Posted by IDQWE001 > 2023-03-25 08:28 | Report Abuse

TWO women who experienced life in Chinese "reeducation" camps for Uyghurs told American lawmakers Thursday of lives under imprisonment and surveillance, rape and torture as a special House committee focused on countering China shined a light on human rights abuses in the country.Qelbinur Sidik, a member of China's ethnic Uzbek minority who was forced to teach Chinese in separate detention facilities for Uyghur men and women, told lawmakers of male Uyghur detainees held chained and shackled in cells so tiny they had to crawl out when authorities summoned them.nnocent female Uyghur detainees were held by the thousands, heads shaved, in gray uniforms, Sidik said. Guards tortured the women by electric shocks and by gang rape, sometimes combining both. Reeducation camps intended to drain the Uyghur inmates of their language, religious beliefs and customs forced men and women into "11 hours of brainwashing lessons on a daily basis," testified Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur who spent more than two years in two reeducation camps and police stations."Before eating, we have to praise them, say that we are grateful ... for China's Communist Party and we are grateful for (President) Xi Jinping," Haitiwaji said. "And after, to finish eating, we have to praise them again." Accused of "disorder" and detained with 30 to 40 people in a cell meant for nine, the Uyghur woman said, she and other female detainees were chained to their beds for 20 days at one point.