• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Science
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Tech
Meet Gulbahar Haitiwaji, trapped in Baijiantan ‘re-education camp’ for 3 years

Meet Gulbahar Haitiwaji, trapped in Baijiantan ‘re-education camp’ for 3 years

1 year ago
Richard Donner, director of Superman and The Goonies, dies aged 91

Richard Donner, director of Superman and The Goonies, dies aged 91

11 months ago
Punjab Congress crisis: Sonia Gandhi to meet Captain Amarinder Singh today

Punjab Congress crisis: Sonia Gandhi to meet Captain Amarinder Singh today

11 months ago
MP Government to vaccinate 5,000 Pakistani refugees in Indore

Covid-19 vaccines 8 times less effective against Delta variant: Sir Ganga Ram hospital study

11 months ago
Centre deploys expert teams to 6 states witnessing surge in Covid-19 cases

Covid-19 Updates: India reports 34,703 new cases, 553 deaths in last 24 hours

11 months ago
IAF plans to buy 10 anti-drone systems after Jammu attack

IAF plans to buy 10 anti-drone systems after Jammu attack

11 months ago
‘I am tenth avatar of Lord Vishnu’: Gujarat man makes bizarre threat to get gratuity money

‘I am tenth avatar of Lord Vishnu’: Gujarat man makes bizarre threat to get gratuity money

11 months ago
In connection with alleged assault on Muslim man in Loni, Twitter India has blocked 50 tweets

IT Rules ‘law of the land,’ and Twitter is expected to abide by them: HC to Centre

11 months ago
BREAKING: Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee joins TMC

BREAKING: Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee joins TMC

11 months ago
PM Modi to meet managers of 100 districts with heavy Covid-19 caseload

According to Prime Minister Modi, no nation can eradicate Covid-19 crisis on its own

11 months ago
Back injury forces MR Poovamma to leave national camp

Back injury forces MR Poovamma to leave national camp

11 months ago
Fast and Furious 9 surpasses $500 million mark, becomes first Hollywood film to do so since Covid-19 outbreak

Fast and Furious 9 surpasses $500 million mark, becomes first Hollywood film to do so since Covid-19 outbreak

11 months ago
BIG STORY: Stan Swamy, defendant in Elgaar Parishad case, dies at 84

BIG STORY: Stan Swamy, defendant in Elgaar Parishad case, dies at 84

11 months ago
‘Educate BJP officials first,’ Digvijaya and Owaisi’s response to Bhagwat’s claim that lynching for cow is anti-Hindutva

‘Educate BJP officials first,’ Digvijaya and Owaisi’s response to Bhagwat’s claim that lynching for cow is anti-Hindutva

11 months ago
French judge to probe corruption allegations in Rafale case: report

French judge to probe corruption allegations in Rafale case: report

11 months ago
BIG STORY: Pushkar Singh Dhami appointed next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand

BIG STORY: Pushkar Singh Dhami appointed next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand

11 months ago
France launches judicial investigation in Rafale contract with India

France launches judicial investigation in Rafale contract with India

11 months ago
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
23 °c
Bengaluru
20 ° Wed
20 ° Thu
19 ° Fri
19 ° Sat
Ewoke TV हिंदी
Thursday, May 19, 2022
  • Login
Ewoke TV | India's ubercool digital news platform
  • News
  • World
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Virals
No Result
View All Result
Ewoke TV | India's ubercool digital news platform
  • News
  • World
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Virals
No Result
View All Result
Ewoke TV | India's ubercool digital news platform
No Result
View All Result
Home News World

Meet Gulbahar Haitiwaji, trapped in Baijiantan ‘re-education camp’ for 3 years

byStaff Reporter
1 year ago
in People & Blogs, Politics, World
A A
Meet Gulbahar Haitiwaji, trapped in Baijiantan ‘re-education camp’ for 3 years

Gulbahar

126
SHARES
970
VIEWS
Share via WhatsappShare on FacebookShare on Twitter

A community in China has been oppressed for decades now. The measures taken by the President Xi Jinping to crackdown on the population of the Uyghurs have left several families shattered. Death lurks in every corner of the internment centres that are situated in the Western province of China in Xijiang. The Xi government of China has faced widespread criticism globally, for their actions against the Uyghur community. Several women have been detained in these centres that the Chinese government calls the “re-education centres”. Authorities in charge of these centres call it a “school” where “Uyghurs are transformed through re-education camps”. Well, for first, the internment centres in and around Xijiang are the worst nightmare for every Uyghur who has survived the brutality. They are centres where lakhs of Uyghurs witnessed the most gruesome acts possible with a human body. 

