Uyghur Refugees Part 1 USAGM
Metadata
- Uyghur Refugees Part 1 USAGM
- February 28, 2022
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script English USAGM SHARE ((TITLE: TV Uyghur Refugees Part 1 – Khamidov HEAD: Concentration Camps in Today’s China: What We Know About Uighurs’ Repression PUBLISHED AT: 02/28/2022 at 8:45am BYLINE: Sanjar Khamidov CONTRIBUTOR: DATELINE: Fairfax, Virginia VIDEOGRAPHER: Aleksandr Bergan VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, see courtesies PLATFORMS: TV only SCRIPT EDITORS: KE(1st), ELee TRT: 4:03 VID APPROVED BY:KE TYPE: TVPKG UPDATE: ((INTRO:)) [[Human rights activists accuse China of detaining more than a million people in Xinjiang’s internment camps. Sanjar Khamidov spoke to some who survived the camps and fled to the US. Anna Rice narrates his story.]] ((NARRATION)) ((NATS)) ((School bell rings)) This Islamic school in the Washington D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, is open again after a COVID-induced quarantine. Many of the children who attend are immigrants from a region in China known as Xinjiang. They are Uyghurs, members of a Muslim ethnic group that live in Xinjiang. Here children are taught the Uyghur language and literature, as well as the basics of the Islamic religion and Turkic history and culture. Almost every student in this school has family in Xinjiang. They say their relatives are either in detention camps or have died. ((Uyghur Student (Boy 1)) “How I know? It’s because my uncle has been in prison. His sentence was three years, but they kept him for twenty years.” ((Uyghur Student (Boy 2)) “My aunt, my grandma and uncle are kept back home, and we’re not allowed to see them, and they can’t come visit.” ((Student 3, Girl)) “My grandma and grandpa, they took away their passports… We can only call them rarely…” ((Student 4, Boy)) “My mother’s side, my grandparents died because of sickness, and they couldn’t go to the hospital.” ((NARRATION)) These are portraits of their relatives and loved ones. They say all of them are still either in camps or unaccounted for – and they accuse Chinese authorities of persecuting all ethnic minorities in Xinjiang – not just Uyghurs, but also Kazakhs, Kirghiz and Uzbeks. Beijing denies the existence of detention camps in China. The Chinese government calls the facilities housing Uyghurs in Xinjiang vocational training schools or educational centers. The authorities emphasize these “re-education” measures are aimed at combating extremism and terrorism. But this policy is actually aimed at forcing assimilation, says Rutgers University law professor Engy Abdelkader. ((Engy Abdelkader, Rutgers University Law Professor)) ((Mandatory ZOOM)) “Individuals who are viewed by the authorities as not adhering to this policy of conformity have been detained in internee camps. Currently, there’s at least one million Uighur Muslims detained at internee camps. Beijing has euphemistically named these camps as counter-terrorism centers.” ((NARRATION)) Some who survived the camps and managed to flee to the U.S. have testified before Congress more than once about their experience. 44-year-old Tursunay Ziyawudun, who’s ethnically Uyghur, says she was arrested twice by police and spent over ten months ((Mandatory courtesy: Video by Guanguan/2020 + YouTube Logo)) in a detention camp. Many of her cellmates were arrested for practicing Islam. ((End courtesy)) ((Tursunay Ziyawudun, Detention Camp Survivor)) “In the camp I learned that most of the people were incarcerated for no reason. They have been arrested for praying, reading Quran, wearing hijab – scarves. In general, for practicing Islam.” ((NARRATION)) ((Mandatory courtesy: Video by Guanguan/2020 + YouTube Logo)) Inside the camp, Tursunay and all her cellmates were under 24/7 video surveillance. ((End courtesy)) ((Tursunay Ziyawudun, Detention Camp Survivеr)) “We were not allowed to speak our native tongue in the camp. We couldn’t say the word “ Xinjiang,” we were immediately corrected – ‘There’s no Xinjiang, there’s only the ‘Republic of China.’ ((NARRATION)) ((Mandatory courtesy: Video by Guanguan/2020 + YouTube Logo)) Right groups including Human Rights Watch estimate over a million people are ((End courtesy)) ((Mandatory courtesy: Buzzfeed News)) being held in Xinjiang camps. ((End courtesy)) ((NATS)) ((Kid dancing scenes)) ((NARRATION)) In the meantime, Uyghur children at this school in Fairfax are learning a traditional Uyghur dance. They are enjoying the freedom they have found in the U.S. - to be who they are, Uyghurs and Muslims – a freedom that does not exist for their relatives in China. ((For Sanjar Khamidov in Fairfax, Virginia, Anna Rice, VOA News))
