testimonies, satellite imagery, Chinese online postings, social media and more, the scatteredness of this information continued to make fact-checking and triangulation extremely difficult. To remedy for this problem, a number of archives have been created by activists, scholars and think tanks that collect and systematise information about the atrocities and developments in the region more generally.

Atajurt in Kazakhstan and Shahit.biz led by Gene Bunin were the first organisations to systematically collect, store and make available this highly important material. Other databases and archives have followed, each with their own specific approach, focus and motivation. This roundtable discusses the landscape of archives on XUAR, honing in on each of the existing data bases and archives to present its data, search functions and ways it can and cannot be used, as well as its general strengths and weaknesses. We invite both convenors and users of the archives to elaborate on their own usage and on the process of creating the archives and the rationale behind it and to to imagine and reflect on the future of archives on XUAR and potential cooperations and triangulations between them.