0:00

This is The Guardian.

0:25

The

0:30

Ghosts by Tahir Khamut Izgil

0:35

One day in mid-March 2017,

0:38

I had just finished giving my weekly

0:40

lecture on film directing at Xinjiang Arts

0:43

Institute in Urumqi, where my

0:45

wife called. She

0:47

told me that our friend Dilber had

0:49

arrived from Kashgar in southwest

0:52

Xinjiang, and that she was headed

0:54

to the front gate of the Arts Institute to

0:56

meet her. Dilber

0:59

was the hospitality director of a famous

1:01

Kashgar hotel. While

1:03

shooting the television series Kashgar

1:05

Story the year before, our film

1:07

crew had stayed at the hotel for two months.

1:11

We chatted often with Dilber and

1:13

had a number of meals together.

1:15

By the time we left Kashgar, we

1:18

had got to know each other well. Over

1:22

the phone, my wife, Marhaba,

1:24

told me that Dilber's son, who

1:27

was studying acting at Xinjiang Arts Institute,

1:30

had been drinking and picking fights in his dorm,

1:33

and that the institute was threatening to expel

1:35

him for violating the code of conduct. Dilber

1:39

had hurried to Urumqi to plead with school administrators

1:41

for her son to be allowed to continue his studies.

1:46

When I reached the front gate, I saw

1:48

Dilber standing alone. As

1:51

I was greeting her, Marhaba arrived.

1:54

We had barely begun catching up when Dilber

1:56

burst into tears. Assuming

1:59

that she was crying, Trying for her son, we

2:01

tried to comfort her, but Dilber

2:03

was not worried only about her son. She

2:07

told us what had been happening in Kashka

2:09

the past few days. Mass

2:12

arrests had begun in Kashka. The

2:15

wave arrests were so immense that

2:18

existing detention facilities in the city –

2:21

police station lockups, prisons,

2:23

holding centres, labour camps,

2:26

drug detox facilities – had

2:28

been quickly overwhelmed. Within

2:30

days, numerous schools, government

2:33

offices and even hospitals had been

2:35

converted into detention and re-education

2:38

centres, hastily outfitted with

2:40

iron doors, window bars and barbed

2:42

wire. Rumours spread

2:45

that outside the city construction was proceeding

2:47

rapidly on multiple new so-called

2:50

study centres,

2:52

each meant to house tens of thousands.

2:54

Fire rained

2:56

everywhere. People said

2:58

the day of judgement had come.

3:01

According to Dilber, the primary

3:04

targets of this round of arrests were

3:06

devout individuals from Xinjiang's

3:08

mostly Muslim Uyghur population.

3:11

In addition, any Uyghur who

3:13

had been abroad, for whatever reason,

3:16

was to be detained.

3:19

Only last spring,

3:20

the Uyghur owner of the hotel where Dilber

3:22

worked had led a week-long trip

3:24

to Dubai for about 20 outstanding

3:27

employees,

3:28

including Dilber.

3:30

For employees who had served foreign guests

3:32

for years but had never been abroad themselves,

3:35

this trip was marvellous and exciting. Now

3:39

though, the trip seemed to

3:41

have brought them catastrophe.

3:44

Dilber had flown into Orumqi only

3:46

the day before,

3:47

but received a phone call from her local police

3:50

station in Kashkah, ordering her

3:52

to return at once. She

3:55

planned to go back the next morning

3:57

after taking care of her son's troubles.

3:59

She was clearly terrified

4:02

that she would be detained as soon as she returned.

4:06

We invited Dilber to lunch,

4:08

but she had no stomach for it.

4:11

Next time, she said full only.

4:14

But no one knew when that next time would come,

4:17

if ever.

4:19

Marhaba and I took our leave.

4:22

As I started the car,

4:23

Marhaba wasted no time in calling my

4:25

mother in Kashka to ask how she was doing.

4:28

My mother confirmed

4:31

that my relatives in Kashka were safe, at

4:33

least for now. After

4:36

this, I began paying close attention

4:39

to the way the mass arrests were unfolding.

