A testimony from our “100 Camp Testimonies” Book
I was born in the city of Aksu, East Turkistan (aka. Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), which is situated in the north-western part of China. I joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in January 2004, and I am currently working as a senior optical engineer on various space telescope projects, such as WFIRST (the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope) for direct detection of habitable exoplanets. I would like to testify for Mutellip Nurmemet, Ehet Aman, Abbas Moniyaz, and Reyhangul Imam.
Mutellip Nurmemet came to the US in the fall of 2000 to pursue a master’s degree. He obtained his first master’s degree in management and business administration from Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts) in 2002, and his second master’s in business administration from California State University, Hayward (CSUH, Hayward, California) in 2005. My family had been living in San Ramon, which is 15 kilometers away from Hayward, to which place Mutellip moved from Boston with his wife in 2002, and we became close friends since then.
When my wife Amangul Eysa went to Ürümchi in Summer 2003 to visit her relatives, she traveled with Mutellip’s eight-month-old daughter Aydin and brought her to Mutellip’s parents at the Beijing Airport. Mutellip and his wife decided to send their daughter to their parents because both of them were studying in the US in that it was extremely difficult to raise a child when both of them were attending graduate schools full-time.
Mutellip and his wife returned to Xinjiang after finishing their studies in 2005, and joined his father’s business endeavor. He was arrested and sent to an internment camp in January 2018, and released in October the same year, but he died eight days after his release in an Ürümchi hospital. The cause of death was due to internal bleeding. Mutellip was 42 years old when he died. I got the information about his arrest and death from several acquaintances in California and through other sources. Mutellip’s father Nurmemet is currently (in 2021) held in an internment camp.
Mr. Ehet Aman was my Uyghur Literature teacher when I was attending Aksu No. 1 Secondary School (from 1970 to 1976). Mr. Aman taught several courses to my class during those six years. Subsequently, Mr. Aman was promoted to principal of the school, and had served in that position for 20 plus years until he retired. I was an outstanding student in that school, where I established very good relationships with all the teachers. Another reason why the Uyghur teachers liked me a lot was because the Cultural Revolution was taking place during that period, and most students did not like to study and also did not like teachers at all, while I was the only hard-working student, doing well academically and also guiding the students in the right direction (I served as the head of the Aksu No. 1 Secondary School Student Association from 1974 to 1976).
I always visited my secondary school and its Uyghur teachers when I went back to Aksu to visit my parents and relatives, including Mr. Aman. Such visits took place in 1991, 2006, 2007 and 2009, and every time I visited Mr. Aman and my other teachers.
Mr. Ehet Aman was arrested in 2018 and was sent to an internment camp, where he died several months later at the age of 78. I got the information about Mr. Aman’s arrest and his death from several acquaintances around the world.
Mr. Abbas Moniyaz, a Uyghur literature teacher at the same school (Aksu No. 1 Secondary School) and became a professional writer later, was also arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2018.
I went to Xinjiang to visit my mother and other relatives in 2006, 2007 and 2009. During each visit, I met many Uyghur middle school, high school and college students. When I was in Ürümchi in 2009, I went to several college campuses with the permission of Ürümchi police authorities. I was permitted to enter campuses and take pictures with students, but not allowed to give formal lectures or presentations. I was also not allowed to enter any classroom or meeting hall. I followed the orders of the authorities, met students, took pictures, and in some cases had short Q&A sessions. I was mainly asked the following three questions:
(1) How I managed to excel at Xinjiang University between 1978 and 1983
(2) How one should prepare oneself for studying abroad
(3) What do I do at NASA
Meeting me or communicating with me via emails became a crime since 2017. Most students who met me disappeared. Some students who contacted me via emails got arrested and were given long prison terms, and one such student was Reyhangul Imam.
Reyhangul Imam (in Chinese pinyin: Reyihangu Yimamu), born in 1988, was a history teacher in Kezilesu No. 1 High School. She was arrested in October 2017 and sentenced to 12 years in prison in March 2018 for having received a book from me more than 10 years ago when she was studying at Xinjiang University. The book that she received was in PDF format, which was sent to her via email.
I reckon that I met more than a thousand students in 2006, 2007 and 2009 in East Turkistan, and many of them have disappeared since then, especially since 2017. Some of them might still be alive in the internment camps or prisons.I did nothing against the laws of the People’s Republic of China, and I believe what the Chinese regime did to the students whom I met and to the ones who contacted me is a crime against humanity. I also believe that the Chinese regime has committed genocide against the Uyghurs in East Turkistan.