Kazakh woman involved in Xinjiang rape claim flees to US
Gulzira Auelkhan says she was forced to strip Uighur women and leave them with Chinese men
630 By Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer2021/02/10 18:54

Gulzira Auelkhan (left), meets with Bob Fu in the U.S. (Bob Fu photo)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Kazakh woman who survived months of torment at a China’s re-education camp in Xinjiang has arrived in the United States with the assistance of ChinaAid, a Texas-based Christian nonprofit devoted to raising awareness of human rights abuses.
Bob Fu (傅希秋), founder of ChinaAid, told Taiwan News on Wednesday (Feb. 10) the organization has helped former camp detainee, Gulzira Auelkhan from Kazakhstan, flee to the U.S.
Auelkhan’s 18-month detention in the camp has left her in poor health. According to Fu, she has shown symptoms associated with concussion, cerebral hemorrhage, pancreatitis, as well as renal and uterine issues.
Auelkhan was featured in a Feb. 2 report carried by the BBC about alleged systematic rape and abuses in Beijing’s supposed re-education camps. The camps, the Chinese claim, are designed to provide professional training to Uighurs and people of other minority groups.
According to her account, Auelkhan was forced to take off Uighur women’s clothes and handcuff them, before leaving them to Chinese men, some of them policemen. She attested to organized rape in the facilities, saying she could not say no for fear of being punished.
In agonizing details, BBC provided a peek into some of the darkest sides of the camp networks, through interviews with former detainees, teachers, and guards. The accusations include indoctrination, food deprivation, rape, sexual abuse, physical torture such as electrocution, and “spirit destroying” abuse.
Beijing has vehemently denied the accusations, slamming them as groundless and intended as a smear campaign against the Chinese government.