2023-07-22 09:45:00
What was your life like before March 2017?
I was a teacher in Ürümqi (the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). I was teaching Mandarin at school and everything was going normally. The only thing that was hard to bear was the enormous pressure put on the students to speak exclusively Mandarin. My students were mostly Uyghurs. For my part, my father is Uyghur and my mother is Uzbek.
One day, you were ordered to go to the Communist Party office. For what stated purpose?
On February 28, 2017, I was summoned by the director of my school who asked me to go to the regional party office. I had no idea why I had been summoned. I was just informed that I was going to teach Mandarin. In fact, I was sent to a re-education camp. It was brainwashing. They were to be taught party songs. We had the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping to thank.
Before entering, we had no knowledge of what was happening in the region and in these camps?
We were aware of the existence of these camps. Because, since 2014, teachers had alerted us but they came from other regions. We had also received information from a teacher whose three brothers had been sent to these camps. But, before 2017, Ürümqi and the Uyghurs in the region were thought to be “spared”. I quickly realized that was not the case. I saw with my own eyes what was going on there.
Can you describe what you saw there?
I spent six months in a first camp for men. All the detainees wore the same uniform: gray with their number written in orange. They slept on the floor, on cement. The conditions inside were appalling. I have never seen any inmates take a shower. I also witnessed many violent scenes… Every Monday, they were administered medication, the composition of which was unknown. What we do know is that they were very weak. They all looked half dead. I was also transferred for three months to a camp for women. The violence was hidden, but I heard a lot. They were 10,000 to be locked up, their heads had been shaved. And they too had to take pills every week. Women stopped menstruating after a while. 90% of them were between 18 and 40 years old.
“A Belgian doctor told me that I had been sterilized in China. I did not know…”
Because they were old enough to give birth?
It was linked to the government’s policy of forced sterilization, to bring down the population of the Uyghur people and others in the region. Gradually, after this interference of drugs, their menstruation stopped. There was also sexual abuse, harassment, rape and all kinds of torture. During interrogations, sometimes during the night, officers took some of them and took them to another room where there were no cameras to rape them in turn.
How do we manage to leave? Is it possible to say “no, I don’t want to work in these camps and collaborate with this system”?
When I saw what was happening inside, I was completely distraught. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was obviously sad to contribute to this oppressive system. It was beyond my strength. Among the women, I was supposed to stay for six months, but three months after entering the camp, I fell very ill. I had to be hospitalized. I quit completely and was forced to retire. I went to the Netherlands. The official reason was for me to be cared for there, near my daughter. She lives there. Except that I also took the opportunity to flee.
The authorities also forcibly implanted an IUD in you…
I received a summons from the local office (she pulls out a notebook of A4 sheets to show us the summonses received by WeChat). A directive that I had to undergo an operation: the installation of an IUD. I prepared documents which confirmed that I was the mother of a girl. I begged them not to operate on me because I didn’t want any more children. They didn’t accept and so I had this operation. All women between the ages of 18 and 59 must go to this office. It is stated that if I did not cooperate, I would have to go to the police station to be questioned on the Tiger chair.
The authorities weren’t afraid of you testifying?
Before I could leave, when one is sent to these camps to teach, I had to sign several confidentiality documents. My family and my colleagues were not aware of what was happening, of what I was going through. The only person who knew was the local officer who represented the Communist Party. Even my school principal didn’t know, nor did the police in my neighborhood. They were state secrets. I was able to leave because I am half Uzbek and I had received an invitation letter from my daughter. My Uighur husband couldn’t leave.
A former Chinese policeman testifies to the torture inflicted on the Uyghurs: “We beat them until they were bruised”
Is your divorce linked to this departure?
We didn’t divorce by choice. We were forced into it. On February 18, 2021, a Chinese officer called me through WeChat (she shows another sheet, a screenshot of the conversation). Initially, this man was very smiling, he encouraged me to cooperate with the government, because I had already taken the floor to testify. When I said “no”, his face completely changed. He became aggressive, intimidated me, saying that my family would pay the consequences. He put my husband on the phone and he began to insult me violently. It surprised me, because it was the first time. He told me it was over and he wanted a divorce. I think he was forced. I never heard from him again.
You testified at the human rights summit in Geneva, but also in Belgium before Belgian deputies and throughout the world. Do these speeches have a cathartic effect?
I couldn’t speak right away when I arrived. Already, it took me three to four months to recover. It was also a time when I was very anxious. I was afraid of the repercussions that my departure would have on my family. Afterwards, I decided to testify, but first anonymously. Except my identity leaked after a portrait of the Guardian. Finally, it freed me. Today, every time I testify, I feel that it relieves me because I help to change things.
This interview took place during Geneva Summit for Human Rights.
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