INKTOBER

Since 2014, millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other minorities have been locked up in China and subjected to torture and forced labour. Some of those freed talk about trying to rebuild their lives in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

Photography by Robin Tutenges

A Chinese course book

Saliman Yesbolat used to live in Ghulja county, Xinjiang. After she refused to denounce her Uyghur neighbours to the police, she was forced to perform the raising of the Chinese flag every Monday at dawn, and to attend Chinese lessons twice a week in the basement of her building, where she would learn the Chinese language, patriotic songs and Xi Jinping's discourses by heart. This is her exercise book.

Forced to leave China

At 65, Imam Madi Toleukhan is one of the oldest refugees in Bekbolat, Kazakhstan, where more than 100 families took shelter after fleeing the Chinese regime. 'We were richer back there. I owned a herd, but I was too afraid for my sons, my grandchildren and their future: I came to Kazakhstan to save them. I didn't want them to be the fourth generation to suffer at the hands of the Chinese government, he says.

Remembering Uyghur culture in exile

Two members of the Dolan Ensemble, a Uyghur dance troupe based in Kazakhstan, get ready before performing a traditional dance to mark 40 days since the birth of a baby. Founded in 2016, the troupe performs at festivals or private events that bring together members of the Uyghur community, some of whom have had to leave Xinjiang.

Torture, infertility and damaged genitalia

In Kazakhstan, medical care for camp survivors is poor. Most victims can barely afford to see a family doctor. Anara*, an endocrinologist in a Kazakh hospital who has examined about 50 camp survivors since 2020, noticed recurrent infertility problems among her patients. 'Men or women, many have damaged genitalia. Some told me they'd been given drugs, others said they'd been raped. As they didn't come to us right after being released from the camps, it's impossible to know what kind of drugs they were administered in Xinjiang, she says. *Not her real name

The tiger chair

Ospan* spent a year in a re-education camp. He says his mind and body were crushed by the tortures he experienced in a tiger chair - a steel apparatus with handcuffs that restrains the body in painful positions. Aged about 50, this former shepherd, who took refuge with his family in eastern Kazakhstan, is no longer fit for work. Physically wrecked and prone to headaches, he mourns the loss of his memory above all. 'I used to know a lot of songs and I loved to sing; I also knew poems by heart ... Now, I can't sing any more, I can't remember the words,' he says. *Not his real name

Broken families and imprisonment

Aikamal Rashibek saw the dreadful efficiency of the CCP's brainwashing on her husband, Kerimbek Bakytali, after he was released from a Chinese psychiatric hospital. 'He disappeared for a year. When he came back, he didn't tell me anything about what happened to him. He was highly unhinged, always nervous, and got angry whenever I asked questions. He couldn't stop repeating that he hated Kazakhstan now, and that he wanted to go back to China with the kids to give them a Chinese education, says Aikamal. They are now separated.

Missing loved ones in China’s camps

In March 2017, Miyessar Muhedamu, left, a Uyghur woman, was arrested in Xinjiang under the pretext that she had studied Arabic in Egypt when she was young. Her husband, Sadirzhan Ayupov, right, and her three children have not seen her since. Now that Miyessar has left the camp, Sadirzhan receives a short call every few months. He suspects she might have suffered abuse, yet Miyessar can’t speak freely. ‘She told me she’d been in a re-education camp, and that she’d been released. When I ask her what she went through there, she doesn’t answer,’ says Sadirzhan.

Life after fleeing China

Sent to a re-education camp in 2018 at the age of 64, Yerke* saw her health quickly deteriorate. Locked a tiny cell with dozens of other women, she almost lost the use of her legs due to the cold floor she had to lie on. She was in the camp when she learned of her son’s death: pressured by the Chinese authorities, he took his own life. After her release, Yerke fled to Kazakhstan with some family members, but two of her children remain in China. *Not her real name

Forced labour and confessions

Dina Nurdybay, 32, was arrested in Nilka county, Xinjiang, because her traditional Kazakh clothing business made her a separatist, according to the Chinese authorities. She spent 11 months between two re-education camps, a CCP school and a forced-labour sewing factory. After proving she was capable of being ‘well behaved’ and having performed a self-criticism in front of the whole village, Dina was released and managed to escape when she obtained a week’s leave to visit her ailing father in Kazakhstan.

