Muslim Chinese woman describes torture in detention camp
By TAMAR URIEL-BEERIFILE PHOTO - Military vehicles carrying DF-21D ballistic missiles roll to Tiananmen Square during a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, September 3, 2015(photo credit: DAMIR SAGOLJ/ REUTERS)
The Chinese government detains hundreds of thousands of people belonging to religious minorities, according to a Uighur Muslim woman, who told the Independent that she was tortured and abused in a detention camp there.29-year-old Mihrigul Tursun said that after the second time she was arrested, she had her hair shaved and was tortured by being interrogated for four days in a row without sleep, being electrocuted and being examined in an intrusively medical manner.Tursun moved to Egypt to study in university where she met her husband and gave birth to triplets. Upon her return to China, she was detained, and by the time she returned home, one of her triplets died and the other two had health problems. Tursun claimed the children had been operated on.Tursun spoke to reporters at the National Press Club, saying that she would "rather die than go through this torture." She further explained that she had "begged them to kill" her. Nine of her 60 cellmates died in the three months she was imprisoned after her third arrest.Tursun, upon leaving China to Egypt with her family, contacted US authorities and found refuge in Virginia.Concern has risen recently about the treatment of minority groups in China, particularly of Muslims. They attempt to encourage "ethnic unity" by imprisoning them in detention camps, titled "reeducation camps."
