I reported how I was tortured and raped in the Xinjiang camps. After my text was published, my parents and relatives who are still in China started being persecuted.
by Ulnur Bozhykhan
My name is Ulnur Bozhykhan. I spent almost a year in the political prisons of the Chinese Communist Party in East Turkestan (Ch. Xinjiang), which is my homeland.
My husband, Turarbek Kusainov, wrote a biographical essay about me, based on true facts about the humiliation and violence I had been subjected to from the Chinese Communists, including torture and rape. It was published in Bitter Winter on February 7, 2022, and is, in fact, a small book.
Since the publication of that autobiographical book, my parents and relatives have been harassed and threatened by the Chinese authorities. This harassment started after the publication in Bitter Winter and was explicitly connected to it.
The Chinese government has been violating the rights of indigenous peoples in East Turkestan and now also threatens Taiwan. Just like the free and independent Ukraine is under the aggression of Putin’s Russia, Taiwan is provoked daily by China.
I urge the Chinese authorities to respect the democratic feelings and the aspiration to freedom of the citizens of Taiwan, and to cease the systematic violation of human rights in East Turkestan, including of my parents and relatives.