Cultural genocide

China’s repression of ethnic minorities also involves cultural genocide. As Muslim rituals are forbidden in Xinjiang, people are trying to keep their traditions alive across borders. Here, a family is praying together in Kazakhstan after the death of one of their relatives in Xinjiang. They could not repatriate the body because the border between the two countries was closed at the time.

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INKTOBER

Day 25: Scarecrow.

Day 26: Camera.

Kremenchuk. 27.06.2022

nice redstone gremlin

Brands you can boycott to help Georgia (the country) fight against the foreign agent law +what you need to know about it:

[Image ID: Three logos of different international chains depicted on a white background. On top the bands presented are Wendy's and Subway. On the bottom, it's Dunkin' Donuts. End ID.]

The foreign agent law (also locally referred to as "the Russian law". On February 2023, the ruling majority of the parliament registered a draft law, addressing a completely made-up problem of transparency of non-governmental organizations. The law refers to non-governmental organizations that receive funding from abroad as "foreign agents." In Georgian, "foreign agent" carries the same meaning as "spy." Back in 2023, we managed to fight back against the law that would completely destroy student exchange programs, charity work, LGBT and disability organizations, etc. The law would also allow the government to persecute you for something inconsequential, such as an anti-government post on social media. If the law passes, it would cause most of Georgia to be locked out of international relations and would demolish most of our scarce support systems.

Those are not all of the brands that support the Russian law here, however they are the international ones that through their owners in Georgia support the passing of the law.

Additionally, the government has paid people outside the regions to protest in support of passing of the law, and has threatened them with losses of their jobs and the jobs of their family members.

The protests have been going for many days endlessly, and policemen have been getting more and more brutal. Utilizing things such as water jets, armor, shields, flashlights, smoke, gas, etc.

Please stay with Georgia and support it against the country that has endlessly colonized, genocided, and raped us.

Our posts about Kakhovka dam being destroyed thus causing a massive ecological destruction and immeasurable human loss had far less notes than Spotify post about how Spotify wrapped came out on the wrong day.

i don't know how to say this but if you see something get called russian culture maybe double check. many people online have no fucking clue how many things they claim as theirs that are simply not. this cultural erasing is a tool of genocide, because when you have no culture, you have no language, you have no nation. please fucking use your brain. i bet you a million dollars you've seen borshch (also spelled borscht) as a russian dish but it is literally one of our national dishes. look up the ems ukaz. the erasure of our culture isn't new so think for a second. did you know dostoyevskyy was ethnically ukrainian? what about gogol? what about ryepin? aivazovskyy was ukrainian with armenian roots. and yet they are all pillars of "russian art". do you get it yet? they ruined our lands, made the best education all russian, gave you rights and respect if you lived as a russian and they succeeded in it. these people are russian to history now, our culture is being erased and only we care

Protests in Georgia (Sakartvelo) against Russian-style "Foreign Agents Law". International media doesn't pay enough attention to these brave people.

"Ukraine is getting too much attention" "it's not that bad suck it up" "but what about [insert country]" "I bet if russia did [something russia has done 20 times] the world would react bc Ukrainians are white" "but what oil prices" "there are only 647 dead Ukrainian children in 2 years" "what about russian protesters" "white privilege" "that's not genocide this is anti-imperialism" "what about 8 years of bombing bambas children" "but Azov regiment" "I don't want WW3 we must appease russia at all costs" "Ukraine rejected peace deal with russia" "they are all nazis anyway" "kill yourself"

This is how it feels.

boycott everything russian!

please boycott and don't spread russian music, literature, movies, series, art and russian artists! don't use trending russian music on Instagram or TikTok, don't popularize the culture of a terrorist country!

and please be sure to point it out to other social media users. this is the minimum you can do to avoid unnecessary trauma to the victims of russian aggression. the victims should not see the tolerance of the culture of the state that kills and tortures them every day, that destroys entire cities and creates environmental disasters killing hundreds of people!

earlier I wrote about why it is important to realize the level of guilt of the russians and not tolerate everything russian, in order to show the whole world and the russians themselves that their culture of terrorism and dancing on bones will not be tolerated in a civilized society!

russia is currently waging a full-scale genocidal war against Ukraine and taking part in the genocide of the Syrian people who are suffering from the terrorism of dictator Bashar al-Assad!

please show your respect and tolerance for Ukrainians and Syrians, boycott everything russian and educate others! do your part in the information war against imperialist xenophobic racist homophobic and nazi russia!