Canadian couple who lived in Xinjiang for 10 years tell AFP they witnessed a crackdown on Uighurs that felt like a giant prison.
Gary and Andrea Dyck moved to Xinjiang in 2007 after working for an Asian NGO, AFP reported from Ottawa on April 25. The Chinese authorities’ treatment of Uighurs there in recent years has been condemned as “genocide” by some Western countries.
In Turpan
The couple learned Mandarin and Uyghur and set up a composting business in Turpan, in eastern Xinjiang. We love our life there and we feel accepted by the Uighurs,” Andrea Decker told AFP. It was a very special moment …… until everything changed completely.
Her husband spoke of their departure from Xinjiang in 2018 with many foreigners, adding that back then, “there were so many restrictions” and “we felt like we were living in a huge prison.”
The couple said that after the 2009 riots, they saw “traditional Uighur neighborhoods begin to be dismantled and residents increasingly relocated to apartment buildings, away from their communities.”
In 2016, as the crackdown intensified, “police set up checkpoints at major intersections and added security cameras.”
At that point, Andrea recalls, “all of a sudden, you had to go through airport-style security when you entered a grocery store.”
The Language of Food and Clothing
For Gary Decker, the crackdown on Uighurs and their culture was “very methodical. The population is unable to respond to “the scale of the repression machine.
Andrea says, “We are seeing more and more destruction of their culture: starting with Islamic traditions, including food, clothing and language. On religious holidays, Uighurs are forbidden to kill sheep “in front of their homes, or even to “lay out a blanket for prayer in their homes.
According to the couple, some versions of the Quran have been banned, and it is the Uighur language books that will eventually be banned.
Detention camp built with 4-meter-high walls
Andrea and Gary also reported that a detention camp had been built near their home, with walls more than 4 meters high, topped with barbed wire and monitored by cameras and patrolling security guards.
This AFP report says that according to foreign experts, more than 1 million people of the Uighur ethnic group, the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, are being held in re-education camps and some are being subjected to “forced labor.
But Chinese authorities strongly deny this, saying the centers are training centers designed to steer their members away from terrorism and separatism in the wake of Uighur attacks.
Children fear turning 18
Mrs. Decker spoke of a woman whose sister she knew had been transferred to a concentration camp because “she had spent time abroad years ago.” “She was the main supporter of an extended family of elderly parents and young children. With her departure, the structure of the family fell apart.”
Gary Decker also spoke of the friends of the couple’s teenage sons, all of whom were waiting with trepidation for their 18th birthdays, worried about whether they would be put in a concentration camp when they turned 18.
Mr. Decker said, “What other place in the world would a young person be afraid of turning 18.” He also revealed that some young people had started showing pictures of themselves smoking or drinking on social media to make themselves look less Muslim.
Gary Decker said the decision to leave Xinjiang was “very difficult, but we felt we had no choice. The couple also worried that their relationship with their Uighur friends would put those friends at risk.
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