The guards beat Gulbahar Jelilova so harshly that she had to be taken to the camp hospital. While there, she saw two young women in orange uniforms. A fellow patient told her they were being taken “to sleep”. When Jelilova naively asked why they could not sleep in their rooms, the patient explained they were being put to sleep “forever” by lethal injection. Later, Jelilova witnessed a female inmate being beaten to death. The testimony heard by the Uyghur Tribunal today indicates Uyghurs are being murdered in the camp system, though the scale of the killings is unknown.
KILLING UYGHURS
Omer Rozi, a former qadi or Islamic judge, was detained in four camps over a period of three years. He was beaten daily, hung and beaten with wooden batons, deprived of food and sleep, and suspended for hours in cold, filthy water. He said a fellow inmate tried to fight back against his tormentors despite his hands and feet being shackled. The inmate was executed by firing squad and his body mutilated by multiple volleys. The qadi was forced to collect the dead inmate’s flesh. Jelilova similarly testified to seeing a female inmate being beaten to death after protesting her innocence.
It is unclear if killings are being carried out systematically or en masse. Yesterday, Omar Bekali said seven-to-ten men disappeared from his cell of 40 each week (he did not know if they were killed). Today, Mihrigul Tursun testified to seeing nine women die from their injuries out of her cell of 60 over the course of two months. Jelilova, in another camp, noted that after being medically examined, women were put into groups. The younger women usually disappeared shortly afterwards. Jelilova believes they were taken away for their organs to be harvested, a common belief in the camps.
Nathan Ruser of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has used satellite imagery to identify camps in northwestern China. He believes there are around 380 facilities ranging from “re-education” camps to high security prisons, consistent with estimates of a million Uyghurs being detained. A mixture of neglect, torture, and intentional killing for organs across camps would mean that potentially thousands of healthy Uyghurs are dying each year.
DESTROYING ISLAM
The Uyghur Tribunal also heard evidence today of the destruction of Islamic buildings. Around a third of mosques in Xinjiang have been demolished and another third damaged. Those mosques that remain intact are mostly in Urumqi and Kashgar, cities more accessible to foreign observers. However, almost all are shuttered. Between 400-500 Muslim cemeteries have also been desecrated.
Similarly, satellite imagery suggests around 17 percent of historical or cultural sites, supposedly protected under Chinese law, have been destroyed. Among the sites destroyed is the famous Ordam Mazar—a shrine to Muslim martyr Ali Arslan Khan.
The hearing continues tomorrow.
Samuel is a trainee solicitor and postgraduate at Cardiff University. He is active in several U.K.-based organisations campaigning on behalf of Hong Kong and BNOs. His research interests include transitional justice and the rule of law.