Who are the Uyghurs?
The Uyghurs are a minority ethnic group, majority of whom are Muslim, in the Xinjiang province in China. The Uyghur culture, language and religious practices are quite different from that of the majority ethnic Han Chinese and have more similarities to central Asian cultures.
For the past few years, the Chinese government have started to crack down on semi-autonomous regions like Xinjiang in which they call an effort to “combat religious extremism” – a typical excuse used against Muslims. The Chinese government has forcibly imprisoned more than a million Uyghurs in what the government call “re-education centres” without charge, trial or a judicial process. However, it is clear from the testimonies of an overwhelming amount of Uyghur refugees and asylum seekers that these so-called “re-education centres” are really and truly internment camps used to brainwash and rid the ethnic Uyghurs of their cultural and religious practices.
This article seeks to share the experiences of former Uyghur and other Muslim minority ethnic detainees in such camps who are now refugees in other countries.
Gulbahar Jalilova
Gulbahar Jalilova escaped to Turkey after being imprisoned in an internment camp for 1 year, 3 months and 10 days. Contrary to the “re-education” the Chinese government says they provide Uyghurs, Jalilova’s experience was quite the contrary. She was forcibly arrested by the Chinese police in May 2017 in which she was taken to an internment camp. She was locked up in a room that was around “20 m squared with no window and approximately 40 women”. The room was secured “with heavy metal doors” and all the women “wore heavy chains on their feet”. Every morning, they were made to sing the Chinese national anthem and were subjected to a brainwashing scheme in which Jalilova was to give her full allegiance to the Communist Party. If they did not sing the given songs, they were denied food and were punished as well. Jalilova and her other inmates were also given “injections” which “stopped their periods” and made them forget about themselves and their loved ones “as if they were just pieces of meat”. Now released and living in Turkey, Jalilova has written down the names of the inmates she could remember and the reasons for their imprisonment.
Aliya. Locked up for travelling to Turkey.
Anisa. Locked up for keeping a photo of a girl praying.
Others arrested for wearing a scarf.
Jalilova was only released because she had Kazakh nationality and her family and friends fought for her release. A businesswoman and mother of three children, she was locked up and accused of terrorism due to her ethnicity, religion and culture. China’s justification of “combating terrorism” is clearly one that is simply used to justify their scheme of eradicating a whole culture and religion from China.
Xinjiang has essentially become a police state with numerous checkpoints and surveillance cameras in all places; Mosques, public toilets and even taxis. Uyghurs are searched regularly at these checkpoints where their phones are checked thoroughly, and their every move observed.
Sayragul Sauytbay
Jalilova’s story is not isolated. In fact, testimonies by former detainees show similar kinds of forced imprisonment and human rights abuses. Many of these testimonies contain accounts of torture and violence. For example, Sayragul Sauytbay an ethnic Kazakh from China was forcibly taken to a camp in November 2017 where she was made to teach Mandarin to the detainees. She had to make detainees repeat “I am Chinese, I am proud of China” and pronounce their love for Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. Sometimes, during her classes, two to four people would be violently removed. She was to never see these people again. Other times, during dinner, she used to hear people calling out for help. She also testifies to the torture and abuses done by the Chinese authority towards detainees. Sauytbay also testifies to the use of injections to make detainees docile – strikingly similar to the account given by Jalilova.
Sauytbay was released 4 months after her forced imprisonment and made to live in exile.
The UN Human Rights Panel estimates that from August 2018, ‘one million Uyghurs and other Muslims have been held in Xinjiang’s camps’ which the Chinese government has strongly denied. In addition to this, various evidences such as the leaked Chinese official documents contains language such as “absolutely no mercy” towards Xinjiang’s Muslims. Also, satellite images of the internment camps show how the camps are guarded by watch towers and “3 to 5-metre-high walls” demonstrating the extent to which the plight of Uyghur refugees must be heard.
Alfred Aierken
Uyghurs from Xinjiang who currently live in foreign countries are left no choice but to seek asylum in fear of possibly being locked up in a camp on their return to China. Alfred Aierken is a Uyghur student from China who moved to New York for studies. However, he was forced to seek asylum in the United States in fear of imprisonment if he returned home. What’s more is that Aierken has lost contact with his family in Xinjiang. The last that he knows of them is that his mother, father and some other relatives have been sentenced to more than 10 years in Xinjiang’s internment camps.
In Europe so far, Sweden and Germany have granted refugee status to China’s Uyghur Muslims with Uyghurs being automatically considered at risk of persecution in Xinjiang. Also, deportation of anyone from the Uyghur ethnic group has halted in light of the persecution they face at home in China. However, the UK are still yet to follow suit and are being urged by various human rights groups to do so.
In Bejing’s attempt to consolidate its control over all regions in China, the world is now witnessing the biggest mass internment of an ethnic group of the 21st century.
Written by Adila, December 2019.
Sources: