![]() After a year and a half in an Urumqi prison, I was sentenced to three years of reform through labour. In an era when any Uyghur could be arrested under any pretext, it seemed my turn had come. In 1996, I had planned to study abroad in Turkey, but I had been arrested at China’s border with Kyrgyzstan on spurious charges of attempting to take illegal and confidential materials out of the country. Three days later, as I sat working in my office, I received a phone call from an old friend who had been “reformed” alongside me in a “re-education through labour” camp in Kashgar 20 years earlier. Photograph: Courtesy of Tahir Hamut IzgilĪfter this, I began paying close attention to the way the mass arrests were unfolding. Tahir Hamut Izgil (back left) and his family in 2015. My mother confirmed that my relatives in Kashgar were safe, at least for now. As I started the car, Marhaba wasted no time in calling my mother in Kashgar to ask how she was doing. But no one knew when that next time would come, if ever. We invited Dilber to lunch, but she had no stomach for it. She was clearly terrified that she would be detained as soon as she returned. She planned to go back the next morning, after taking care of her son’s troubles. Dilber had flown into Urumqi only the day before, but received a phone call from her local police station in Kashgar, ordering her to return at once. Now, though, the trip seemed to have brought them catastrophe. For employees who had served foreign guests for years but had never been abroad themselves, this trip was marvellous and exciting. Only last spring, the Uyghur owner of the hotel where Dilber worked had led a weeklong trip to Dubai for about 20 outstanding employees, including Dilber. In addition, any Uyghur who had been abroad, for whatever reason, was to be detained. People said the day of judgment had come.Īccording to Dilber, the primary targets of this round of arrests were devout individuals from Xinjiang’s mostly Muslim Uyghur population. Rumours spread that, outside the city, construction was proceeding rapidly on multiple new so-called “study centres”, each meant to house tens of thousands. Within days, numerous schools, government offices and even hospitals had been converted into detention and re-education centres hastily outfitted with iron doors, window bars and barbed wire. The wave of arrests was so immense that existing detention facilities in the city – police station lockups, prisons, holding centres, labour camps, drug-detox facilities – had been quickly overwhelmed. She told us what had been happening in Kashgar the past few days. But Dilber was not worried only about her son. Assuming that she was crying for her son, we tried to comfort her. We had barely begun catching up when Dilber burst into tears. When I reached the front gate, I saw Dilber standing alone.
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