{"id":4798,"date":"2021-01-04T19:19:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=146048"},"modified":"2021-01-04T19:19:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:19:55","slug":"uyghur-iron-traders-taught-cooking-at-xinjiang-internment-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/04\/uyghur-iron-traders-taught-cooking-at-xinjiang-internment-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Uyghur Iron Traders \u2018Taught\u2019 Cooking at Xinjiang Internment Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Two Uyghurs in the iron trade who expanded their business to Kazakhstan in recent years have been detained in an internment camp in northwest China\u2019s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) where they are being \u201ctaught\u201d culinary skills, according to fellow traders.<\/p>\n

Cousins Akbar Yusup, 48, and Abdusalam Abduwali, 38, went missing in 2017 after returning from Kazakhstan to their homes in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining)\u2014the seat of Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture and the XUAR\u2019s third largest city\u2014their relatives in the neighboring Central Asian nation recently told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n

After making inquiries, RFA learned from a Kazakhstan-based trader that Abduwali had been detained on Dec. 26, 2018 and Yusup on April 4, 2019. However, the trader was unable to determine why they had been held by authorities or where they were detained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say they\u2019re in camps,\u201d said the trader, speaking on condition of anonymity. \u201cThe younger one, he has shops for his business. He had an iron company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities in the XUAR are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017. Chinese officials have said the camps are centers for \u201cvocational training,\u201d but reporting by RFA and other media outlets shows that detainees are mostly held against their will in cramped and unsanitary conditions, where they are forced to endure inhumane treatment and political indoctrination.<\/p>\n

According to the trader, the fathers of Yusup and Abduwali were both long-time blacksmiths and iron workers in Ghulja. The cousins learned the trade from their fathers but focused their business activities on building iron fences.<\/p>\n

A movement in Uyghur architecture and home design in Ghulja in recent years helped their business achieve rapid success and growth, the trader said. Their work also found a market in Kazakhstan, where they began doing business after 2010.<\/p>\n

The cousins did business between China and Kazakhstan for a number of years with no trouble, but had their first run-in with the authorities in 2017 when police called them back to Ghulja, which they agreed to do because they believed they had done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went through [the border checkpoint at Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture\u2019s] Korgas (Huocheng) county,\u201d the trader said. \u201cIt was April [2017] and [authorities] took them in as they entered the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abduwali and Yusup had black hoods placed over their heads at the checkpoint and were taken away, according to the trader. They were released after a week of interrogations, but then were detained separately in December 2018 and April 2019, he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Learning culinary skills\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to information listed on their identification cards, which RFA was able to obtain copies of, Yusup is a resident of the No. 11 apartment complex on Ghulja\u2019s Xinhua Road, while Abduwali lives at the No. 19 apartment complex on Baht Road.<\/p>\n

RFA called community offices and police stations in these jurisdictions seeking information about the cousins. One officer at the station on Xinhua Road told RFA he was unaware of the situation, but a second officer at the same station confirmed he had worked on the case of the two cousins.<\/p>\n

The officer, who also declined to provide his name, said that six months ago, the two had been moved to the \u201cY\u00e9ngiyer\u201d camp in Ghulja, where they \u201ceat, do activities, and learn Chinese.\u201d He said that the cousins are being held on the \u201cthird floor\u201d of one of the buildings in the complex but was unable to provide information on the reason for their detention.<\/p>\n

An employee at a government office in Ghulja told RFA that the cousins had been \u201cmoved between three places\u201d in the county, including the Y\u00e9ngiyer, Boz, and Yamachang camps. She said that they had been held in Boz \u201cfor six or seven months as well,\u201d without providing details about their detention in Yamachang.<\/p>\n

In Y\u00e9ngiyer, the cousins had \u201c<\/span>learned culinary skills,\u201d she said, including cooking and baking.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The center] brought them to a point where they can cook [professionally] \u2026 I know of several cooks who stayed there for six or seven months. Those people who can really learn things are able to get it. I see this as a large-scale attempt to meet needs, something fruitful that they\u2019ve really benefited from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The employee said she did not know when the cousins\u2019 \u201cstudies\u201d would conclude.<\/p>\n

Amid growing international scrutiny of the extralegal penal system the Chinese government refers to as voluntary \u201cvocational centers,\u201d reports suggest that Uyghurs are being transferred from internment camps to forced labor situations.<\/p>\n

RFA\u2019s investigations have revealed that a large number of gainfully employed scholars and specialized workers have been sent to detention for \u201creeducation.\u201d New evidence has also found that a number of experienced businesspeople engaged in trade have also been detained in the camps.<\/p>\n

Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Uyghurs in the iron trade who expanded their business to Kazakhstan in recent years have been detained in an internment camp in northwest China\u2019s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4799,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798\/revisions\/4799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}