TIMECODE

DIALOGUE

00:00:00

GFX:

101

EAST

00:00:06

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  In China’s Western Border region of Xinjiang the Government has launched a widespread crackdown on its Muslim Uighur population.

[STREET PROTEST]

00:00:20

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  An estimated one million Uighurs have reportedly been forced into detention camps for so-called re-education. 

[STREET PROTEST]

00:00:31

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  The Chinese Government says it’s to prevent to religious extremism.

00:00:37

[NEWS FOOTAGE]

SHOHRAT ZAKIR:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

Xinjiang has fought terrorism resolutely. 

The security, well-being and happiness of

all ethnic groups has been greatly increased.

00:00:48

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Those who can are leaving the country, but are finding China’s growing international reach hard to escape.

00:00:56

STEVE CHAO:  I’m Steve Chao.  On this episode of 101 East we follow the Uighurs fleeing repression and ask can they find a save refuge.

00:01:05

GFX:

UIGHURS:  NOWHERE TO CALL HOME

A FILM BY STEVE CHAO & JENNI HENDERSON

00:01:13

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Istanbul, for centuries the Turkish city was a key trading post along the ancient Silk Road running from China to Europe.  Today it’s the end point in the long journey for Uighurs escaping what they say is China’s harsh rule.  Uighurs like Abduweli Ayup.

00:01:33

ABDUWELI AYUP:  When I feel I am in Turkey I feel thankful that oh I can see the sky.  Because I haven’t seen sunshine for a long time.  So for me sunshine is freedom

00:01:48

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Abduweli is from the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang.  It’s there he devoted his life to teaching young children the Uighur language. 

00:01:58

ABDUWELI AYUP:  I love my language.  It’s beautiful.  Uighur is my mother language.  It’s more than one thousand five hundred years written history, and written literature. 

00:02:12

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  But Abduweli says one day Chinese authorities suddenly banned students from learning Uighur, and he was thrown in gaol.

00:02:26

STEVE CHAO:  Abduweli.  Nice to meet you.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Nice to meet you too.

STEVE CHAO:  Steve from 101 East.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Now having fled to Turkey, Abduweli is speaking about China’s secret detention centres, where he says Uighurs are being beaten and tortured.  It haunts him to this day.

00:02:41

STEVE CHAO:  It’s always on your mind.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Yeah. 

STEVE CHAO:  There’s no escaping it.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  No.  Because our soul, our heart, is still there being tortured.  We are physically here, my body is here. But my soul is still there.

00:03:00

[SATELLITE IMAGE]

GFX:

CHINA

XINJIANG

00:03:01

[SATELLITE IMAGE]

GFX:

NUMBER THREE DETENTION CENTRE

NUMBER SIX DETENTION CENTRE

MIDONG DETENTION CENTRE

00:03:01

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  For years the Chinese Government denied the existence of these facilities.  But with satellite imagery we were able to locate where Abduweli was gaoled.  Over a period of fifteen months he says he was moved between these three centres in the city of Urumqi.  Other Muslims have also reported being held in these locations. 

  00:03:26

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  A human rights group secretly recorded footage inside this centre.  Chinese officials say they are for voluntary job training.  But the individual cells with bars, locks and surveillance cameras suggest something much different.  Experts say China has built more than a hundred to imprison Uighurs.  Abduweli likens them to concentration camps.

00:03:54

ABDUWELI AYUP:  They’re insane.  Those officials, insane.

STEVE CHAO:  What do you their end goal is?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  They want to ah delete Uighur.  They want them ah to believe Chinese Communist Party as a god.  Ah this is what ah Hitler done to ah Israel people, Jewish people.

STEVE CHAO:  You just said that you see the Chinese Government acting like Hitler.  Do you believe that’s true?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Yeah it’s true.  Because ah you put more than one million in concentration camp, what word can describe it?

00:04:47

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Abduweli’s account of his treatment within the walls of the facilities is horrific.

