‘The oppression begins with the name Xinjiang’, says Kalbinur Sidik (55), who is ethnically Uzbek. ‘For us it’s East Turkestan. Xinjiang is the name the Chinese government has given to the land I come from.’

Sidik is a guest at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), where the film Eyes of the Machine is screened. The documentary shows how the Chinese government is systematically destroying the Uyghurs and their culture. Sidik’s story is essential to the film: she is one of the few who have been inside the camps and lived to tell the tale 

‘It’s very odd’, she says in the café of the Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam. ‘When I watch the documentary, my own story makes me cry. Yesterday, we were in the Tuschinski’s main auditorium, which was very impressive. After the screening, I got many questions and a lot of support from the audience. That means a lot to me.’

On Thursday, she will be one of the speakers at a symposium in the Kamerlingh Onnes Building on the Uyghur genocide. The Islamic minority in the region is being discriminated against and persecuted because, according to the Chinese government, it poses a terrorist threat. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been detained in what the Chinese call ‘re-education camps’.

BRAINWASHED

‘Half of the Uyghurs are brainwashed, the other half murdered, after which their organs are harvested’, says Sidik. ‘East Turkestan has oil and many types of rare earth elements. The Chinese have a problem with the fact that the area is not fully under their control. The Uyghurs were holding on too strongly to their own identity. That is why they have been locked up in camps.’

Sidik speaks Uyghur and Chinese and is learning Dutch. For this interview, Uyghur Alerk Ablikim – who studied in Leiden and spoke to Mare about the situation of the Uyghurs back in 2022 – acts as interpreter.

‘I grew up in the Uyghur capital Ürümqi’, says Sidik. ‘I am Uzbek myself; my husband is Uyghur. In my youth, life seemed relatively normal. There was no overt oppression yet, but there was already a lot of discrimination.

The repression became very visible in July 2009. Uyghur students were demonstrating against the Chinese government back then. The immediate cause was the Chinese attack on Uyghur toy factory workers. They were attacked and murdered in the middle of the night. The Chinese had filmed the attack and posted it on their social media. Students saw this and set out to protest.

‘The Chinese exploited these demonstrations to crack down hard on an entire generation of young Uyghurs. I lived on the fourth floor and saw a great deal of misery from the window. Although the protests were peaceful, thousands of young people were imprisoned or killed.

‘I taught Chinese at a primary school, was considered trustworthy by the Chinese government and received the highest score in their assessment. I was told that I had to leave and teach Chinese to illiterate people elsewhere. I had no idea that this meant teaching in concentration camps. I had to obey the order. It was forced labour.

‘They sent me to a men’s camp near the city. It was a building surrounded by high walls covered with high-voltage wires. Security was tight, including cameras with facial recognition. Once inside, I saw police officers and soldiers standing with drawn firearms.

‘I had to write down all my personal details and sign a document stating that I was not allowed to talk to anyone about what I was going to witness.

‘The prisoners had shaved heads and wore numbered overalls. They crawled into the classroom – shackled hand and foot, their heads down. Every now and then, a number was called out and a prisoner was taken away for interrogation. They would then be tortured, for example with electric shocks.

‘Their sleeping spaces were about 30 to 40 centimetres wide, with no carpet or anything of the sort on the concrete floor. The men could not shower. There was a blue water barrel from which they could get water with a small cup. I never once saw that barrel being cleaned. The prisoners were only fed momos – a kind of dumpling – with no filling, old and hard. They were also given sugar water to drink.

RAPE

‘We were given fresher momos and tea. The staff had an hour’s break each day. Outside of that break, we weren’t allowed to go to the toilet, so we hardly drank anything.

‘I wasn’t treated very badly myself, but I lived in constant fear: when would it be my turn? You see the prisoners suffering every day. Communication was impossible. It felt almost like imprisonment for me too, even though the police drove me home every day. At night in bed, I kept thinking about what I had seen.

‘I couldn’t breathe a word about the camp. Still, I tried to tell my husband. He didn’t want to hear any of it. He said it made him feel sick.’

Overcome by emotion, Sidik wipes her tears with a paper tissue. ‘It used to be even worse. For a long time, I could hardly eat or drink anything. Now I can let it out, but I can’t stop myself from becoming emotional. Every time, I see the prisoners’ faces again. Every time they came into the classroom, they would look at me in desperation: are you going to save us? I will never forget those eyes.’

 She picks up where she left off. ‘After six months, the semester came to an end. I hoped I would be allowed to teach at my old school again. But that was not the case. I was put to work in a women’s camp instead. It was an even larger complex. The women also had shaved heads, but they weren’t shackled like the men.

‘You could see immediately how badly they were suffering. Rape was prevalent. I could see how the women walked with difficulty and sat down very carefully because they were injured. Prisoners were also sterilised with pills and injections.

‘Even outside the camps, the Chinese government sterilises all non-Chinese women in East Turkestan. I myself was also forcibly sterilised. In May 2019, I received a summons to report to a reproductive clinic, where I underwent the procedure. I received that summons through the neighbourhood app. The message stated that you would end up in a cell if you refused.

‘A covert form of communication was possible with the women in the camp. For example, when they were taught about the “great Chinese motherland”, a woman would say: “I want to express my praise for the Party. And I was planning to get married, but that’s not happening now. I’m grateful to the Party that I am here now.” Another woman revealed, between the lines, that she had given birth to a stillborn child. That is how I learned about their life stories.

‘In 2011, my daughter went to study in the Netherlands and stayed here. My husband and I visited her. But because my husband is Uyghur, he has not been allowed to leave the country for quite some time. With great difficulty, I was able to get permission to travel to the Netherlands for a month in 2019. I never returned.

HARASSMENT

‘The Chinese government then forced my husband to record a video in which he condemned my actions and said he had divorced me. The Foreign Affairs spokesperson even posted the video on her Twitter account.

‘A few days later, my husband sent me a message: “I’m sorry. I was under so much pressure and I couldn’t protect you.” That was our last contact, in February 2021. I don’t know how he is doing. My WeChat (a Chinese social media app, Ed.) has been blocked. I also have no contact with my other family members. Thank God I still have my daughter here in the Netherlands.

‘The Chinese government harasses me here. I keep getting calls from numbers belonging to family members. If you pick up, a Chinese police officer is on the line. They know where I live and walk past my house. Whenever I speak somewhere publicly, the harassment increases. Chinese people park their cars nearby and loiter around my house. I film them and stay in contact with the Dutch police, who I can call when I’m being harassed. However, my Dutch is not very good, so it’s difficult to explain to them what’s going on.

I hope the documentary will increase awareness of the Uyghurs’ situation and make people view China in a different light. I understand that the Netherlands wants to protect its own interests, but it would be good if economic engagement with China were reduced. If our country ever becomes free and independent, I hope to return. After all, East Turkestan is where I was born and raised.’