4:43

Three days later, as I sat

4:45

working in my office, I

4:47

received a phone call from an old friend who

4:50

had been reformed alongside

4:52

me in a re-education through

4:54

labour camp in Kashka 20 years earlier.

4:58

In 1996, I had planned to

5:00

study abroad in Turkey,

5:02

but I had been arrested at China's border with

5:05

Kyrgyzstan on spurious charges

5:07

of attempting to take illegal and confidential

5:09

materials out of the country.

5:12

In an era when any Uyghur could

5:15

be arrested under any pretext,

5:17

it seemed my turn had come.

5:21

After a year and a half in an Arumji

5:23

prison, I was sentenced

5:25

to three years of reform through the

5:29

river. Having already served half of that time, I

5:32

was sent to serve the remaining year and a half

5:34

of my sentence in the labour camp. By

5:37

the time I was released, I had

5:39

been fired from my job as a teacher.

5:42

I had returned to Arumji with no job,

5:45

no money and no home.

5:48

After my friend and I exchanged pleasantries,

5:51

he told me that in Hotan,

5:53

the region south east of Kashka where he

5:55

lived, other former inmates

5:58

from our time in the camp had been arrested. did

6:00

one after another over the last several

6:02

days.

6:04

His turn was coming soon, he said, and

6:06

he was worried about me as well.

6:09

He was relieved to hear that I was still all right.

6:11

I thanked him and offered

6:13

some feeble words of comfort. As

6:16

the conversation came to an end, he

6:19

spoke in a low voice. Okay

6:22

then, I entrust you to God.

6:26

While his words were a typical form of

6:28

farewell in Uyghur, to me

6:30

they felt like a more final goodbye.

6:35

A few days passed. I called

6:37

him, but his phone wasn't on.

6:40

That week I called him several times, but

6:43

his phone remained off. I

6:46

called three mutual friends in Hothan

6:48

to ask about him. Their

6:51

phones were off too. Hothan, 900

6:55

miles from Urumqi, suddenly

6:57

seemed even further away. A

7:00

strange feeling flashed through me

7:02

that not a living soul remained there. If

7:05

things keep on like this, I thought, soon

7:08

it would be my turn to be sent

7:11

to study. It

7:20

was in 2015 that I had first

7:23

seen Uyghurs forcibly detained under

7:25

the euphemistic pretext of

7:27

study. In late

7:29

May of that year,

7:31

I had driven to Turpan,

7:33

a city near Urumqi,

7:34

to take care of some business.

7:37

The next day, a

7:38

poet friend of mine there had invited

7:40

me to dinner at a local restaurant.

7:43

He asked me to meet him in front of Turpan's

7:46

new human resources and social services

7:48

building to the northeast of the

7:50

city.

7:51

I drove over.

7:54

Just a few years earlier,

7:56

this area had been an empty, gravelly

7:59

step. Now, buildings

8:01

had been constructed here for city offices

8:03

and administrative departments, alongside

8:06

a number of residential complexes. I

8:09

met my friend in a large courtyard

8:12

flanked by office buildings. He

8:14

was carrying a large plastic sack,

8:17

which looked to contain clothing and personal

8:20

hygiene items. This

8:22

will take a minute, he told me. I'm

8:25

here to visit my older brother.

8:27

All I need to do is get these items to him.

8:30

Wait in your car.

8:32

The gate to the offices was bolted shut.

8:35

In the guardhouse next to it sat a

8:37

Uyghur man in a police uniform. My

8:40

friend spoke to the policeman and signed the register.

8:44

The policeman opened my friend's bag,

8:46

looked thoroughly through the contents,

8:49

and put it aside to deliver to his brother.

8:52

My friend and I headed for the restaurant in

8:54

my car. According

8:57

to my friend, after those offices

8:59

had been constructed on the edge of town, the

9:02

old offices in the city centre hadn't

9:04

had a chance to relocate before a study

9:07

centre had been opened in the new

9:09

complex.