00:04:53

ABDUWELI AYUP:  First day is very bad.  The first thing they ask me to take off my clothes.  Strip off my clothes.  And they slapped my, slapped my buttock.  They abused me.  More than twenty Chinese guy.

STEVE CHAO:  When you say they abused you how?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  That any man cannot accept that.  So-

STEVE CHAO:  You’re saying they raped you?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Yeah.  So I cannot [becomes emotional] I can’t forget that.  I didn’t tell anybody until until now.  I hadn’t tell anybody.  Because I’m, I feel shame.  And in the morning three police asked me, one day if you guys in power what you will what you will do to us.  I said, look I’m human being, I’m not a animal like you.

00:06:07

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  What followed he says was more violence, this time at the hands of inmates. 

00:06:14

ABDUWELI AYUP:  They put me in the cell with the drug addicts and with the killers.  And they beat me like twenty-four hours.

STEVE CHAO:  And where were the guards?  Where were-

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Guards, don’t care.  They want you be tortured like this.  If you’re tortured a lot it means that you co-operate with them during the interrogation.

00:06:41

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Abduweli believes the rapes and beatings were orchestrated to force him into admitting he was a terrorist.

00:06:48

ABDUWELI AYUP:  I’m a scholar.  I’m a writer.  And um I have never thought about that.  I’m not a terrorist.  I’m not a separatist.  And, what I confess?

00:07:02

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  101 East interviewed more than a dozen other former detainees.  All share similar stories of abuse.  Abduweli says even outside the facilities almost every aspect of daily life for Uighurs is controlled.  There are reports more than a million Chinese officials have moved into Uighur homes to monitor families up close.  The authorities justify their actions, saying violent riots and attacks by Uighur separatists over the past decade have killed hundreds of people.

00:07:40

STEVE CHAO:  The Government says they are trying to stamp out extremism.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Extremism, what kind of extremism?  For example my younger sister she’s teaching geography at the high school.  And is she extremist?

00:07:58

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Abduweli says several of his family members have been sent to detention centres as punishment because he fled China.  The fate of his younger sister, the geography teacher, worries him most.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  We grow up together.  She has two kids.  One is six years old, another is eleven.  I don’t know what happen to them. [cries]

00:08:27

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  The next day Abduweli takes us to meet another former detainee. 

STEVE CHAO:  So who are we are going to see?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Gulbahar.

STEVE CHAO:  And she is?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Kazakhstan, she is from Kazakhstan.

STEVE CHAO:  And she recently came over here?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Yeah.  Ah two month ago.

STEVE CHAO:  Okay.

[DOORBELL]

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Abduweli is documenting the abuse detainees say they suffered, hoping the world will take note and hold China to account.

00:08:57

[DOOR KNOCK]

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  Shalom

ABDUWELI AYUP:   As-Salam-u-Alaikum

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Most who have escaped the camps are too fearful to talk, worried China [door slam] will target their families.  But Gulbahar Jaliloua is angry and wants to share her story.

STEVE CHAO:  So this is?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Yes this Gulbahar.

00:09:17

STEVE CHAO:  How long were you held for?

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

One year, three months, ten days.

STEVE CHAO:  You counted every single day?

ABDUWELI AYUP:  She counted.

GULBAHAR JALILOUA: [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

I counted ever single hour and minute.

An hour felt like a year.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Gulbahar says she and other inmates faced constant humiliation.

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur] [crying]

SUBTITLE:

I feel ashamed to share this but…

we were stripped naked.

There were girls our daughters’ age.

And they asked us to do this…

putting our hands on our heads

and do this action three times.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  At night the cells brought more misery.

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

There were 30 to 35 detainees in one cell.

When we slept, 15 of us only

lay down on one side…like this.

The 15, the rest of us,

had to watch them sleep.

We took turns, every two hours,

at night.

I mostly slept on the hard

and cold cement floor.

