Edited By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
Last Updated: January 13, 2023, 09:20 AM IST
Former Kazakh journalist Zhanargul Zhumatai has faced brutal torture at the hands of Chinese authorities for reporting illegal Chinese land grab (Image: @SerikzhanBilash/Twitter)
Former Kazakh journalist Zhanargul Zhumatai was kept for two years at an internment camp for speaking up for nomadic tribes
While most of the world focuses on China’s Covid-19 outbreak following its reopening, the plight of Uyghur Muslims and Xinjiang Kazakhs remains unnoticed.
Uyghur Muslims in China continue to face repression at the hands of Chinese authorities but recent reports by the Diplomat and Radio Free Europe(RFE) pointed out that even ethnic Kazakhs living in China continue to face repression and torture at the hands of Chinese officials.
SOS!!! SOS!!! SOS!!! She lives in danger at this very moment. We should apply for her the Nobel Peace Prize. First, she exposed the Xinjiang concentration camps. Second, she is currently still in Xinjiang. Her name is Zhanargul Zhumatai. She still in danger! Share! Retweet!!! pic.twitter.com/vwPLZUKrMx— Serikzhan Bilash (@SerikzhanBilash) January 12, 2023
Kazakh news editor Zhanargul Zhumatai who spoke to both outlets narrated her ordeal and shed light on how state oppression has made her life miserable. She spoke to the Diplomat‘s Tasnim Nazeer and RFE’s Rune Steenberg that she has faced harassment, torture and constant surveillance since 2017.
What are the allegations against Zhumatai?
The former editor of Qazaqstan Radio and Television Corporation, who is also a musician, was first detained for installing social media apps like Instagram and Facebook on her phone while she was visiting Kazakhstan as these are banned in China.
The RFE report also pointed out that the Chinese police leaked reports also cited her travel to ‘focus countries’ as a reason for her detention. The focus countries are presumed to be a reference to Kazakhstan.
Zhumatai, who resides in Urumqi, also faced arrest and harassment for contacting Serikzhan Bilash, a well-known Xinjiang-born Kazakh activist who lives in the United States.
Bilash confirmed in a discussion with the RFE that Zhumatai faced arrest for contacting him 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 forcefully took lands from nomadic farmers.
Zhumatai told the Diplomat that Beijing has cracked down on ethnic Kazakhs as well and also on other Turkic ethnic groups, along with Uyghurs.
Internment Camp Episode
The journalist-cum-musician told the Diplomat that she was called to Beijing under the guise of an ‘artistic musical project’ but on her arrival she was arrested and sent to an internment camp.
These internment camps house more than a million people, mostly Muslims, who have been unlawfully detained by the Chinese authorities.
Harassment, Torture and Assault
Zhumatai described the inhuman and brutal conditions inside the prison while speaking to both outlets. She said that the beatings and the torture was regular and there was no access to medical facilities.
She told the Diplomat that the authorities told her that the Communist Party of China was ‘correcting her ideologies’. She also said that consuming a medicine made her vomit incessantly and left her weak.
The claims could not be independently verified by News18 but the RFE reports pointed out that the claim is backed up by leaked Chinese police records that say she was arrested in 2017.
It also matches the testimonies of hundreds of survivors who were detained by authorities in the last few years and the accounts shared in the 48-page report released last year by the UN Human Rights Office.
Zhumatai said that detainees are strapped in ‘tiger chairs’ and are also sexually assaulted inside the internment camps.
She was released in 2019 but since then she lives in complete fear of Chinese authorities who continue to hound her. China’s facial recognition technology ensures that whenever she visits a public place, alarms will be sounded and it also ensures that she cannot get treated in a hospital because authorities refuse to treat her.
False Respite
Chinese authorities have told Zhumatai that she can save herself from this harassment if she admits herself to a psychiatric hospital. She is being accused of slandering China.
The Kazakh embassy in Beijing has told her that she would be given papers to enter Kazakhstan but she does not trust them fully since Kazakhstan has kowtowed in front of China on several occasions. She fears that China’s Public Security Bureau could arrest her and override the authority of the Kazakh embassy.
“If I disappear or if I die, I want the world to hold them responsible,” Zhumatai was quoted as saying by RFE.
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