A testimony from our “100 Camp Testimonies” Book
I was born on December 3, 1973 in Ürümchi. I have been living in the Netherlands for more than 11 years. On June 23, 2019 I received a digital file (i.e. leaked Chinese government documents) containing sensitive information about hundreds of people who were detained/interned in East Turkistan for various reasons such as having relatives abroad, or being religious. This file was initially sent to someone outside of China, whom I will not name. This individual tried to share the file with other people, but they did not respond, and then the file was sent to me. One of the reasons for sharing the file with me was, I believe, that I speak Mandarin.
When I examined the file, I could tell that its information was genuine because the documents were signed by Chinese officials and they followed the Chinese Communist Party’s official format. The most astounding piece of information in this file was the number of people who were interned. In a matter of weeks, thousands of people were interned for ridiculous reasons such as using a traditional greeting among Muslims, i.e., assalamu alaikum. I immediately realized that I needed to find a way to expose the facts.
After I examined the file, I shared a screenshot of one page of the documents containing the signature of the well-known Chinese official Zhu Hailun (朱海仑) on Twitter, hoping to draw attention. There were notable responses from two academics: Adrian Zenz and Rian Thum. They were interested in the document and reached out to me, asking me to remove the Twitter post. I sent some of the documents to both of them. Zenz thought the documents were too important and sensitive to be disclosed, and further examination was merited. Thum introduced me to Dake Kang, a journalist at The Associated Press. I also sent the file to The New York Times. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists also reported on the leaked government documents, i.e., an exposé on the mass internment of Uyghurs, constituting a part of the China Cables investigation.
In July 2019, I started receiving friend requests, comments, and questions on Facebook, some of whom claimed to be well-known activists such as Shohret Hoshur, asking me to share the leaked documents with them. I was suspicious of their intentions, and their written requests contained lots of spelling and grammar mistakes, so I did not share the leaked documents with them.
In September 2019, my ex-husband Jasur Habibullah, who also resides in the Netherlands, came to visit me and his children. He told me that a friend of his back home in East Turkistan, who worked at the National Security Bureau, had asked him to go to Dubai for a meeting. We talked about whether he should go to this meeting or not. The Uyghur activists in the United States came to my mind, and I contacted them and asked them if they had ever tried to reach out to me on Facebook, to which they said no. I then realized that it was a game played by the Chinese regime, trying to threaten me on account of the leaked documents. I told my ex-husband about the leaked Chinese government documents, and he was shocked.
He initially agreed not to make the trip to Dubai, but after he returned home, his “friend” urgently requested him to travel to Dubai, and even offered to cover the travel expenses. So Jasur went to Dubai on September 9, 2019, where he stayed for one week. A group of Chinese national security agents, including his friend, met up with him. They took him to the desert and threatened him, telling him that if he died in the desert, his body would not be found for decades. They told him that if he worked for the National Security Agency, he could see his children more often, make his life easier, and become rich. They gave him a USB stick and said it contained a message to me from my mother-in-law.
Jasur came back to the Netherlands in the evening of September 14, and he was terrified. He immediately closed all the windows and curtains. We contemplated the problem from all sides and decided to report this encounter with the Chinese national security agents to the Dutch police, and we also gave them the USB stick for inspection. The media in the Netherlands wanted to speak with us. A famous journalist posted our story and it hit the headlines; as a result, our story became a hot topic on the social media. It was not our intention to be in the spotlight, but after what had happened, it was impossible to not get involved. In order to ensure the safety of our children, we had no choice but to expose the facts on social media.
When the media were reporting on Jasur’s story, the person who had sent me the leaked Chinese government documents told me that there were more documents. The China Cables investigation had half of the file, while The Karakax List constituted the other half. After this exposé, I started receiving messages of intimidation from everywhere. An editor from The Global Times, which is one of the CCP’s mouthpieces, texted me saying that if I ever received threats, they would be from my friends, my community, and not from the Chinese state, and that I should be careful. We contacted the Dutch police again and reported the threats. We try to stay vigilant on potential threats, and I am extra careful when I go out in the streets with my children. The police installed a security system in our house, and they will be notified if something happens.
Recently, I have started my own research. I have written a report, in which I compiled many, if not all, official documents issued by the Chinese regime in the last 70 years regarding its policies and campaigns toward/against Uyghurs, dating back to 1949. It also includes documents about the Chinese regime’s mass internment drive, shedding light on the operations of the internment camps as well as other relevant information such as the number of internees, detailed info on the internees, the names of Chinese officials. The report is currently in the process of being translated into English.
