His daughter Muhlise answered the door in a bright pink shirt and black pants. With Mamutjan’s permission, CNN journalists visited his parents’ house in Kashgar unannounced to see if they could help locate his children – and find out what happened to his wife. Mamutjan said he called his parents, hoping the video was a sign the family’s situation had improved, but when his mother answered, she told him there were Chinese Communist Party officials in the house and hung up. Then in May 2019, Mamutjan said, he saw a social media video of his son, then age 4, excitedly shouting, “My mom has graduated!” The Chinese government insists the internment camps are “vocational training centers” and detainees are “students,” and Mamutjan took his son’s joyful cheering to mean his wife had been released.Ī still from a video which Mamutjan saw on social media in 2019 where his son celebrates that his Mom has "graduated." Obtained by CNN There was no word from his family for years – Uyghurs in Xinjiang can be placed in detention for only minor perceived infractions, including for contacting relatives abroad, according to leaked records seen by CNN, and it is common for families still in Xinjiang to cut communications. Worried for his safety, Mamutjan said he left Malaysia and moved to Australia. Initially he was worried his children might have been sent to state-run orphanages, but later received social media videos showing them still living separately with their grandparents from each side. Mamutjan said he hasn’t spoken to his wife since. “I called home the following day and my mom told me that she was gone for a short period of time, for a short study course … And I realized that she was detained.” And in the middle of April 2017, she promptly disappeared from (Chinese messaging app) WeChat,” he said. We would chat daily, video chat with the children. “I was in constant contact with my wife before April 15, 2017. Then, around the beginning of 2017, her travel documents and those of the children were confiscated by authorities.Ī few months later, he said his wife vanished. Her passport was renewed in 2016, but Mamutjan said his wife wasn’t able to leave immediately due to some financial issues. According to Mamutjan, she had lost her passport and the Chinese embassy in Malaysia had refused to issue her a new one unless she went back to her hometown of Kashgar. In December that year, Mamutjan said, his wife went back to Xinjiang with the two children. The Chinese government has not responded to CNN’s detailed questions on any of the families mentioned in the article, or on the scale of the family separations between Uyghurs in Xinjiang and abroad.Ī family photo of Mamutjan, his daughter Muhlise, his wife Muherrem and their young baby boy in Malaysia in 2015. They are in essence about countering violent terrorism, radicalization and separatism,” he said. “Xinjiang-related issues are not human rights issues at all. Speaking at a news briefing on March 15, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang were “baseless and sensational.” “The Chinese government wants to gain a leverage over the Uyghur population residing abroad, so that they would be able to stop them from engaging in activism and speaking out for their families and their relatives in Xinjiang,” said Akad, who authored the new report. In some cases, it can be a deliberate tactic by authorities. Others, like Mamutjan, found themselves on opposite sides of the ocean by accident, and now fear returning to Xinjiang.Īlkan Akad, a China researcher at Amnesty International, said the separation of parents and children isn’t all accidental. According to the Amnesty International report, some parents who fled the region in the early days of the crackdown have been unable to reunite with their children.
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