"Every Night Taken for Group Sexual Assault and Electric Torture" Testimony of a Woman Who Escaped Xinjiang Uyghur Detention Camp

BBC Reports Testimonies of Escaped Women
Victims Reveal "Gang Rape, Torture, Forced Contraception"
Chinese Government Claims "Vocational Training Centers, Not Detention Facilities"

A building presumed to be an Islamic minority re-education camp in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, photographed in 2019. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] Testimonies have emerged alleging collective sexual assault, torture, and forced contraception against Uyghur women detained in the "re-education" facilities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region located in northwest China.

On the 3rd, BBC News reported testimonies from women who escaped from these facilities, other minority women who worked there, and former guards.

A 42-year-old Uyghur woman who was detained in a Xinjiang camp for nine months until 2018 before fleeing to the United States revealed, "Many women were taken out every night. They were taken to a dark room without surveillance cameras. The men were dressed in suits, not police uniforms, and always wore masks despite no COVID-19 outbreak. The women were raped by these Chinese men, and I was gang-raped three times by groups of two to three men."

She said, "After such incidents, the women returned to rooms holding 14 detainees each. No one could say a word. Everyone was going insane. Their goal was to destroy our souls."

Referring to the first time she and a woman in her twenties from the same room were taken out past midnight in May 2018, she explained, "There was an electric baton in the room we were taken to. Chinese men tortured me by inserting electric shock devices inside my genital area. A young woman taken to another room kept screaming and said nothing after returning. She was completely mentally broken and became a different person."

She confessed, "I lived in constant fear of being sent back to China," adding, "I was scared that if I revealed the abuse I experienced and witnessed and returned to Xinjiang, I would face harsher punishment than before."

A Kazakh woman who worked in the facility said, "During the 18 months I was in the camp, my job was to strip Uyghur women, handcuff them, and deliver them to Chinese public security officers or Chinese men who came from outside, then wait in the next room to wash the women." She testified, "If the Chinese men caught young and pretty women, they would give me money after the work was done. Organized rape took place."

A building presumed to be an Islamic minority re-education camp in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, photographed in 2019. [Image source=Yonhap News]

An Uzbek woman who taught Chinese there said, "Rape was common. They selected young women they wanted and took them away. Women were dragged away even during class. Their screams echoed throughout the building. Chinese public security not only gang-raped women but also executed them with electric shocks."

She continued, "I witnessed a scene where a woman about 20 or 21 years old was forced to stand in front of about 100 other detainees and was gang-raped. The young woman screamed for help. It was horrific. The guards tortured detainees who clenched their fists, closed their eyes, or looked away at this scene."

Victims testified that Chinese men not only gang-raped women but also bit their entire bodies, leaving terrible wounds. Two or three men would harass one victim each time.

Additionally, women were reportedly subjected to infertility procedures by having intrauterine devices inserted or receiving injections called vaccines every 15 days.

Detainees who failed to memorize Xi Jinping’s quotations were punished differently according to exam failure, wearing clothes of different colors, having food withheld, or being beaten. Detainees had to sing the Chinese national anthem and watch TV programs about President Xi Jinping for several hours.

BBC could not verify the testimonies but confirmed the detainees’ stay in the facilities through past residence permits and travel passes provided by them.

The Chinese government denied the allegations of rape and torture, calling BBC’s questions "completely baseless." A Chinese spokesperson stated in a press release that the facilities in Xinjiang are not "detention centers" but "vocational education and training centers." The spokesperson added, "The Chinese government equally protects the rights and interests of all ethnic minorities" and "places great importance on protecting women's human rights."