A testimony from our “100 Camp Testimonies” Book
I was born on June 3, 1974 in Qoychi village, Qaraqash County, Khotan Prefecture, East Turkistan. I currently reside in Sweden. I would like to testify for my relatives back in East Turkistan.
When I was 18 years old, still in high school, I was detained for studying Islam in secret. Although it was not a crime at the time, I was detained nonetheless and taken to a juvenile detention center, where I was held for three months. During my detention I got very sick, so I was sent to a hospital. The doctors gave up on my treatment and sent me home. When I recovered, I decided to flee East Turkistan as I realized that my life was in grave danger.
I left East Turkistan on January 19, 1995. I first traveled to Pakistan, where I lived for nine years. Subsequently, I came to Sweden through the United Nation’s resettlement program.
I regularly called my mother and other family members. Whenever we talked on the phone, we would avoid speaking about any politically sensitive matters because I knew that it might get my family into trouble. I used public telephones to call my family. Our calls were monitored by the Chinese police, so they knew what we talked about. Sometimes, I did not make direct phone calls because my family was blacklisted by the local authority in Khotan, the reason for which was that I lived abroad in Sweden, which was considered unacceptable by the Chinese authority. My father and brother had tried to persuade me, over the phone, to return to East Turkistan, saying that it was safe for me to return home. However, I told them that I did not want to return as I had settled down in Sweden.
I am a member of the Uyghur Committee in Sweden, which was considered unacceptable by the Chinese authorities.
Memet Eysa, my father, with whom I have lost all contact since 2015. In the past, the police in Qoychi village often subjected my father to public shame parade, and forced him to ride a horse and arrest people. Back in 2002, on the second day of Eid al-Adha as my family was celebrating this Muslim holiday, the Chinese police showed up and took my father away. They put him in the warehouse that was used for storing grains in Qoychi village (Khotan). Besides my father, they also detained around 50 other parents, whose children went abroad. They were not allowed to sleep on the floor, and to discourage them from doing so the police kept the floor wet. The local authority basically turned the warehouse into a small detention camp and ran it for 27 days. I had a classmate named Abdul Hekim, who had dissenting political opinions and was detained a couple of times, and he later left East Turkistan too. His mother was detained because of him, and she died at the age of 57 while being held in that detention camp. My father was tortured during his detention. He was a healthy and strong man before his detention, but he had serious problems with his eyes after his release.
Circa 2003, my family was harassed by a policeman from Turpan repeatedly, who would bring his wife and children to live with my family for a whole week each time they “visited” (sometimes even longer). During these visits, the policeman would monitor and surveil the behavior of my family, and then determined whether my family members needed to be sent to a “reeducation” camp. Although my father never mentioned this to me directly, I learned about it via one of my classmates. During the phone call conversations with my mother, she sometimes would make indirect references to the policeman.
Following his release from the detention camp, my father was forced by the local authority to give speeches that praised the Chinese regime, effectively becoming the regime’s propaganda. The regime wanted to show the other villagers that even though I lived abroad, my family was still loyal to the Chinese regime. As a part of the regime’s propaganda, the local authority gave some small gifts to my family such as cooking oil, and the local officials also got their photos taken together with my family, showing that the Communist Party was good to the common people, and that my family was loyal to the Party.
Following the July 5 Ürümchi Uprising (in 2009), I took part in a demonstration to raise awareness in Sweden against the Chinese regime’s heavy crackdown. At that time, a policeman talked to my family in East Turkistan, insisting that they persuade me to return home. My mother became anxious and asked me to return home on the phone. She was told that if I did not return voluntarily, China had the power to ask Sweden to deport me.
Also in 2009, I received repeated phone calls, several times a day, from China, which caused me to have psychological stress. I know for a fact that other members of the Uyghur Committee in Sweden also received similar phone calls. We reported it to the Swedish police, and the unknown calls eventually stopped.
It is worth mentioning that between 2002 and 2015, there might have been other incidents that I was not aware of with respect to my parents as they could not tell me directly on the phone due to police monitoring. For instance, I learned that on one occasion the police carried out a midnight search at my parents’ house, during which they took some valuables from my parents. If my parents had reported such thefts, it would have caused/brought them more trouble.
The last time I was able to speak to my parents on WeChat was back in 2015, on the second day of Muslim holiday. All my relatives gathered together at my parents’ house, celebrating Eid. It was a very short conversation with my relatives, and I was told not to call them again. A few days later, a former classmate of mine called me and asked me to stop calling my family because they could get themselves into serious trouble with the Chinese authorities. This warning made me worry about my family, so I tried to call some of my relatives to inquire about my parents, but I could not reach them despite having called them several times.
The Chinese regime made my family cut off all communication with me, and has carried out retaliatory actions against my family because of me. I cannot enjoy a basic human right—the right to contact my family members. Nobody in my family have any criminal record. The reasons for their persecution are as follows: a) because they are Uyghur; b) because I am an activist.
I have not received any news about my parents since 2015. I do not know whether they are alive or dead. I can say the same thing regarding all my other relatives and my nine siblings: Maynurhan, Mahmut, Ehmet, Rabiye, Qurban, Zeynep, Giiljennet, Melike, and Sudiye.