What's false and what's true on China-related human rights matters
34. False: 30 relatives of Rebiya Kadeer have been detained without trial.
True:
- No one from Rebiya Kadeer's family has been implicated. All her relatives live and enjoy freedom in Xinjiang. They want her to stop spreading lies and disturbing their peace.
35. False: Family members of Furqat Jawdat, Arapat Arkin, Zumrat Dawut and other so-called "activists" have been "harassed, imprisoned or arbitrarily detained."
True:
- Both Furqat Jawdat and Arapat Arkin are members of the World Uyghur Congress, an organization notorious for its violent, terrorist and separatist agenda. They make a living by fabricating stories and splitting their motherland. Their relatives, who are leading a normal life in Xinjiang, feel ashamed of having people like them in the family.
- Furqat Jawdat's mother is living a normal life in Xinjiang and has regular contact with him.
- Arapat Arkin's father was sentenced for taking part in violent and terrorist activities, but his mother and younger brother and sister are all living a normal life. None of them have been taken into custody. His mother has repeatedly urged him not to follow his father's path, "Your father did harm to our society. He is being punished for his wrongdoing. He is very sorry for what he has done. So please stop telling lies and leave the World Uyghur Congress before it's too late."
- Regarding the claim that "Dawut's elderly father, who had been detained and interrogated multiple times by the local authorities in Xinjiang, recently passed away under unknown circumstances", here is what really happened: Dawut's father had been living with his children all these years, without ever being "interrogated" or "detained". Suffering from a serious heart condition for many years, the octogenarian passed away in hospital in October 2019 after all medical treatment had failed. During his last days in hospital, the old man was attended by Dawut's older brothers and other relatives who stayed by his bedside.
36. False: Mutallip Nurmamat died nine days after his release from an internment camp. Prominent Uyghur writer Nurmamat Tohti died in an internment camp. Sayragul Sawutbay saw people tortured in a detention camp before fleeing China. Uyghur musician and poet Abdurehim Heyit was sentenced to eight years in prison and died in the second year of imprisonment.
True:
- Mutallip Nurmamat never studied in a vocational education and training center. In December 2018, he died from acute alcohol poisoning, alcoholic encephalopathy, respiratory failure and acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage triggered by alcohol abuse.
- Nurmamat Tohti never studied in a vocational education and training center. He had had coronary artery disease for over 20 years and spent most of his time receiving treatment in hospital or recuperating at home. On 31 May 2019, after suffering an acute myocardial infarction at home, he was taken to hospital but passed away despite emergency rescue efforts.
- Sayragul Sawutbay is suspected of fraud. To flee justice, she crossed the border illegally into Kazakhstan. She never stayed in any vocational education and training center in China, and was never detained before her illegal escape. Her words about seeing people tortured cannot be true.
- Abdurehim Heyit, arrested on suspicion of endangering national security, is in good health. On 10 February 2019, Heyit said in a published video, "I am under investigation for suspected violations of law. I am in very good health, and I have never been abused."
37. False: A comic book titled What has happened to me: A testimony of a Uyghur woman recounts the experiences of Mihrigul Tursun, a Uyghur woman who allegedly escaped a vocational education and training center. She claimed to have seen the death of nine women while in custody, and that her younger brother was abused to death in a vocational education and training center.
True:
- Mihrigul Tursun, an ethnic Uyghur, used to live in Qiemo County of Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang. She was detained for 20 days in April 2017 by the Public Security Bureau of Qiemo County over suspicion of inciting national enmity and discrimination. In 2018, she voluntarily relinquished her Chinese citizenship and left China with an Egyptian passport. She had never been imprisoned in China, nor had she studied in any vocational education and training center.
- Akbar Tursun, her younger brother, said publicly, "My sister Mihrigul is full of lies. She not only said I am dead, but also lied about seeing others die."
