Satellite Images Show New Signs of Uyghur Persecution in China; Turkish Media Says 7 Arrested on Suspicion of Helping Ghosn Flee
GORANI: We're seeing new evidence of persecution in China against ethnic minority Uyghurs. CNN has combed through satellite images to find what were Muslim cemeteries where they once stood. The land has been flattened, according to the satellite images and either redeveloped or simply smoothed over. Entire graveyards are being erased from existence again and again. CNN's Matt Rivers brought us this story and he joins me now live. Talk to us more about what these satellite images reveal the Chinese government is doing to these burial sites.</s>MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Hala, I mean as you know, broadly speaking we've been reporting on this story for a long time now. And the central accusation from critics is that China and its government are trying to systematically wipe out Islam and Islamic culture from within its borders. And what we found here seems to be the latest example of that with more than 100 cemeteries across Xinjiang being destroyed and, in the process, it's affected families across the globe.</s>RIVERS (voice-over): When Aziz Isa Elkun's father died it was too dangerous for him to go to the funeral in China. Aziz is an ethnic Uyghur who lives in exile in north London but he grew up in a western Chinese region called Xinjian. An area activist say is the center of an unparallel human rights crisis in the world today.</s>AZIZ ISA ELKUN, UYGHUR POET: This is not a normal state, normal country can't do like this. This is pure evilness.</s>RIVERS: Xinjiang is where the United Nations says the Chinese government has detained hundreds of thousands of Muslim ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs over the past several years. Critics say China is doing that to try to eliminate Islam within its borders. Some detainees are seen here in leaked video blind-folded and shackled as they are transferred between places. Former detainees have told CNN they're kept in a massive network of detention camps where inside allegations of torture abound. China's government denies that and says they're just offering vocational training designed to fight extremism. But last year, we tried to see those camps for ourselves and were met with police.</s>RIVERS (on camera): Can you tell me what that is? Is this something you don't want us to see?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why you are here? Tell me, why you are here?</s>RIVERS: We're here to film what we believe is a camp. (voice-over): In London, Aziz tells us his father was buried in this tomb near his family home in central Xinjiang. In the past he visited him in the only way he could, by using Google Earth to see the tomb from above. But in June, the satellite image changed. Before rows of tombs now a largely empty flattened field. (on camera): What happened to your father's remains?</s>ELKUN: I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea.</s>RIVERS (voice-over): In a months-long investigation working with sources in the Uyghur community and analyzing hundreds of satellite images, CNN has found more than 100 cemeteries that have been destroyed. Most in just the last two years. Like this one in the town of Aksu. A cemetery first demolished and redeveloped with a manmade pond. Or this one in Xayar, distinctive white tombs leveled and simply built over. The AFP first reported on this destruction and visited some sites. At three different places, they said they found human bones. CNN has also found multiple government notices online. In one case giving families just 15 days to move remains. We showed these images to Ryan Thum, an anthropologist who studies Islam in China and uses satellite imagery to study this region. (on camera): There's no doubt in your mind what that is?</s>RYAN THUM, UYGHUR HISTORIAN, UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM: No, this is absolutely clear what this is. You can see the destruction encroaching and now if you look at Google Earth today, you'll see that this sort of flat surface now covers everything. And that is a phenomenon stretching right across the region of Xinjiang.</s>RIVERS (voice-over): In response, the Chinese government did not deny the cemetery destruction. They said in part, quote, governments in Xinjiang fully respect and guarantee the freedom of all ethnic groups to choose cemeteries and funeral and burial methods. In public documents, official reasons for the destruction include wanting to build, quote, civilized cemeteries to promote progress. Uyghur cemeteries are central to village life. A place to meet and connect, one generation to the last.</s>THUM: It's akin to, for an American, seeing Arlington Cemetery razed and the tomb of the unknown soldier dug up and paved over. It's a great act of desecration and a kind of open insult to Uyghur culture.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are stronger together.</s>RIVERS: Aziz believes it's a desecration that will have a backlash.</s>ELKUN: We cannot live anymore with them together. Because they are committing genocide against the Uyghur people.</s>RIVERS: In Xinjiang it seems even the dead can't rest.</s>RIVERS: And, Hala, one of the things you hear from activists often is they want more pressure from the international community against the Chinese government to stop this. Well, here in the United States, the U.S. Senate will likely take up and pass relatively soon the Uyghur Rights Act which would allow the U.S. government to place targeted sanctions on the Chinese government over these alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.</s>GORANI: All right, thanks very much, Matt Rivers. We have new developments to bring you in the case of former executive turned fugitive Carlos Ghosn. According to Lebanese state media, Lebanon has received a red notice warned from Interpol for Ghosn's arrest. That is where Ghosn surfaced after he secretly fled Japan earlier this week. He'd been awaiting trial for alleged financial misconduct but he claimed the Japanese justice system was rigged. Just hours ago, prosecutors in Japan raided Ghosn's home in Tokyo. Authorities are still trying to figure out just how he managed to slip out of the country unnoticed. There are new reports that Ghosn slipped through Turkey to get to Lebanon. Gul Tuysuz is following this for us. So, Gul, we're hearing several arrests have been made in Istanbul itself. What more can you tell us about that?</s>GUL TUYSUZ, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL PRODUCER: Well, flight data showed there was a private jet that took off from Osaka, Japan, and landed in Istanbul. And just a little while later, another flight took off, another private jet from Istanbul and landed in Beirut. That's one of the scenarios for how he managed to escape. And the Turkish authorities, the Istanbul prosecutor's office is looking into what happened in the airport in Istanbul. And right now they have already detained seven people, four of them pilots. One is a manager at a private chartered jet company, as well as two ground staff members. The airport that all of this apparently took place in is not Istanbul's main international airport. It's in fact, the one that's been decommissioned and now is used primarily for cargo flights and for these kinds of private jets. And so the Istanbul prosecutor's office, along with the police, are looking into what they can glean about how Ghosh got away. And some of the testimony that may come out from those seven people that have been detained might shed a small bit -- might uncover a small part of the puzzle as to how Ghosn engineered his audacious escape. Meanwhile, as you mentioned earlier, there's also a red notice out for Ghosn at this point. We don't know which country made that issue to Interpol. But red notices are more along the lines of requests as opposed to orders. So whether or not Japan could ever possibly get Ghosn back, of course, is something we don't know yet.</s>GORANI: And regarding how he fled, that's, of course, probably the question now foremost on people's minds because it was such a daring escape. I mean, it sounds like something out of a movie. There were these reports that maybe he'd been smuggled out in a music case. But Reuters is quoting Mr. Ghosn's wife Carole as saying that is fiction.</s>TUYSUZ: Well, so far, we have Reuters and the "Financial Times" reporting that he was in fact smuggled out of Japan by a private security company. There are allegations, as you mentioned, about a musical instrument. But really, just the sheer logistics of getting out of Japan, landing possibly in Turkey and then switching planes and going to Beirut, that just goes to show you the amount of coordination and logistical engineering that had to take place for Ghosh to be able to not just leave Japan but go and land here in Turkey and possibly go on to Beirut. So there's a lot of questions that are up in the air and, of course, the Japanese authorities, along with now Turkish authorities, are going to be looking into how it was that this escape was possible -- Hala.</s>GORANI: All right, thanks very much, Gul. Still ahead on CNN -- bad blood gets worse between the U.S. and Iran following the violence at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Plus, Israel's Prime Minister wants to make sure the corruption charges against him will not affect his election chances. Will his plans work?