edited by: Shankhneel Sarkar
Last Update: January 13, 2023, 09:20 AM IST
Former Kazakhstan journalist Zhanargul Zhumatai has faced brutal torture by Chinese authorities for reporting on illegal land grabs (Picture: @SerikzhanBilash/Twitter)
Former Kazakh journalist Zhanargul Zhumatai was held in a concentration camp for two years for speaking out in favor of nomadic tribes
While much of the world focuses on China’s post-reopening of the Covid-19 outbreak, the plight of Uighur Muslims and Xinjiang Kazakhs does not go unnoticed.
Uighur Muslims in China are facing repression at the hands of Chinese authorities, but recent reports from China diplomatic And radio free europe,RFE, Told that ethnic Kazakhs living in China are also facing repression and torture at the hands of Chinese authorities.
SOS!!! SOS!!! SOS!!! She lives in danger this time. We should apply for the Nobel Peace Prize for that. First, he exposed the Xinjiang concentration camps. Second, he is still in Xinjiang. His name is Jhanargul Jhumtai. He’s still in danger! share! Retweet!!! pic.twitter.com/vwPLZUKrMx– Serikzhan Bilash (@SerikzhanBilash) January 12, 2023
Kazakh news editor Zhanargul Zhumatai spoke to both outlets and recounted his ordeal and highlighted how state oppression has made his life miserable. she talked to diplomatic‘s Tasneem Nazir and RFERune Steinberg said she has faced harassment, torture and constant surveillance since 2017.
What are the allegations against Jhumatai?
The former editor of the Kazakhstan Radio and Television Corporation, who is also a musician, was first detained for having social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook installed on her phone while she was visiting Kazakhstan as these are banned in China. are restricted.
RFE The report also states that the leaked report by the Chinese police also cited travel to ‘focus countries’ as the reason for his detention. The focus countries are considered to be the context of Kazakhstan.
Zhumatai, who lives in Urumqi, also faced arrest and harassment for contacting Serikzhan Bilash, a well-known Xinjiang-born Kazakh activist living in the United States.
Bilash confirmed in a discussion with RFE that Zhumatai faced arrest for contacting her, but also pointed out that she remains in the crosshairs of Chinese authorities for her work defending the rights of Kazakh herders in Xinjiang. She has been working on this issue since 2017, where she highlighted that Beijing forcibly took land from nomadic farmers.
Jhumtai told diplomatic Beijing has cracked down on Uighurs as well as ethnic Kazakhs and other Turkic ethnic groups.
internment camp episode
Journalist-cum-musician told diplomatic He was invited to Beijing under the guise of an ‘artistic music project’, but was arrested upon his arrival and sent to an internment camp.
These detention camps house more than one million people, mostly Muslims, who have been illegally detained by the Chinese authorities.
fight, fight and fight
Jhumatai, while speaking to both the outlets, described the inhumane and brutal conditions inside the jail. She said that beatings and torture were routine and there was no access to medical facilities.
He told me diplomatic that officials told him that the Communist Party of China was ‘correcting his ideologies’. She also said that after consuming a medicine, she started vomiting continuously and became weak.
The claims cannot be independently verified by News18 but RFE Reports suggested that the claim is supported by leaked Chinese police records which say he was arrested in 2017.
It also matches testimony from hundreds of survivors detained by authorities over the past few years and accounts shared in a 48-page report released last year by the UN human rights office.
Jhumatai said detainees are strapped into ‘tiger chairs’ and sexually assaulted inside the detention camps.
She was released in 2019, but has since been under constant threat from the Chinese authorities, who continue to stalk her. China’s facial recognition technology ensures that whenever she walks into a public place, an alarm will sound and it is also ensured that she cannot seek hospital treatment as authorities refuse to treat her.
false relief
The Chinese authorities have told Zhumatai that she can save herself from torture if she commits herself to a psychiatric hospital. He is being accused of defaming China.
The Kazakh embassy in Beijing has told her that she will be given papers to enter Kazakhstan, but she does not fully trust them as Kazakhstan has caved in to China on several occasions. He fears that China’s Public Security Bureau may arrest him and take away the authority of the Kazakh embassy.
Jhumatai said, “If I disappear or die, I want the world to hold them responsible.” RFE,
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