A survivor told the American media about her cruel experience; a teacher who performed forced labor in these facilities also related what she observed
Qelbinur Sidik, an elementary school teacher, spoke of the brutal torture and mistreatment of members of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, China.
Chained students, women gang rape by security agents, extreme torture, asphyxiation deaths are just some of the cruel situations these people face in the “vocational training” installed in that country.
A CNN journalism team – led by journalists Ivan Watson and Rebecca Wright – has uncovered that little-known reality.
Qelbinur Sidik was teaching children at a Xinjiang school, one day, without much explanation, she was forcibly taken to teach inmates Mandarin in “vocational schools” for three months. You will never forget that traumatic experience. Learning the language is one of the conditions that regional authorities impose on those who live there.
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She started her compulsory job in March 2017. She went from serving children between the ages of six and thirteen to older adults. When he first saw them, he couldn’t believe it: they were all chained, hand and foot, as if they were very dangerous criminals.
“When the guards drank at night, the police officers would tell each other how they raped and tortured the girls,” the teacher said.
Sidik saw with her own eyes how a woman died as a result of these gang rapes. In herd. There was not a ray of life on his face. His cheeks were colorless, he wasn’t breathing, ”he recalled. The victim was taken by other guards and a policewoman confirmed to her what had happened: torture, rape and the resulting murder.
The transformation of the inmates was evident as the days passed. The “re-education students” who came to the center where she first worked were seen as healthy, in good physical shape and well-fed. However, within a few days they were all skin and bone. On many occasions, as he turned to write on the board, he heard many of those present crying in shame. He also heard other sounds, more guttural and strange, coming from other rooms in the building. There were no classes there, just torture.
After the traumatic experience, Sidik decided to emigrate from China. Now he lives with his family in the Netherlands.
Qelbinur Sidik taught children at a school in Xinjiang. CNN photo
One of the victims and the annoyances
Tursunay Ziyawudun was (is) one of the victims. She was first arrested in April 2017. She had not committed any crime, just to wear her veil and be seen as a woman who adhered to religious mandates. She was taken to Xinyuan County Vocational School in Xinjiang.
“Vocational training” is the euphemism the regime uses to soften the true identities of its detention camps. He was imprisoned for a month. But a year later she was arrested again.
Ziyawudun was in a cell with twenty other women. During the day he got some food and drink. She said she was allowed to go to the bathroom for a maximum of five minutes a day. If he exceeded the time in the toilet, he could have the consequences: “Those who spent more time received electric shocks with sticks,” he said.
The interrogations, strange for an alleged 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 it by hitting. But in one of those sessions, hell was complete: Ziyawudun claimed that two female guards took her to another room where they placed her on a table. ‘They put in a tranquilizer stick and shocked me with it. I fainted”
Ten days later the worst returned. She was taken from her cell and taken elsewhere. ‘In the next room I heard a girl crying. I saw about 5 or 6 men enter that room. I thought they were torturing her. But then they raped me. Then I realized what had also been done to her. 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 that she could not talk to anyone about what she had experienced in that “professional” center. Then she started the path of reunification with her husband, who was waiting for her on the border with Kazakhstan. But there, in the following days and as a result of multiple rapes, she started to have 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 from livingotherwise.com
Denial of Abuse
“There is no systematic sexual assault or abuse against women in Xinjiang,” the Chinese government said in response to the North American news network. However, the courageous testimonies of women who managed to leave these centers alive and others who took part in the education that was taught there and who are no longer present, confirm the most heinous crimes committed against them.
With information from infobae.com