Please take time to listen to this. A tale of incomprehensible loss and pain, and ultimately of courage. @ferkat_jawdat’s mother, Minawar Tursun, tells the story of 1.5 years in camps and prison. It is the story of more than 1 million interned in Xinjiang. nytimes.com/2019/12/09/pod…
@ferkat_jawdat She spoke out despite being under effective house arrest in Xinjiang. She is still there. I was able to get to her undetected for an interview, but after authorities found me, they threatened to kill her if the recordings were released. This is her. The camps ravaged her health. 
@ferkat_jawdat Despite the threats, being thrown out of hospitals, and being posed in propaganda videos, she and Ferkat decided to release the tapes. They said when the state has taken everything from you, it no longer has any power left. (photo: the courtyard of her family house)
@ferkat_jawdat Her story traced the history of the camps. First she was sent to a small camp, a re-purposed factory. Then to a large concentration camp where there was major overcrowding and conditions/food were terrible (likely video of that facility below). bitterwinter.org/yingyeer-re-ed…
@ferkat_jawdat Then, after Ferkat spoke to @SecPompeo to raise awareness about the plight of the Uighurs, authorities lashed out and sent her to a detention center. She was ruthlessly interrogated and kept off her medicines. Her face became half paralyzed and she lost the ability to speak.
@ferkat_jawdat @SecPompeo After three months she was returned to the concentration camp, where she did forced labor, stuffing popcorn into bags and making clothes. Here you can see satellite images that show a fenced in road added between the camp and the factory.
@ferkat_jawdat @SecPompeo She remains at home, convalescing from a broken vertebrae. She has high blood pressure and serious anxiety now. Hospitals won't have her because police/authorities harass her too much. Just the other day officials came and forced her to pose with apples for a propaganda video.
@ferkat_jawdat @SecPompeo Our interview ended when local party officials came by to check on a leaky roof, likely a part of the daily surveillance she is under. After I left, I was trailed by secret police across Yili. Here's a shot of one of the men who followed me.
@ferkat_jawdat @SecPompeo I also went to check on Ferkat's uncle and aunt (who are both in prison). An old Uighur neighborhood near their apartment there was decimated. Apples rotted in an empty courtyard. Exposed walls showed the remnants of the old life.
Minawar’s story is one of more than a million who disappeared into a camp system built to punish and indoctrinate an entire ethnic group. Her crime was having family overseas. For speaking out she is in mortal danger. All so the world can understand what’s happening in Xinjiang.
