The human rights situation is worsening rapidly in Xinjiang where local people are afraid to stand up for themselves in fear of retributions from authorities.
According to a witness, on September 4, local vegetable farmer Liu Ming (pseudonym) and his wife were pulling a large vegetable cart at the Urumqi wholesale produce market when five local police officers arrived and demanded that all farmers handed over their identification for inspection. Mr. Ming mumbled to himself: “More nonsense from the police!” The officers immediately handcuffed him and arrested for charges of “contradicting a police officer.”
Liu Ming’s wife pleaded with the police for leniency, but was also arrested for “covering up a crime.” She was forced to admit that her husband had complained before the police let her go; but they took Liu Ming away.
As per an inside source, the police locked Liu Ming up in a metal cage made from reinforced steel bars; he could not stand or raise his head and had to remain in a crouched position for eight hours. His friends and relatives used their connections and paid about 10,000 RMB (approximately 1,500 USD) before Liu Ming was released.
Authorities in Xinjiang are continuously violating the rights of people by detaining them unlawfully in the “transformation through education” camps, appointing Party officials to stay with local Uyghur families or installing surveillance systems to restrict the movements of people in the province. As famous Uyghur activist Rebiya Kadeer said on Voice of America at the end of July, “The Uyghurs’ present is the Han people’s future.”
Reported by Li Zaili