RelatedNews

Li Wenliang

One year on, tributes pour in for Chinese whistleblower doctor who warned the world about Covid-19

1 year ago

Xi Jinping is very tough, doesn’t have a ‘democratic bone’ in his body, says Joe Biden

1 year ago

Chinese company plans to build new city on Papua New Guinean island close to Australian mainland

1 year ago

Tourists incarcerated, women forced to shove pills in their uterus to limit the process of birth, injecting women with steroids, assaulting detainees and more, these camps are cells where inmates are tormented to pledge their allegiance to China. This is a story of one such Uyghur who returned to China to collect her documents of retirement, after being in exile in France for 10 years. This piece details the horror witnessed by Gulbahar Haitiwaji who left China in 2006, only to return back in 2016 when she was detained in one such “transformation centres” of Baijiantan- a district on the outskirts of Karamay, XiJiang.

Gulbahar Haitiwaji had 10 years of a peaceful life in Paris where she was employed in a bakery

Who is Gulbahar Haitiwaji?

Gulbahar is a survivor from the Baijiantan detention centre. Her husband Kerim sensed the rising threat to their community in 2002 and left Karamay where they stayed in China. The family had decided to settle outside China owing to the brutality against the Uyghurs. She was employed with an oil company in Karamay where she worked for 20 years. However, her husband had plans to exit the country. In 2002, he got a job at an asylum in France. He convinced her wife to leave China with their daughters and settle in France.

The couple witnessed movements in France where people protested against the brutality on Uyghurs by China in the detention centres. Gulbahar, Kerim and their daughters were also a part of many such demonstrations that were organised by the French Branch of World Uyghur Congress- body that speaks for Uyghurs in exile.

After having lived 10 years of a peaceful life in Paris where she was employed in a bakery, she got a phone call from the oil company in China, in November 2016. The man on the phone claimed, “You must come back to Karamay to sign documents for your retirement, Madame Haitiwaji.” A sceptical Gulbahar asked, “I would like to grant power of attorney. My administrative affairs are handled by my friend who resides in Karamay. Why should I come back for some paperwork? Why now?” There was a silence on the call, writes Gulbahar in The Guardian, and the man disconnected saying that he would call back.

He called back after two days and claimed, “Granting power of attorney will not be possible. You must come to Karamay in person.” Confused, Gulbahar was assured by Kerim who told her, “They’ll definitely pull you in for questioning, but don’t panic. That’s completely normal.” While she was convinced to travel back to China for her documents, Gulbahar recalled the instances where thousands of Uyghurs were being sent to “schools” that were raised on desert settlements, far away from any human vicinity. The inmates were subjected to forced lessons that included assault by the “teachers”. Gulbahar gathered the strength and flew to China in 2016.

Baijiantan “re-education camp”

She arrived in the oil company to collect her documents. From here, Gulbahar was taken to the Kunlun police station in Karamay where she was escorted to a room. Seconds after she settled on the chair, a policeman placed the photo of her daughter on the table and asked her, “You know her, don’t you? Your daughter’s a terrorist!” Dreaded by the fact that she was in the custody of the Han policemen, Gulbahar replied, “Yes. She’s my daughter. No, she isn’t a terrorist.”

The picture was of her daughter Gulmahar who was posing for a snap in front of the Place du Trocadero in Paris. She was holding a little East Turkestan flag in her hand that remains banned in China. The flag represents the region’s independence for Uyghurs. Gulmahar’s picture was from a demonstration in France that she had attended, against the repression by China on Uyghurs. The Chinese cop wasn’t ready to believe that Gulbahar’s daughter isn’t a terrorist, but she was only a part of the march.

The policemen further questioned her and concluded that her daughter is a terrorist. Tired of the aggression, Gulbahar asked, “Can I go now? Are we done here?” to which one of them replied, “No, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, we’re not done.” Little had Gulbahar sensed that she is already a detainee in Baijiantan re-education camp.

Assaults in classrooms on Uyghur women

She was placed in a room that had nothing except a window covered with metal sheets and a bucket. She says that the guards used to frequently march down this isolated room and the detainees were under strict vigilance. This re-education centre as the Chinese government calls it turned out to be the “school” where Uyghurs are trained by the military to pledge their life to China. Every attempt to plan or even utter words for an escape was a failure.

The room in which Gulbahar was placed had two cameras mounted on the wall, panning every few seconds. Every day the detainees were escorted to a classroom. She recalls that in the class, a woman used to brainwash the detainees and force them to pledge their obedience to the Republic of China. “One day, the teacher slapped a woman in the class who was in her 60s. The woman was fainting of exhaustion and so she had shut her eyes,” says Gulbahar. However, the teacher slapped the woman and said, “Think I don’t see you praying? You’ll be punished!” She was later dragged out from the class only to return back with a self criticising note. “I wonder what was done to the 60-year-old woman, to make her say things she was saying,” Gulbahar recollects.