- Transcript/Script USAGM SHARE ((TITLE: TV Uyghur Refugees Part 1 – Khamidov HEAD: Concentration Camps in Today’s China: What We Know About Uighurs’ Repression PUBLISHED AT: 02/28/2022 at 8:45am BYLINE: Sanjar Khamidov CONTRIBUTOR: DATELINE: Fairfax, Virginia VIDEOGRAPHER: Aleksandr Bergan VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, see courtesies PLATFORMS: TV only SCRIPT EDITORS: KE(1st), ELee TRT: 4:03 VID APPROVED BY:KE TYPE: TVPKG UPDATE: ((INTRO:)) [[Human rights activists accuse China of detaining more than a million people in Xinjiang’s internment camps. Sanjar Khamidov spoke to some who survived the camps and fled to the US. Anna Rice narrates his story.]] ((NARRATION)) ((NATS)) ((School bell rings)) This Islamic school in the Washington D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, is open again after a COVID-induced quarantine. Many of the children who attend are immigrants from a region in China known as Xinjiang. They are Uyghurs, members of a Muslim ethnic group that live in Xinjiang. Here children are taught the Uyghur language and literature, as well as the basics of the Islamic religion and Turkic history and culture. Almost every student in this school has family in Xinjiang. They say their relatives are either in detention camps or have died. ((Uyghur Student (Boy 1)) “How I know? It’s because my uncle has been in prison. His sentence was three years, but they kept him for twenty years.” ((Uyghur Student (Boy 2)) “My aunt, my grandma and uncle are kept back home, and we’re not allowed to see them, and they can’t come visit.” ((Student 3, Girl)) “My grandma and grandpa, they took away their passports… We can only call them rarely…” ((Student 4, Boy)) “My mother’s side, my grandparents died because of sickness, and they couldn’t go to the hospital.” ((NARRATION)) These are portraits of their relatives and loved ones. They say all of them are still either in camps or unaccounted for – and they accuse Chinese authorities of persecuting all ethnic minorities in Xinjiang – not just Uyghurs, but also Kazakhs, Kirghiz and Uzbeks. Beijing denies the existence of detention camps in China. The Chinese government calls the facilities housing Uyghurs in Xinjiang vocational training schools or educational centers. The authorities emphasize these “re-education” measures are aimed at combating extremism and terrorism. But this policy is actually aimed at forcing assimilation, says Rutgers University law professor Engy Abdelkader. ((Engy Abdelkader, Rutgers University Law Professor)) ((Mandatory ZOOM)) “Individuals who are viewed by the authorities as not adhering to this policy of conformity have been detained in internee camps. Currently, there’s at least one million Uighur Muslims detained at internee camps. Beijing has euphemistically named these camps as counter-terrorism centers.” ((NARRATION)) Some who survived the camps and managed to flee to the U.S. have testified before Congress more than once about their experience. 44-year-old Tursunay Ziyawudun, who’s ethnically Uyghur, says she was arrested twice by police and spent over ten months ((Mandatory courtesy: Video by Guanguan/2020 + YouTube Logo)) in a detention camp. Many of her cellmates were arrested for practicing Islam. ((End courtesy)) ((Tursunay Ziyawudun, Detention Camp Survivor)) “In the camp I learned that most of the people were incarcerated for no reason. They have been arrested for praying, reading Quran, wearing hijab – scarves. In general, for practicing Islam.” ((NARRATION)) ((Mandatory courtesy: Video by Guanguan/2020 + YouTube Logo)) Inside the camp, Tursunay and all her cellmates were under 24/7 video surveillance. ((End courtesy)) ((Tursunay Ziyawudun, Detention Camp Survivеr)) “We were not allowed to speak our native tongue in the camp. We couldn’t say the word “ Xinjiang,” we were immediately corrected – ‘There’s no Xinjiang, there’s only the ‘Republic of China.’ ((NARRATION)) ((Mandatory courtesy: Video by Guanguan/2020 + YouTube Logo)) Right groups including Human Rights Watch estimate over a million people are ((End courtesy)) ((Mandatory courtesy: Buzzfeed News)) being held in Xinjiang camps. ((End courtesy)) ((NATS)) ((Kid dancing scenes)) ((NARRATION)) In the meantime, Uyghur children at this school in Fairfax are learning a traditional Uyghur dance. They are enjoying the freedom they have found in the U.S. - to be who they are, Uyghurs and Muslims – a freedom that does not exist for their relatives in China. ((For Sanjar Khamidov in Fairfax, Virginia, Anna Rice, VOA News))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date February 28, 2022 09:22 EST
- Byline Aleksandr Bergan
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America