{"id":890,"date":"2021-10-15T18:30:02","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T15:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/?p=890"},"modified":"2021-10-15T18:30:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T15:30:04","slug":"china-smears-uyghur-woman-who-testified-about-forced-sterilizationnew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/china-smears-uyghur-woman-who-testified-about-forced-sterilizationnew\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINA SMEARS UYGHUR WOMAN WHO TESTIFIED ABOUT FORCED STERILIZATIONNEW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RFA<\/a>. 14 October 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Below is an article published by RFA.<\/a> Photo:Photo courtesy of Zumrat Dawut.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese officials have denounced a former Uyghur internment camp detainee who was forcibly sterilized about three years ago and has spoken publicly about her ordeal, as part of an ongoing smear campaign to discredit those who have exposed abuses against the mostly Muslim minority group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Zumrat Dawut, who came to the U.S. with her family via Pakistan in 2019, had testified about her experience in the camps, where she was subjected to forced sterilization, providing news outlets and human rights organizations with strong evidence of the Chinese government\u2019s alleged genocidal policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced her in April along with other former residents of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) who had testified about abuses in the region while living abroad as liars, criminals, terrorists, and persons of \u201cbad morality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a press conference Monday in Beijing, XUAR government officials defended their policies concerning Uyghur women and responded to recent reports that they had sold the assets of detained Uyghur businesspeople online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese officials hold periodic press conferences to counter condemnation of a litany of documented abuses against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, including confinement in mass internment camps, sexual assaults, forced abortions and birth control measures, and forced labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and others in \u201cre-education\u201d camps since 2017, while dismissing widely documented evidence that it has mistreated Muslims living inside and outside the camps, including testimony from former detainees and guards describing widespread abuses in interviews with RFA and other media outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese officials say the camps are vocational training facilities where Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are taught skills in an effort to prevent religious extremism and terrorism in the region, where about 12 million Uyghurs live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the press conference, Xinjiang government spokesman Xu Guixiang discussed what he called the \u201cprotection of women\u2019s rights and interests\u201d in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome anti-China forces falsely claim that Xinjiang has severely violated the rights and interests of ethnic minority women, and spread lies about the so-called forced birth control and forced labor by ethnic minority women,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFacts have proved that with the continuous enhancement of the protection of women\u2019s rights and interests in Xinjiang, the development environment of women of all ethnic groups has been continuously improved, the level of education has been significantly improved, the awareness of rights protection of marriage, family and property has increased significantly, and people\u2019s livelihoods and welfare have been steadily improved,\u201d Xu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018They wanted to attack me psychologically\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When discussing policies on Uyghur women, Xu attacked Zumrat, who was forced to undergo sterilization surgery three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He rejected statements that Zumrat previously made that she had been held in a \u201ctraining center,\u201d that she and other detained Uyghur women were forced to take contraceptives, and that she had been forced to undergo sterilization surgery. He also denied that her \u201crelatives\u201d\u2014 Han Chinese assigned to monitor the homes of Uyghurs \u2014 had forced her to eat pork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xu also said that Zumrat\u2019s father had never been questioned by police and did not die in custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Xu told the audience that the woman\u2019s older brother said that her Han \u201crelative\u201d was actually a relative of Zumrat\u2019s brother, Abduhelil Dawut, and that his \u201crelative\u201d never once spent the night in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xu went on to say that in January 2018, Zumrat\u2019s brother\u2019s \u201crelative\u201d invited Zumrat, along with her brother and sister-in-law, to come to his house, and that the relative\u2019s mother was an ethnic Hui Muslim, which meant that that it was impossible that she would have served pork to the guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Xinjiang regional government has smeared other former Uyghur female detainees, including Tursunay Ziyawudun, Qelbinur Sidiq, and Sayragul Sauytbay, who have testified about the abuse they endured or witnessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zumrat told RFA on Monday that she was surprised that Xu had discredited her at the press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey took advantage of a time when I was ill and weak,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was as though they wanted to attack me psychologically. \u2026 On top of that, today is exactly two years since the day my father died. The time of my surgery occurred at the same time as the two-year anniversary of his death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zumrat also said that she has ample evidence that she was in an internment camp, underwent forced sterilization surgery, and had Han Chinese \u201crelatives\u201d inside her home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven now, compared to other survivors, whether we\u2019re talking about the \u2018relatives\u2019 program or other things, I witnessed it all and have photographs I took with me when I left,\u201d she said. \u201cThey cannot deny this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t only one [\u2018relative\u2019] in my house. My daughter was five years old at the time, and even she had a Han Chinese \u2018relative,\u2019\u201d Zumrat said. \u201cI can\u2019t remember their names right now, but I have photos of all of them. I even have photos when they were lying down and sleeping on the quilts in my home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zumrat pointed out that Xu was correct in stating that the mother of her older brother\u2019s \u201crelative,\u201d who is surnamed Zhao, was an ethnic Hui, but that the official failed to mention that Zhao\u2019s father was Han Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhao renounced her own family and married a Han Chinese man, saying that she had become Han herself and started eating pork, Zumrat said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe gave us [pork],\u201d she said. \u201cShe told us that it was necessary to slowly, gradually change Muslim [halal] rules. She said things like that, like it was nothing. And she was actually a police officer, this woman, Zhao.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hospital recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The press conference coincided with Zumrat\u2019s recovery from a hysterectomy at a hospital in northern Virginia on Oct. 7. She had to undergo the operation because the forced sterilization surgery had damaged her uterus and endangered her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A written statement Zumrat submitted to her gynecologist said she had become infertile approximately three years ago after undergoing forced surgery in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her physician, Dr. Devin Miller, said in a letter obtained by RFA that the forced sterilization left Zumrat unable to have children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uyghur human rights activist Rahima Mahmut said Uyghur women have been the greatest source of firsthand information about the internment camps in Xinjiang and that China is attacking those who have been released because they have exposed the government\u2019s wrongdoings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is primarily these brave women of ours who have spoken about the terrifying things inside [the camps],\u201d she told RFA. \u201cThey have spurred discussion in the world by speaking in detail about intensely private things, things that people are normally too afraid to speak about. There has been a great power in this. This is why China is attacking them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahmut also said that China is using all means to cover up its crimes, including denouncing all former camp detainees as liars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy are they attacking Uyghur women to this degree nonstop?\u201d she asked \u201cIt\u2019s because they have exposed China\u2019s real motives. These women have done the best job in raising awareness of China\u2019s crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. and other Western states have determined that the treatment of Uyghurs constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity. They also have imposed unilateral sanctions on relevant individuals and entities in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

XUAR government officials at the press conference also defended the seizure and online auction of property confiscated from detained Uyghur businesspeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has sold assets totaling more than U.S. $80 million, according to a Wall Street Journal<\/em> report based on information compiled by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) and published in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

XUAR government spokesman Elijan Inayet defended the sales of the assets, telling attendees at the press conference that the individuals who owned them had been arrested and imprisoned on charges such as terrorism, extremism, inciting ethnic hatred, and disturbing the social order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the UHRP report said that the individuals detained for such charges had been jailed \u201cin a highly secretive process of arrest and trial that appears to fall outside judicial due process, in violation of China\u2019s own laws.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RFA. 14 October 2021 Below is an article published by RFA. Photo:Photo courtesy of Zumrat Dawut. Chinese officials have denounced a former Uyghur internment camp detainee who was forcibly sterilized about three years ago and has spoken publicly about her ordeal, as part<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":891,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions\/891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}