9:11

From four villages in Turpan district,

9:13

all Uyghurs who had received

9:16

religious education at any point in their

9:18

lives were to be sent to the centre for 60

9:21

days of training.

9:23

Their food and accommodation will be provided

9:25

on site by the government.

9:28

Except in special circumstances, they

9:30

would not be permitted outside the centre.

9:33

My friend's older brother was a gentle farmer.

9:37

Because he had received religious education

9:39

for a period in his youth,

9:41

he had been sent to the centre.

9:45

I asked my friend how the authorities determined

9:48

whether graduates of this study

9:50

centre had sufficiently reformed themselves.

9:53

According to him, each neighbourhood

9:55

security cadre kept tabs on the

9:58

graduates and evaluated their degree.

9:59

of Reformation.

10:02

A neighbour of theirs,

10:03

after completing his studies

10:06

at the centre, had travelled to a nearby

10:08

village on some business.

10:10

While there,

10:11

he set his Friday prayers in the village mosque.

10:14

The cadres responsible

10:16

for that mosque immediately informed the

10:18

security officer in the man's neighbourhood that

10:20

he had entered a mosque where he wasn't registered.

10:24

The neighbour was taken away to an even

10:26

stricter study centre, whilst

10:29

in the city police department's detention

10:31

facility.

10:33

These detention centres opened in Turpan

10:36

two years earlier,

10:37

must have been a trial run for the ones

10:39

now being constructed in Kashgar, Hotan

10:42

and other southern areas on a much vaster

10:44

scale. Perhaps that

10:47

was why people were optimistic that

10:49

the detentions would last only a few months.

10:52

The government's posture, however,

10:54

gradually made it clear that this campaign

10:57

would not be so simple.

10:59

Although mass arrests had not yet begun

11:02

in Arumchi,

11:03

and while some predicted that Arumchi's

11:05

status as the capital would prevent such

11:07

things happening there, the internment

11:10

campaign underway in the south began to

11:12

affect life in Arumchi as well.

11:16

The change was first felt by the countless

11:18

Uyghurs who had,

11:20

over the decades, moved from

11:22

their hometowns to the regional capital

11:24

where they had worked in various professions and

11:26

trades, started families,

11:29

bought houses and come to consider themselves

11:31

Arumchi folk. Now

11:33

they were summoned back to their hometowns

11:36

by the local police stations where they were still

11:38

registered. In

11:41

the Dawan neighbourhood, where we lived,

11:43

the Narn bakeries at every crossroads

11:46

were being boarded up.

11:48

The fruit seller's carts were disappearing from

11:50

the streets.

11:51

The crowds whose bustle brought the neighbourhood

11:53

to life were dwindling.

11:57

Around then, Marhaba observed.

12:00

that our older daughter, Arsena,

12:03

usually quite lively,

12:04

had been coming home from school in low

12:06

spirits and heading straight to her room,

12:09

where she would stay silently for long

12:11

stretches. When

12:13

we asked Arsena what was wrong, she

12:16

told us that over the past week, each

12:19

day a few of her classmates had quietly

12:21

disappeared, forced to return

12:23

with their parents to the towns where they were

12:25

registered.

12:27

Several of her good friends were among them.

12:31

We did our best to comfort Arsena,

12:33

telling her that her friends might be able

12:35

to return if the situation improved.

12:38

Her eyes, brimming with tears,

12:41

made it clear she didn't believe us. Thanks

12:52

for listening to the Guardian Long Read.

12:55

The story continues right after

12:57

this.

13:01

Welcome

13:15

back to the Guardian Long Read.

13:45

A few weeks passed and it was almost

13:48

May. The Arumchi weather

13:50

grew warmer.

13:51

One Monday morning I drove to the office

13:54

a bit later than usual.

13:56

When I passed by the Bahuliang police station, I noticed

13:58

that the city was not a city. noticed

14:00

an unusual commotion in the station courtyard.

