Transcripts For DW Close Up 20240714

Rediscovered what life and liberty is like. Today i feel free i feel good. At infidel a man of good muslim i can breathe again and feel the sun on my skin. And believe doesnt want my. Good to high as an ethnic weaker. She was kept in a camp in western china for one year 3 months and 10 days. Her ordeal began in may 2017 when Police Arrested her in her hotel room building just to get home i was exhausted who could have what they took me to a cell with heavy metal doors. They made so much noise whenever they were opened much later a look you come up. This cell was about 20 square meters in size and had no windows. It held about 40 women. Half of them would stand while the others like close together on the floor. With all of them had heavy chains around their ankles the. Conditions inside the cells were unbearable theres no sanitation no water no food. And then there was the brainwashing. Good hearted to swear loyalty to chinas communist party. Because the would have to look at themselves of them because once a week they showed us a video about xi jinping. Music. And. We were forced to write selfcriticism essays they wanted to make sure our mindset had changed and improved in the given the book every monday morning at 955 we had to get up and sing the Chinese National anthem the rest of the week we had to sing 5 songs a day. May god you know me. Ive forgotten the rest. Most of us like to like those are the kind of songs we had to sing. If we refuse they wouldnt give us any food. Its believed there are about 100 can sing western china like the one good behind describes. Sprawling complexes which are according to several Rights Groups detained over a 1000000 weekers. Mostly a muslim turkic speaking minority that we girls are native to this she was young region the territory is almost 5 times the size of germany and only autonomous in name in reality china has turned it into a police state. Beijing is sought to subdue the beakers and deep set conflict that beaches far back in history. In past years riots have become increasingly violent as chinese authorities respond with brutal crackdowns. The weaker is rose up to protest cultural religious and economic discrimination. In recent years under the pretense of fighting religious extremism and in response to a series of terrorist acts carried out by readers the chinese authorities introduced what they termed reeducation measures. Today an estimated 10 percent of chinas we go population is locked away in these camps women and men from all walks of life it seems no one is spared the repression. Even prominent cultural figures have been targeted popstar 2 songs promoted we go identity and culture has been missing since his arrest in february 28th. 9000 kilometers away from john bank canada is the seat of the Prestigious University of British Columbia this is where 29 year old Chinese Student shawn chung studies law shawn was one of the 1st able to show evidence of the internment camps and she and john. And. A lot but. At 1st im. So i decided to check it on my cell phone and search. In his dorm he collects official documents from chinese authorities available on the internet Public Tenders Building Permits orders for construction materials. With the addresses on the documents he locates the camps on satellite images and compiles an accurate map which he publishes on his blog. The most a campsite fine is without things like cash lisa see ya cant and they say its a 10 list its not a complete a map offer it ok sheen county down because i only have. Images fall of thoughts so i may just say that if. Sean believes there are about 100. 00 comes across john theyre easy to make out their design differs greatly from conventional prison. Front of pictures i can definitely tell it has that it detention facility like you can see. You can see it out west how here here. Here and and this wall is like its up out of sri to a 5 metre high if you feel compelled to wade through the shadows off if any typical i see. Least feature in many odd cans high security blocks and theyre expanding rapidly in 2016 there were only a few apartment houses on this open plain 2 years later and its become an enormous camp. In just a short time New Buildings were erected over a species of 166000 square meters according to one secret document shown obtained more than 8000 people are here no. Obvious lead at least pantheistic spending i think well one reason if they. Lay out. They are detaining him on the mob hit hole there. They have to build new cabinets to accommodate you know detainees. We traveled to sion jongg repeatedly in the hopes of getting a closer look at these camps. Where foreign journalists arent welcome here. As soon as we arrive in the region were followed by several cars like this white. Or this much air. In plain clothes agents are openly tracking our every move. Out in the streets were prevented from filming. Over the course of 3 trips to the region were arrested a total of 7 times. Like on this rural road near a chance. Were stopped at a police roadblock. I i up into. The south asia and. Then were brought to this Police Station where officers check our documents and can target us while we secretly continue filming. So youre a journalist from shanghai what are you doing there. We want to film the camp end up on saying. Theres no reeducation camp there theres no camp and up on showing no yes there is a big camp with many and makes no theres no camp. The camp end up on chang is clearly visible on the satellite image. Were not allowed to pass the police force us to turn around. Jennings wieder population of 11000000 already lives in what amounts to a giant open air prison. There are Police Stations and checkpoints everywhere. That people here are under constant surveillance theyre searched everywhere when entering train stations and supermarkets are boarding a bus. Their mobile phones are also regularly monitored. Jean jennings has pioneered facial Recognition Software a system used throughout the country a surveillance web of hundreds of thousands of cameras film streets and mosques. Cameras can also be found in taxis or at the entrance to public