One survivor recounted her cruel experience in American media; also a teacher, who performed forced labor in these facilities, explained what was observed
Qelbinur Sidik, a primary school teacher, narrated the brutal torture and abuse to which members of Muslim minorities are subjected in Xinjiang, China.
Chained students, women raped in groups by security guards, extreme torture, deaths by suffocation, are just some of the cruel situations that these people live in the “vocational centers” installed in this country.
A journalistic team on CNN – led by journalists Ivan Watson and Rebecca Wright – has uncovered that little-known reality.
Qelbinur Sidik was teaching children at a school in Xinjiang, one day, without much explanation, she was taken by force to teach Mandarin to detainees in “vocational schools” for three months. You will never forget this traumatic experience. Learning the language is one of the conditions imposed by regional authorities on those who live there.
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She began her forced labor in March 2017. She went from caring for children between the ages of six and thirteen to older adults. When he first saw them he could not believe it: they were all chained, hand and foot, as if they were high-risk criminals.
“When the guards drank at night, the cops were counted as raping and torturing the girls,” the teacher said.
Sidik saw with his own eyes how a woman died as a result of these gang rapes. In a herd. “There was no spark of life on his face. His cheeks were colorless, he wasn’t breathing,” he recalled. The victim was being taken by other guards and a female police officer confirmed to her what had happened: torture, rape and the consequent murder.
The transformation of the detainees was evident as the days went by. Those “students in the process of re-education” who first arrived at the center where she worked looked healthy, in good physical condition and well fed. However, within a few days, it was all skin and bones. On many occasions, when he turned to write on the board, he would hear many of those present weeping in shame. He also heard other sounds, more guttural and strange, coming from other rooms in the building. There were no classes, only torture.
After the traumatic experience, Sidik decided to emigrate from China. He now lives with his family in Holland.
Qelbinur Sidik taught children at a school in Xinjiang. CNN photo
One of the victims and the harassment
Tursunay Ziyawudun was (is) one of the victims. She was arrested in April 2017 for the first time. She had committed no crime, only wearing her veil and being seen as a woman fulfilling religious mandates. She was taken to the “Xinyu County Vocational School” in Xinjiang.
“Vocational” is the euphemism the regime uses to soften the true identity of its detention camps. She was imprisoned for a month. But a year later, she was again apprehended.
Ziyawudun was in a cell with 20 other women. During the day I received some food and water. In the bathroom, he recounted, he could go for a maximum of five minutes a day. Exceeding the time in the toilet could have consequences: “Those who spent more time received electric shocks with sticks,” he said.
The interrogations, strange for being a supposed vocational school, were endless. The guards wanted to know why she stayed with her husband Halmirza Halik in Kazakhstan for five years before returning to China in 2017. They did so in the blows. But in one of these sessions the hell was complete: Ziyawudun claimed that two female guards took her to another room where they placed her on a table. “They inserted a paralyzing cane into me and electrocuted me with it. I fainted.”
Ten days later, the worst came back. She was taken out of her cell and taken to another side. “In the room next door I heard a girl crying. I saw about 5 or 6 men entering this room. I thought they were torturing her. But then they raped me in a group. After that I I realized what they had done to her too. They were extremely sadistic, “said the victim, who now lives in the United States.
He arrived in America after a long journey. She was released and in September 2019 she was warned by the regime: she could not talk to anyone about what she had experienced in this “vocational” center. She then began the journey of reunion with her husband, who was waiting for her on the border with Kazakhstan. But there, in the days that followed and as a result of the multiple rapes, she had severe vaginal bleeding. Once on the other side of the border, she was flown to the United States, where she managed to survive.
Tursunay Ziyawudun. Photo of livingotherwise.com
The denial of abuse
“There is no systematic sexual assault or abuse against women in Xinjiang,” the Chinese government said in response to the US news channel. However, the brave testimonies of women who managed to get out of these centers alive and others who participated in the teaching that was dictated there and who are no longer there, confirm the most horrible crimes committed against them.
With information from infobae.com