14:03

Slowing down,

14:05

I peered through my car window at the yard.

14:09

About a hundred,

14:10

or perhaps two hundred Uyghurs, stood

14:12

there in silent uncertainty,

14:15

while armed special police, clad

14:17

in black, loaded them on to

14:19

two buses parked in the courtyard. A

14:23

few of the people boarding the buses looked

14:25

longingly out of the yard. I

14:28

felt a chill come over me. The

14:31

mass arrests had reached Arumchi.

14:35

In the month after, news of the arrests

14:38

spread.

14:39

Each day, from every part of the

14:41

city, hundreds of Uyghurs were

14:43

called into dozens of police stations and

14:46

sent to study.

14:48

We understood by then that the study

14:51

centres were concentration camps.

14:54

People were summoned by phone to the Neighbourhood

14:56

Committee office or the police station,

14:58

told simply that they would be going to

15:00

study

15:01

and taken away. One

15:04

after another, I heard of friends

15:06

and acquaintances who had been taken.

15:10

One afternoon in late May,

15:12

I was heading to the Xinjiang Television Station's

15:14

offices to take care of some business when I

15:16

received a phone call from a young writer I

15:19

had worked closely with.

15:21

He told me he had been called in to the

15:23

police station, where he had been

15:25

told he will be sent to study. The

15:28

police also told him that if an

15:30

officer would vouch for him, he

15:32

could avoid detention. Now

15:35

he was calling everyone he knew to

15:37

help him find a police officer.

15:41

I only know the cops who arrested and questioned

15:43

me,

15:44

I told him. He was silent

15:46

for a moment. Okay

15:48

then, sorry to bother you. He

15:51

hung up. The next day,

15:53

I heard he had been detained. From

15:57

what I understood, in a room

15:59

chief, as in Kashka, the mass

16:02

arrests first targeted devout

16:04

individuals, people who had been abroad,

16:07

and those with livelihoods outside

16:09

the state system. The

16:12

scope of the arrests then gradually expanded

16:14

to other targets as well.

16:17

It remained a mystery though how the authorities

16:19

determined who would be taken.

16:22

Anyone who asked the police why they

16:24

had been arrested was told only that

16:26

your name was on the list they sent down. There

16:30

was no way to know if or when

16:32

your name would show up on the list.

16:35

We all lived within this frightening

16:37

uncertainty. While

16:39

I was chatting with some friends one day, the

16:42

conversation turned to the lists. One

16:45

of our friends,

16:47

a bit of a computer whiz,

16:49

told us these forms were very likely

16:51

generated by a specially designed computer

16:54

program. And it was true

16:56

that there had been much talk lately of a terrifying

16:59

networked police system. We

17:02

had heard that beginning in late 2016

17:05

everyone's data was being entered into

17:07

a system known as the Integrated

17:10

Joint Operations Platform,

17:12

IJOP.

17:14

On the basis of this data,

17:16

the police,

17:17

and especially the neighborhood police,

17:20

marked the file of each individual

17:22

they considered dangerous.

17:25

Since everyone's ID cards were linked via

17:27

the internet to the IJOP, anyone

17:31

with a mark in their file would set off

17:33

the siren when they scanned their ID

17:35

card at the ubiquitous police checkpoints

17:38

and would be apprehended on the spot.

17:41

Wiggers called these marks

17:43

dots. If someone

17:45

was detained due to their file being

17:47

marked,

17:49

people would say they were

17:51

arrested because they had a dot.

17:54

More and more people had been discovering

17:56

of late that these dreadful dots had

17:58

been applied to them as well.

18:01

Typically,

18:02

if the police arrested someone,

18:05

the authorities were required by law

18:07

to inform the person's family.

18:10

If, as often happened, this

18:12

legal requirement was ignored, family

18:15

members would inquire at the police station

18:17

as to why the individual had been detained and

18:19

where they were being held.

