Men were subjected to torture and forced organ harvesting, while women had their heads shaved... A witness who saw the inside of a Uyghur punishment camp has testified.
By Kan Tkeyama, Ren Furuseki
Translated by Turkistan Times
On the night of the 12th, Japan's ABEMA TV program "Kan Tkeyama's Saturday Night Program" broadcast the testimony of a female witness who had seen the inside of a punishment camp, detailing the atrocities in the camps established for Uyghurs.
This program was the fourth installment of a special series on the Chinese Communist Party's ongoing persecution of Uyghurs, an issue overshadowed by the Beijing Winter Olympics. Uyghur activists and intellectuals with knowledge of the situation were invited as guests.
A Witness's Account Exposing the Chinese Government's Brutality
Ms. Qelbinur Sidik, who joined via an online interview from the Netherlands, stated that she was originally a primary school teacher in East Turkistan but was forced to teach Chinese to inmates in a punishment camp starting in 2017.
According to Ms. Qelbinur, the punishment camp was surrounded by electric fences and high walls, just like a prison. It was heavily guarded by armed police and soldiers. Uyghurs were crammed into small rooms with 30-40 people and forced to sleep on the cold concrete floor.
Their daily food consisted of only a single steamed bun and a bowl of watery soup. The inmates' hands and feet were bound with iron chains, and they had to pass through an iron gate to enter the classroom. There were no desks in the classroom; they sat on low stools with their hands and feet shackled, their heads bowed low. During class, Ms. Qelbinur could hear the sounds of adults crying from the unbearable torture, but she did not dare to look at them directly.
The police not only forced the inmates to sing "red songs" praising the Chinese Communist Party and the national anthem every day but also frequently tortured them. Inmates, called by their numbers, would be taken away during class, during the lunch break, or even in the middle of the night. Their screams of agony from the torture would echo throughout the entire building.
Ms. Qelbinur mentioned torture methods including an "electric helmet," "electric gloves," "electric batons used to beat inmates," and an "electric chair." She also revealed that she had heard about healthier young people being sent to factories for forced labor and even being used as an "organ source," with their organs being forcibly harvested.
Atrocities in the Women's Camp
After half a year, Ms. Qelbinur was transferred to a women-only camp and forced to teach there. She said that most of the women held in this camp were between 18 and 40 years old. All of them had their heads shaved and were dressed in gray prison uniforms. Since the inmates' numbers reached five digits, Ms. Qelbinur estimated that there were at least over 10,000 women in the camp.
She testified that these women were given an unknown injection every week and forced to take a drug that stopped their menstruation. Due to the drug's side effects, some women experienced unstoppable bleeding and died from excessive blood loss. She even witnessed with her own eyes the body of a girl around 20 years old being carried out.
Ms. Qelbinur also emphasized that the inmates suffered indescribable humiliation. Listening to her testimony, one of the studio guests, Ms. Reyhan, could not control herself and repeatedly shed tears.
Although she was originally scheduled to work in the women's camp for six months, Ms. Qelbinur resigned after just three months, unable to bear the brutality and suffering from severe mental distress. Even as she was leaving, the authorities sternly warned and threatened her, saying, "Never reveal what you saw and heard in the camp to the outside world."
After the video ended, the program host, Tkeyama, explained the background of the interview: "Ms. Qelbinur has previously testified to CNN and the World Uyghur Congress. That is why we also decided to conduct a special interview with her."
You can view the original news report here.