She further says that every day the detainees were forced 11 hours of such sessions. The teacher signalled and we “Lao shi hao (a teacher)”, she tells. It’s like a warning call for the detainees that the teacher is in. Then we were made to recite a sort of some pledge of allegiance to China that read, “Thank you to our great country. Thank you to our party. Thank you to our dear President Xi Jinping.”

The inmates inside the Baijiantan detention/ re-education camps reviewed what they were taught every night before bed. They were subjected to exams where the detainees have to write such recitals to prove their allegiance to their teachers. Gulbahar and the other inmates were repeatedly assaulted and forced into such sessions where they were asked to forget who they were.

Gulbahar set free after 3 years of torture in Baijiantan

“I was sentenced to 7 years in re-education camp, where I was tormented brutally. I had forgotten who I was, but I did not believe the words I was forced to utter in those classes,” says Gulbahar. In August 2019, three years after her detainment, she was announced to be innocent by a judge from Kamaray.

Today, she says that the guards in the Baijiantan detention centre used to sterilise the women detainees, so they can control the population of Uyghurs in China. She narrates that these centres are no “re-education camps” but are military zones where Uyghurs are tormented until they have accepted what is being preached.

Tags: #China#Uyghur
SendShare50Tweet32

Subscribe for live updates of recent news and events

Unsubscribe

More News

Punjab Congress crisis: Sonia Gandhi to meet Captain Amarinder Singh today

Punjab Congress crisis: Sonia Gandhi to meet Captain Amarinder Singh today

11 months ago
French judge to probe corruption allegations in Rafale case: report

French judge to probe corruption allegations in Rafale case: report

11 months ago
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat resigns, BJP legislature set to meet on July 3 to elect its new leader

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat resigns, BJP legislature set to meet on July 3 to elect its new leader

11 months ago
Calcutta HC orders Bengal govt to register all cases of post-poll violence and offer medical assistance to victims

Calcutta HC orders Bengal govt to register all cases of post-poll violence and offer medical assistance to victims

11 months ago
Virat Kohli and Priyanka Chopra start in the Instagram Rich List

Virat Kohli and Priyanka Chopra start in the Instagram Rich List

11 months ago
Prince Harry gushes over his and Meghan Markle’s kid, Lilibet Diana

Prince Harry gushes over his and Meghan Markle’s kid, Lilibet Diana

11 months ago
Richard Donner, director of Superman and The Goonies, dies aged 91

Richard Donner, director of Superman and The Goonies, dies aged 91

July 6, 2021
Punjab Congress crisis: Sonia Gandhi to meet Captain Amarinder Singh today

Punjab Congress crisis: Sonia Gandhi to meet Captain Amarinder Singh today

July 6, 2021
MP Government to vaccinate 5,000 Pakistani refugees in Indore

Covid-19 vaccines 8 times less effective against Delta variant: Sir Ganga Ram hospital study

July 6, 2021
Currently Playing

Uttarakhand forest officials release deer back into the wild

Uttarakhand forest officials release deer back into the wild

Uttarakhand forest officials release deer back into the wild

Animal
In a first, human doctors are set to operate upon a dog diagnosed with brain tumor

In a first, human doctors are set to operate upon a dog diagnosed with brain tumor

Science
STRANDED IN WELL FOR 18 HOURS, LEOPARD PULLED OUT TO SAFETY USING COT AND EARTH MOVER IN MAHARASHTRA

STRANDED IN WELL FOR 18 HOURS, LEOPARD PULLED OUT TO SAFETY USING COT AND EARTH MOVER IN MAHARASHTRA

Animal
LOST LEOPARD TURNS SHOWSTOPPER IN KULLU

LOST LEOPARD TURNS SHOWSTOPPER IN KULLU

Environment
Top news of the day

SC refuses to stay anti-conversion law; SC to hear pleas against farm laws and more

News
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Privacy & Policy
    • Contact
    Email us at hello@ewoke.tv

    Copyright © 2020 | EwokeTV

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • Politics
      • Business
      • World
      • Science
    • Entertainment
      • Gaming
      • Music
      • Movie
      • Sports
    • Tech
      • Apps
      • Gear
      • Mobile
      • Startup
    • Lifestyle
      • Food
      • Fashion
      • Health
      • Travel

    Copyright © 2020 | EwokeTV

    • Login

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password?

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In
    This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
    Go to mobile version