Read the RFA cover of this story in Uighur.
More than two dozen Uighur teachers from an Xinjiang college were arrested by the Chinese authorities in 2017 and is currently serving prison terms, Radio Free Asia was able to confirm with school officials.
Their arrests eight years ago occurred at a time when the authorities of the North West region began to bring together intellectuals, educators, businessmen and mass cultural personalities and incarcerating them in Rehabilitation camps to prevent what China said was terrorism and religious extremism.
Last week, RFA Uyghur reported that the eminent historian Ghojaniyaz Yollugh Tekin, 59, who taught the Aksu Education Institute of the City of Aksu, was arrested in 2017 and sentenced to 17 years in prison at the end of 2018 for his research, writings and opinions which, which have been sentenced to 17 years old Oighours are part of the Turkish world – and no Chinese.
After a more in -depth investigation, the FRG learned that the authorities also arrested and held 25 other educators of the same school in 2017. But RFA could not determine the reasons for their arrests or the duration of their sentences.
Created in 1985, the college currently has around 220 staff members – more than half of which are Uighurs – and 3,000 students.
In the early 2000s, there were 100-150 Uighur teachers, according to the Uighur activist Tuyghun Abduweli, who is from Aksu but now lives in Canada.
A person who works at the Institute but who asked for anonymity for security reasons, said that more than 20 teachers from the school had been taken into several groups in 2017.
Their cases were deposited by security agents of the Aksu prefectures, and the Institute’s political affairs department and the police station collaborated with them during arrests and interrogations, the person said.
Held in a bingtuan prison
A police officer who works at the Institute told RFA that 26 teachers – mainly men – had been arrested and served prison terms.
He said he was involved in the cases of three of the teachers arrested – MULLIP MAMUT, ELI QASIM and EZIZ MEMET, the last of which was around 47 years old at the time.
Another policeman appointed two other imprisoned teachers – Abdusalam Eziz and Abdurahman Rozi – and said he had helped their arrest as well as to the arrest of Mullip Mamut.
The people arrested were initially taken to Aksu prison, but were then transferred to a detention center led by the Bingtuan to its head office in Shihezi in northern Xinjiang, the police said.
Bingtuan is an economic and paramilitary organization managed by the state of most of the time Chinese which develop land, guarantee borders and maintain stability in Xinjiang.
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“MULLIP MAMUT is currently in Shihezi prison,” the police officer told RFA.
The authorities have held secret trials for teachers, and the leaders of the Institute and the staff who collaborated in business were not authorized to attend, he added.
Questioned due to religious practices
According to a person familiar with the situation in Aksu, a professor of literature appointed Abdusalam had been interviewed several times by the authorities because of his religious practices and was finally suspended from work.
“His wife was wearing a hijab and he himself prayed every Friday at home,” said the person. “He was frequently called by the school because of this, and his wife was also suspended from his work.” Abdusalam was one of the detained and imprisoned persons in 2017.
A School Legal Service Security Agent has confirmed teachers’ arrests and detentions, but said that he could not disclose their identity due to confidentiality requirements.
About 10% of teachers from the Institute had been arrested, said another staff member.
“They are all in prison now,” said Tuyghun Abduweli.
Translated by RFA UGHUR. Published by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.