00:10:18

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Gulbahar says the Police had no reason to arrest her.  She had been visiting Xinjiang to buy clothes to take back and sell in Kazakhstan.  She isn’t even Chinese, but is a Kazakh citizen, something she says Police changed on her records.

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

They gave me a Chinese name

and Chinese ID number…

so the Kazakhstan Embassy

couldn’t find me.

STEVE CHAO:  What did they say to you when you told them that you are a Kazakh citizen?

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur] [cries]

SUBTITLE:

They said, ‘this Chinese ID is what police registered

you with…and we can’t do anything about it.’

In my detention, I was treated

just like Chinese Uighurs.

But I survived those horrible days.

00:11:22

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  During her time in detention, Gulbahar says she was never charged with a crime and never appeared before a Court.  Instead she was subjected to terrifying interrogations that sometimes lasted twenty-four hours.

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

They put a black hood on my head.

And put me in handcuffs and chains.

When I walked, I couldn’t walk with leg cuffs,

so they kept pushing me hard.

I fell down and they dragged me

to the interrogation room.

00:11:56

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Starved in detention, Gulbahar lost thirty kilograms, and has constant nightmares.

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur] [cries]

SUBTITLE:

I don’t care if China kills me, but I’m here

to tell the world how they treated me.

00:12:13

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  China defends their training centres, releasing this fifteen minute video on State television.  Uighurs are shown eagerly learning Chinese.

[VIDEO OF STUDENTS IN CLASSROOM]

SUBTITLE:

As an upright citizen,

I pledge to follow the law.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Getting job training.  And dancing and singing songs praising the Communist Party.

[STUDENT SINGING]

00:12:37

STEVE CHAO:  I want to show you this. This is China’s version of what is happening in these centres.

[VIDEO OF STUDENTS IN CLASSROOM]

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

No, it’s not true.

It was impossible to go beyond the

iron bars of our prison door.

We never got fresh air or saw the sun.

STEVE CHAO:  So you’re saying China is lying in this video?

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

Yes, they’re lying.

Lying outright.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Yes they are lying.

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

I lived it for over a year.

What’s in this video never happened.

We didn’t have such good conditions.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  I’m from, I’m from there, and I’ve have never seen that.

00:13:11

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  One day Gulbahar says authorities suddenly released her and put her on a plane back to Kazakhstan.  Feeling unsafe even in her home country, she fled to Turkey, and now lives with other former detainees.

GULBAHAR JALILOUA:  [Uighur] [cries]

SUBTITLE:

The whole world should stand up

against this.

STEVE CHAO:  Abduweli I I can sense that you’re pretty upset by this.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  They are creating a humanitarian disaster and they are they are growing seeds of hatred.

00:13:52

[STREET PROTESTORS]

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Last November that hatred and anger spilled onto the streets of Geneva in Switzerland.

[STREET PROTESTORS]

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  As China appeared before a United Nations Human Rights Panel, protestors marched on UN Offices, calling for the release of all Uighurs.

FEMALE PROTESTOR:  I’m here to protest the Chinese Government’s illegal incarceration of the millions of Uighurs.  My sister and my aunt they are abducted.  And my in-laws, my husband’s entire family, is taken.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Inside China’s actions were being questioned, with some countries calling for the centres to be shutdown.

CANADIAN UN DELEGATE:  We are deeply concerned by credible reports of the mass detention, repression and surveillance of Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang.  Canada recommends that…

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  … But Chinese officials remain defiant.

CHINESE UN DELEGATE:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

The great majority of trainees attending courses

In our educational centres have learned

Their mistakes and recognise the subversive

Threats of terrorism and extremism.

00:14:59

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  While China denies it’s persecuting people based on their religion, an unlikely source says otherwise.

00:15:07

STEVE CHAO:  Hey Yusuf, ni hao,

YUSEF AMAT:  Ni hao

STEVE CHAO:  Xie xie.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:   Yusuf Amat is a Uighur who says he’s a Chinese spy.  He claims the information he’s gathered has sent people including his own family and neighbours to the camps.