toilets. But the readers are not only subjected to round the clock surveillance they also live with the ever present fear of being arrested and sent to a camp at any moment. On one of our trips to zhejiang we managed to approach the camp on this satellite image using g. P. S. Coordinates provided to us by sean john. We succeeded in driving there and filming these extraordinary images. Were in no time in southern. The city has at least 8 camps this one appears to be brand new. Some 10 buildings razor wire and security cameras everywhere watching every square centimeter there are bars on the windows. We are not granted access to any of the camps but one chinese journalist managed to secretly shoot this media at a camp in western xing john last august it was still under construction at the time today more than a 1000 people are held here. Inside dormitories that look like prison cells and on every floor 3 such classrooms banners like these trumpet Party Ideology of racial doctrine is that she jingping the socialism with chinese characteristics will ring in a new era. Across chinas border in kazakhstan we meet a woman who knows exactly what goes on inside these camps. So you raul binds the chinese citizen and member of the ethnic minority. In nov 27th teen she was arrested transported to a camp and forced to teach mandarin to inmates for months later she was released she was not told why today she lives in exile. This is the 1st time she recounts what she experienced there on camera. Made can boil day after day i have to work with the inmates baby and the 100. 00 or a 1000 times i would make them repeat them with them i am chinese and proud of china they can have agendas they have to stand up and loudly recite these lines i dont need to go there and i have to instruct them thousands of times they have to say how much they love shes been paying on the communist party go think of that and i would chunk the whenever i entered the classroom i was followed by 2 armed policeman. They stood behind me while i taught how to shoot the entire class was recorded and they were policemen at the door to. The camp elder some to wonder how 1000 inmates cause attacks and we. Say regula witnessed violence and abuse. Sometimes armed policemen would storm into my class. Every 2 or 3 of them and they would seize inmates and drag them out on the think awful lot of chambre i never saw those people again for their membership. Whackers for it which saved me sometimes in the evenings as we age we would take cries for help so. Of a short stay so long and colorful. Copeland id never heard such voices so desperate. And full of suffering jokes. We were sure they were being tortured. So. The Authorities Say the inmates are being reeducated but evidently theyre being tortured and abused. I dont know how come the inmates were given injections but its not as medicine as torture. You see the injections we used to when control over their brains. Over the people in the camp had no strength anymore to rebel against anything. Forced injections to make inmates pliable in istanbul julie love our confirms the practice she says she herself was forcibly medicated during our internment. They gave us an injection once a week here or here we had to put our own through a small opening in the door we women soon noticed that because of the injections we werent getting up period anymore i stopped menstruating one month after i was arrested. The injections made our minds go blank we didnt even think about families anymore i couldnt remember where i was born we didnt feel the cold or hunger we felt like a lifeless piece of meat that have been dumped there. Initially china pushed back against International Condemnation of the mass detentions by flatly denying accusations. But then it changed its approach. To it how to help financially. The prisons were to be given a legitimate sheen. This report on state Television Shows men and women in a camp learning mandarin. Welly. Its a show thats been on current t. V. The report says camp inmates are receiving Vocational Training and seamstresses are carpenters the rooms are all clean and everyone looks grateful to be able to be there. And i used to be an educated but those days are over now widening my horizon. I dont even want to think about where i would be if i couldnt study here. Maybe i would have fallen prey to religious fanatics and become a criminal. If the government and the party found and rescued me just in time. Ill get. To. Just as we show the report to guba. The camp i was intended look totally different we were never allowed us about 20 square me syringes this week which has 10 or 20 people and says look how well theyre doing. But in the other camps people are crying. Ive only just been freed and i can assure you where i was is nothing like what theyre showing here theres a reason the little your its a long its not true at all. Good about how i wont forget the women she left behind women like herself arbitrarily detained and deprived of their freedom in her notebook she lists their names and the reasons for their arrest well then i assume as i remember a name i write it down. Legislate that. Only i looked up because she travelled to turkey. 52 years old arrested for being an english translator thats what they only some detained because a photo of a praying go was found on a smartphone i mean some deformed it at the mall i mean there were also the most 1st arrested for wearing a headscarf but at the bottom cleo there while the. Good 111. 