18:22

If the individual was being held for

18:24

a political crime,

18:25

a category that for Uyghurs had

18:27

been expanding year after year,

18:30

the police would not acknowledge it,

18:32

but they would at least relay where they were

18:34

being kept.

18:36

With the permission of the police,

18:38

family members would send the detained

18:40

person necessities such as soap,

18:42

towels, underwear and toilet paper.

18:46

They could even meet with the prisoner.

18:48

But as the mass arrests progressed,

18:51

it became apparent that things

18:53

were different now. There was

18:55

no way to learn which study center

18:57

detained people had been sent to. They

19:00

simply vanished. After

19:03

the mass arrests began,

19:05

every time I drove past the police

19:08

station I made a point of looking in at

19:10

the courtyard.

19:12

I couldn't drive too slowly without arousing

19:14

the police's attention.

19:16

So I would catch only a glimpse of the

19:18

Uyghurs waiting in the courtyard to be

19:20

taken for study. I

19:23

would feel the urge to take a closer look,

19:25

to see if anyone I knew was among them. But

19:29

I was afraid to open the car window. Although

19:32

the arrests had been going on in a room chief

19:34

for more than a month at this point, none

19:37

of my close relatives had yet been taken.

19:40

At this point,

19:41

my direct experience of the arrests

19:44

was only these cautious glances out

19:46

of my car window.

19:49

The younger brother of a friend of mine was

19:51

a technician at the TV station.

19:54

According to my friend,

19:55

the police arrived at his brother's

19:57

home after midnight to take him away.

20:00

No one knew where he was being held.

20:03

He was an outstanding technical worker,

20:05

a core member of the team.

20:07

His relatives pleaded with the TV station's

20:10

executives to make enquiries about him with

20:12

the police. The station's

20:14

executives refused, telling

20:16

them that in the present delicate circumstances

20:19

they could not get involved in matters of this kind.

20:24

If such things could befall employees at

20:26

important government organs like the TV

20:28

station, no

20:29

Uyghur could truly be safe.

20:32

Those who thought that the wind would not touch

20:34

them found their confidence shaken.

20:36

I found myself thinking of an old

20:39

Uyghur proverb. No

20:41

wall can stop the wind. It

20:44

became clear that it was only a matter

20:46

of time before I would be detained. My

20:49

wife and I started planning to make our

20:51

escape.

20:53

We bought tickets to the US,

20:55

round trip to allay suspicion.

20:57

But in April, before we could leave,

21:00

Madhaba and I were suddenly summoned

21:03

to hand in our family's passports.

21:06

I begged

21:07

the neighbourhood police woman to leave us our passports,

21:10

on the pretext that our daughter was

21:12

suffering from epilepsy and needed urgent

21:14

treatment in the US. But

21:17

she said her orders came from on

21:19

high and there was nothing she could do.

21:22

Our plan had been to leave for the US with

21:24

our daughters during the summer vacation. I

21:27

felt sick. There was no one

21:29

to turn to, to help us get our passports

21:32

back. Passport

21:34

had become a frightening word. Numerous

21:37

people had been taken to the camps simply

21:40

for having one. Some

21:42

Uyghurs had been so scared that they had

21:44

voluntarily turned in their passports

21:46

to the police or the neighbourhood committee without

21:49

even having been asked. There

21:51

was nothing for us now but to abandon all

21:53

hope of leaving the country and await our

21:56

fate.

22:04

One evening in mid-August,

22:06

I met my friend Almas,

22:08

a translator,

22:09

at his convenience store,

22:11

along with three of our other closest

22:14

friends. The five of

22:16

us spent the night talking. Our

22:19

conversation was deeply distressing.

22:22

All of us were shaken by the mass arrests

22:25

that had been going on since March.

22:27

In particular,

22:29

there were whispers of Uyghur intellectuals

22:31

being arrested one after another.

22:34

At that point it was impossible, though, to know

22:36

what was true and what wasn't.