YUSEF AMAT:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

When I first collected information, I felt horrible…

I was pained and sickened…

It was like a needle stabbing into me…

because the first was my sister’s husband,

their three kids and his father.

00:15:41

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Yusef tells us he originally agreed to spy to protect his family and to be treated less harshly as Uighur.

YUSEF AMAT:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

Whatever my relatives did…

what they ate, drank…I reported it all.

STEVE CHAO:  [Mandarin]

YUSEF AMAT:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

Afterwards, I couldn’t look at myself.

STEVE CHAO:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

How many people did you…?

YUSEF AMAT:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

About 10 people.

00:16:07

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Yusef says his fellow Uighurs can be locked up for almost anything.  Reading the Quran, having a long beard or wearing a headscarf, studying abroad, or even talking to people outside the country.

YUSEF AMAT:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

We’re being oppressed, destroyed.

A lot of people say there isn’t any evidence of

this… but I am the evidence.

00:16:35

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  And according to Yusef, China’s reach is growing.  He has spied on Uighurs in several countries, including Turkey, and says agents have even abducted people and returned them to China.

YUSEF AMAT:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

They want to get people to go and spy in places

like Pakistan, Afghanistan, wherever.

As long as they get reports,

they’re happy.

00:16:59

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Despite helping the authorities, his family was still in prison. 

STEVE CHAO:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

Do you regret helping

China’s government.

YUSEF AMAT:  [Mandarin] [cries]

SUBTITLE:

Yes.

But it’s OK.

This is the path I’ve taken.

They sacrificed me for… my sister, my mother,

and my brother-in-law…

his brothers, their parents, my uncle…

they all did.

Because of me they were all sacrificed…

they’re all in jail.

00:17:40

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  He expects retribution for speaking to us, but believes he needs to to clear his conscience.

YUSEF AMAT:  [Mandarin]

SUBTITLE:

This is not just about the few.

It’s about my village… about every Uighur.

They’re all my relatives, all my family.

If this gives them their freedom,

then my life doesn’t matter.

Whatever happens, happens…

I’ve lived enough.

00:18:29

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Uighurs in Turkey have more to fear than spies.  After years of offering them a safe haven, Turkey’s President has begun making deals with China, with trade now worth twenty-eight billion dollars a year.  Uighurs are afraid Turkey will choose its economy over their welfare. 

00:18:53

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  For some the time has come to move on, yet again.

CANADIAN UIGHUR:  Next.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  A group of Canadian Uighurs are here trying to help, registering those wanting asylum in Canada.

STEVE CHAO:  Organisers here tell us that in the past three days more than one thousand five hundred people have put in applications to leave.  It’s just another indication of how desperate people are to find a safe refuge.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  The longer they stay here in Turkey the more difficult their situation.  Their passports are expiring, and China is refusing to renew them, leaving them in limbo.

CANADIAN UIGHUR:  Okay there is no way to get even like temporarily um Chinese passport or anything.  At the present he is stateless.

STEVE CHAO:  How common is his story, his example?

CANADIAN UIGHUR:  People I have interviewed so far hundred percent.  His case is just the rule, this is not an exception.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Turkey once granted Uighurs citizenship, but that’s become much more difficult.

STEVE CHAO:  There is a level of desperation.

CANADIAN UIGHUR:  Yes.  Yes.  You cannot open bank account.  You cannot rent a house.  You can’t like ah, we have been persecuted in China.  We have thought that you know once in Turkey we will be able to build a new life, but this is not the case. 

00:20:20

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Abduweli faces the same uncertainty.  His passport’s expired.  Without papers he’s not officially allowed to work. 

[ABDUWELI AYUP CHATTING WITH HIS FAMILY]

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  At home at night he tries to stay positive, for his wife and two daughters.  But with growing pressure from China, and Turkey feeling less welcome, he worries what the future holds.

