Uyghurs in Xinjiang Re-Education Camps Forced to Express Remorse Over Travel Abroad
Oct. 13, 2017 - Authorities in Korla (in Chinese, Kuerle) city, in northwest China’s
Xinjiang region are detaining ethnic Uyghurs in re-education camps for traveling overseas
and refusing to free them until they admit it was “wrong” to have left the country,
according to a security official.
Last month, sources told RFA’s Uyghur Service that re-education camps in Ghulja (Yining)
county, in Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture, and Korla (Kuerle) city, in
neighboring Bayin’gholin Mongol (Bayinguoleng Menggu) Autonomous Prefecture, hold at least
3,600 inmates and are labeled “career development centers” in a bid to mask their true
nature.
Many of those detained are Muslim Uyghurs who have been accused of harboring “extremist”
views after returning to the Xinjiang region from government sanctioned visits to family
members or religious studies at Islamic universities in countries including Turkey and
Egypt.
The director of Public Security in Korla’s Qara Yulghun village recently told RFA that
while going abroad is a “citizen’s right,” those who travel overseas are “influenced by
extremism and other things” and his department is determined to force them to acknowledge
it.
Anyone who is detained at a re-education camp after having travelled abroad will first be
interrogated by instructors about their impressions and how the experience had changed
them, said the director, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“For example, we ask whether the lifestyle is the same and what the food is like,” he
said.
“Then we ask, ‘What is the living standard like and what influenced you? Did you meet
people who had [relocated from] China or anyone who cannot return because they have bad
intentions?”
Specifically, the director said, instructors ask detainees whether there are Uyghurs in
the country they visited, and whether they met with them or tried to contact them, but
“the majority say that they only travelled with a tour company and that none of what we
ask them occurred.”
Only after being subjected to “law and regulation education” do the detainees express
“remorse” for having left the country and spoken with neighbors about what impressed them
about their visit, he said.
“During the re-education, they will say … “Yes, it was a mistake to travel abroad, when
the [ruling Communist] Party and government have created such a high living standard in
our own country—we were ungrateful when we decided to go to elsewhere,’” the director
said.
“With the understanding of the regulations of our country, they naturally realize that
what they have experienced and their reaction [to having travelled] is against the rule of
law here. So they, themselves, state that what they have thought and done is
inappropriate.”
The director told RFA that, in some cases, detainees require coaching until they
understand what they have done “wrong.”
“When they bring us their letter of remorse, we review it and tell them what is incorrect
or missing, and we ask them to correct it,” he said.
“If the detainees don’t write a letter of remorse, or if the letter is not comprehensive,
they will have to be re-educated [about traveling abroad] until they produce one that is
satisfactory.”
Only at that point are detainees permitted to return to their “studies” for general
re-education, and potentially be granted the right to return to their homes and families.
“We tell them that if they achieve a satisfactory result, they can resume their
[re-education] sooner,” he said.
“If they don’t study hard and cure their disease, we have no choice but to continue giving
them medicine. When the disease is cured, they will feel it themselves, and we can also
see it from their actions and behavior.”
Vast network
China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on
Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and
language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.
While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China
say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic
policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead
since 2009.
Earlier this week, sources told RFA that authorities in two villages in Hotan (Hetian)
prefecture’s Qaraqash (Moyu) county had been ordered to send 40 percent of area residents
to re-education camps, and that they are struggling to meet the quota.
Investigations by RFA suggest there is a vast network of re-education camps throughout the
Xinjiang region.
Sources indicate that there are almost no majority ethnic Han Chinese held in the Xinjiang
camps, and that the number of detainees in the region’s south—where the highest
concentration of Uyghurs are based—far surpasses that in the north.
Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Alim Seytoff. Written
in English by Joshua Lipes.
View this s tory online at:
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/camps-10132017150431.html
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