00 is a cause x. It isnt and ran a company exporting clothes from china to kazakhstan she was arrested while on a business trip to the chinese city of order. Her release came after the government of kazakhstan intervened on her behalf. Many members i been doing business in china for 20 years im not a terrorist im just a normal business woman and the mother of 3 children well almost small in the book might mean that in a real am when i came home my children told me they petition tirelessly for my release. Im very lucky to have escaped from such a place where i was accused of terrorism hold them and thats when the hope of. Our own a 1000000 weekers live in exile outside of china might be a bunch of you know. Some are afraid of being forced to return to regime john. Beijings oppression extends beyond its own national borders. Its even targeted members of the weaker community in france for example. For months the Chinese Embassy in paris has refused to give members of the diaspora the documents they need to extend their identity papers. One week or woman has agreed to talk to us on condition that she remain anonymous her family fears reprisals. She says shes the victim of attempted blackmail if she doesnt return to shane jiang to pick up her birth certificate her residence permit in france will expire. Id rather live here illegally then go back and walk right into their trap that they want to force us to return and then theyll find some way to send us to a concentration camp theyre trying to pressure as many leaders as possible into coming back. Thats exactly what happened to goodbye. She did go back and was arrested. The engineer had been living near paris for 10 years when she received a call one day from her former boss in december 26th team it was a trap he called again and again insisting she returned to china to sign paperwork for her pension. You agreed to go at the time reports on the existence of the camps had not yet emerged. From what you say runs at this site he called her incessantly for a week and told her with a stern voice you have to come back you have no choice you have to sign your paperwork we cant wait for you any longer like you have to come back. She bought a return take it all and plan to stay for 2 weeks she was supposed to be back in france on december 10th this hole. When she arrived in china her passport was confiscated and her husband and 2 daughters could no longer reach or for 6 months they knew nothing of her whereabouts sifu closure of a room was it was a very tough time then and june or july of 20176 months later my aunt called and told us that our mother was in a reeducation camp i think she said she was being retrained shes in Vocational Training or shes in school. Back then we simply couldnt imagine what that meant and that it would take so long we never dreamed there could be such camps with thousands of prisoners. The French Foreign Ministry Says it cant intervene because unlike her husband and daughters. Is not a french citizen. But her family wont give up hope. I dont dare to talk about that. As. Of. Today theyre welcoming a weaker activist visiting from finland for months without hardy has been traveling around the world meeting members of the diaspora. How the word out how to use a general practitioner his parents both Civil Servants back home were interned for 2 years theyve since been released and placed under house arrest. Just now more on his fighting for the many others who have disappeared into detention. So its eerie important and significant for us all of us a senior experience this and encourage us and. Show all were super c. To each other and lit each other feel that we are all warm and. If you like to get there you. Should work. Hard more than hardy left ching john when he was 19. Now hes 35 and lives with his reader wife and their 2 children in a helsinki. We really joy tell you here and there. Was a culture and they were saying because freedom here relieve us or Human Dignity human rights. The last time he traveled to cian jiang once in 2016 that was also the last time he saw his relatives look i hope i show you Something Like im sure theres a picture. See its me and my beloved life. Its leader childish no. Clothes seemed we took the pictures when the last time. We use it. All our parents into punk. Alarmed by the threat to his people on or on set up an association that compiles the names of people interned in china i want to let the world know what happened to my people to my parents. He regularly organizes demonstrations to raise International Awareness of chinas campaign against me good muslims. Today bigger is from all over europe are rallying in helsinki. Welcome thank you for coming. The flag theyre carrying is outlawed in china its the flag of the east turkistan the Geographic Area they came under chinese rule in the 18th century the chinese renamed the region change on the weaker is staged numerous uprisings and twice established an independent east turkistan state before she jiang was incorporated into communist china in 1989 some weaker say only independence will save their people is that the solution thats the solution we will like to house the reason as we have stablished independence and it has within the 20th century solved 1st time in 1933 2nd time in the age of 44 so were not a country that has never stop wishing depends who are or were never never were able to run a government we have a track record of showing. Everyone here knows someone whos interned in a chinese camp. Has been living in europe for 9 years his nephew stayed in shanghai jiang and is now also detained. There are also some. We feel we are this. Last a few of us as you can see only at that. Very few to serve as a voice for all people. Who are people who are suffering immensely theyre dying and im not even exaggerating it exists but. Hadi and his fellow demonstrators have vowed to continue speaking out on what Rights Groups call the largest mass incarceration of the 21st century and to ensure the victims are never forgotten. Place. There is more surveys in indias silicon valley. Is running out. The question has created almost a crisis the scene needs Sustainable Solutions and. Tradition. That. Doubling. Of obscene wealth. Indias raja. Says on. The subcontinent economics has made them billionaires. Reveling in their lives Fortune Cookie cutter limits look good luck has the city limits on the books. Take a look closely. With the wonderful stories that make the game so special. For all true fans. Because more than football long line of. Play. Indias government says its revoking the special status of the muslim majority state of kashmir which is disputed between India Pakistan and separatists hindu nationalists have been advocating for the change for decades have been protests in pakistan muslim activists say this is a land grab by india