Eyewitnesses reveal that a vocational training center has been turned into a “transformation through education” camp in Bole city, Xinjiang.
Informed sources report that a vocational training center located at No. 13 Qiancheng Road, Nancheng in Xinjiang’s Bole has been turned into a “transformation through education” camp used for detaining Muslim Uyghurs. More and more camps are built across Xinjiang as the number of people interned in them continues to increase.
The “training center” is heavily guarded day and night, and security cameras point to all directions A double gate was installed at the main entrance: after a car enters, the main gate is first closed and then the second gate opened for it to drive in. Armed police patrol the courtyard. Every three to five days there 20-30 officers exercise in the yard, and every day at 1:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., people are heard singing songs that praise the Communist Party. Doctors in white coats can be seen walking around the courtyard.
Sources reveal that the renovations of the camp began in November 2017 and were completed in December. Prisoners started to arrive in the camp, one after another, from December 30. In just two days between December 30 and 31, over 3,000 people were locked up there. There were five cars for each drop-off, twelve people in each vehicle, with a total of 51 trips. Some people were handcuffed, some were wearing shackles, and some even had black hoods over their heads. All men and women were in gray clothing.
Sometime in February, an eyewitness saw four people coming out of the camp carrying a stretcher with a person who did not move. It was -29° C at the time, but the person was still put down on the ground. About half an hour later, the eyewitness saw a woman with disheveled hair come out of the camp and look at the person on the ground. Four officers then picked up the stretcher and put it in the back of a police car.
In mid-March, eyewitnesses saw someone dressed in ethnic Uyghur clothes on a stretcher being carried into the camp.
In April, a row of two-story color-plate buildings was constructed in the courtyard, and, in May, the sign for the training center was taken down.
According to an eyewitness, on June 18 between 0:30 and 1:00 a.m., more prisoners were taken into the concentration camp, each time in two separate vehicles. Around the same time on June 21, two cars made two trips each bringing in more prisoners. These two groups of prisoners were put into the newly constructed buildings.
The vocational training center, occupying approximately half an acre, was under construction from 2011 to 2012; it is a six-story structure, including the basement.
Reported by Li Zaili