ABDUWELI AYUP:  In our homeland we were not accepted by Chinese Government as their citizen.  And in Turkey we are not accepted as like Turkic brother here.  You live just as a thief.  Not as like ah man like equal with others.

00:21:08

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  That frustration is pushing some Uighurs to the edge.  A day’s drive from Istanbul is the town of Kayseri.  Nestled in the Anatolia Plains, Uighurs say it looks a lot like their homeland of Xinjiang.  A thousand Uighurs have now made it their home away from home, a place where they can live the kind of life denied to them back in China.

STEVE CHAO:  Assalam alaikum.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  After prayers we meet some of the men of the community.  Most say they suffered in Xinjiang, before escaping the crackdown.

UIGHUR MALE:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

They beat me on my chin,

shoulder and on my back.

They hung me upside down for hours.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  But they went through they say is nothing compared to the pain of leaving their loved ones behind.

UIGHUR MALE:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

These are my four children and they are

in camps now… all of them.

This is my wife and

she is detained too.

Look, you think these children

are terrorists?

UIGHUR MALE:  [Uighur] [cries]

SUBTITLE:

This is my mother.  It’s been four years

since I’ve heard her voice.

I don’t know if she’s okay or not.

I don’t know if she’s alive.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  What little news that does get out worries them even more.

UIGHUR MALE:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

I have a son.  He’s 13.

He’s in the same situation as in this video.

It’s been six years.

I’ve heard nothing from him.

[I-PHONE VIDEO OF SMALL BOY SPEAKING IN MANDARIN]

SUBTITLE: 

What’s your name?

My name is Mohammed!

What’s your nationality?

I’m Chinese!

Do you love China?

I love China!

UIGHUR MALE:  [Uighur]

My child’s being forced

to speak in Mandarin.

He’s being brainwashed. They’re trying to erase

our children’s Muslim identity.

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  All this is fuelling a deep rage.

UIGHUR MALE:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

If they want to fight with us, we’ll fight.

We want freedom.

 We want independence.

STEVE CHAO:  How many people here then believe that Uighurs need their own independent State?  All of you.

00:23:24

SEYIT TUMTURK:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLE:

We’re will to pay any price.

If it’s necessary, we’re willing

to pay with our lives.

00:23:34

STEVE CHAO: VOICEOVER:  Community leader Seyit Tumturk supports his people’s resolve to fight.

00:23:40

STEVE CHAO:  By saying that Uighurs should be fighting for an independent State, are you not thereby becoming the separatists that China says you are?

SEYIT TUMTURK:  [Uighur]

SUBTITLES:

Over the past seven decades, we’ve never

considered independence.

Maybe we’re giving China a chance to completely

destroy us, but we don’t have any other options.

We’ve been left totally to rot in

these camps and prisons.

00:24:19

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  We contacted Chinese officials seeking a response to the allegations we’ve heard of detention, spying and torture.  There’s been no reply.

00:24:33

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  In Istanbul, Abduweli says he’s telling the truth about what happened to him in gaol.  But rather than taking up arms he’s fighting back in his own way.

00:24:51

[ABDUWELI AYUP GREETS STUDENTS IN CLASSROOM]

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  He is passing on his culture to the next generation.

[ABDUWELI AYUP AND STUDENTS SINGING]

ABDUWELI AYUP:  Our real culture in our homeland it’s restricted and we cannot practice our culture.  So whenever we have a chance where we have a chance we need to cherish it, we need to preserve it, we need to keep it alive.

[ABDUWELI AYUP AND STUDENTS SINGING]

STEVE CHAO VOICEOVER:  Those chances are getting more limited in a world where China is increasingly calling the shots.  For now Abduweli can only dream of a solution to their plight, A safe place to call home.

[ABDUWELI AYUP AND STUDENTS SINGING]

00:25:57

GFX:

ALJAZEERA