13+ | 5h 56min | Documentary | March 28, 2010
Even before the Uyghur genocide currently underway, Xinjiang was the site of terrible human suffering. On Dec. 8, 1994, 323 people died when fire broke out in the crowded Friendship Hall, where school children were entertaining visiting officials.
The city’s Communist Party cadres escaped with only minimal injuries, but 288 children died. In contrast to recent Party crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, roughly 80 percent of those victims were Mandarin-speaking Han.
Since then, the CCP has heavily censored news of the incident and vigorously cracked-down on protests. However, Xu Xin fully documented the tragic events and the Party’s efforts to whitewash the resulting suffering in his nearly six-hour documentary “Karamay.”…