22:39

When we heard someone had been arrested, we

22:42

would invariably ask what the reason had

22:44

been. Each time

22:46

we asked the question, though, we

22:49

realised immediately how absurd it was.

22:52

We knew perfectly well that the vast

22:54

majority of the arrests were based

22:56

on fabricated crimes. We

22:59

all lived in fear, aware

23:01

that we could be arrested at any time,

23:04

on any pretext. We

23:07

didn't gather to solve the problems confronting

23:09

us, but to exchange ideas

23:11

and share our burdens.

23:14

There is a Uyghur custom that when a parent

23:16

dies,

23:17

people pay visits to the bereaved.

23:20

Each visitor will ask the host how

23:23

their father or mother died.

23:25

The host will patiently relate the very

23:27

same account to each guest.

23:29

The more this is repeated, the more

23:32

the host's grief will subside. Our

23:35

conversations in Almas's store were like

23:37

that. Lately, it

23:39

was as if we were addicted to sharing our

23:41

troubles. That

23:44

evening, as we parted ways in front

23:46

of Almas's store, I

23:48

dearly wished to say a heartfelt goodbye

23:51

to each of my friends, but

23:53

I had to suppress the desire.

23:56

A slight policy change had given us hope

23:58

of getting our passports returned.

24:00

If we could get them back, the journey

24:03

before us would be a one-way trip. It

24:06

was clear that if I made it to the US,

24:08

I would request political asylum,

24:11

and in doing so become an enemy

24:14

of the Chinese Communist Party, an

24:17

enemy of the state. Experience

24:20

told me that if the police learned any of

24:22

my friends had known I would be going abroad

24:24

or had said a final goodbye to me,

24:27

they would be in trouble.

24:29

At the very least, weeks of interrogation.

24:32

If they were less lucky,

24:34

the camps.

24:36

I couldn't let my friends face that danger

24:38

on my account. If I left,

24:41

I would have to go without a word. We

24:45

finally got our passports back from the city

24:47

administrative office in August.

24:50

Within three days, we had bought plane tickets,

24:53

sold our car and packed up our belongings.

24:55

I did not dare go

24:57

and say goodbye to my parents in Kashkah. According

25:01

to my mother,

25:02

the neighbourhood committee had installed a

25:04

camera by the front door of each apartment

25:07

in her complex. The

25:09

residents had to pay for the cameras.

25:11

My parents handed over 280 UN,

25:15

about 30 pounds, to the

25:17

neighbourhood committee to have a camera installed

25:19

in front of their door.

25:22

These cameras monitored the people entering

25:24

and exiting each apartment.

25:27

Since a fair number of people were needed to

25:29

watch so many video feeds,

25:31

the neighbourhood committee hired a bunch of

25:33

young lowlifes from the neighbourhood at a

25:35

minimal salary. Fancying

25:38

themselves policemen, they took

25:40

to the job with relish. Practically

25:43

everyone in my parents' complex knew I had

25:45

spent time in prison. If

25:47

we visited my parents' apartment,

25:50

the goons monitoring their apartment camera

25:52

could recognise and report me.

25:55

Or someone at the neighbourhood's mandatory nightly

25:57

political meetings could fulfil their denunciation

25:59

responsibilities by informing on me.

26:03

My parents and I would be in trouble.

26:06

This time, likely the final

26:08

time, I was leaving without

26:11

saying goodbye to my mother and father, without

26:14

their blessing. In

26:16

this life,

26:17

perhaps it is my fate to leave those

26:19

closest to me with no goodbyes.

26:23

Early the next morning we called my parents-in-law

26:26

and asked them to come over.

26:29

When they arrived, we told them

26:31

we were leaving for the US that day,

26:33

so that Asina's illness could be treated.

26:35

They knew perfectly

26:38

well that Asina wasn't sick, but

26:40

they knew equally well how serious

26:42

the political situation had become. They

26:45

grasped immediately that for us to

26:48

make it out of the country, we

26:50

needed to hold fast to this pretext.

26:54

Around noon, the taxi

26:56

we had called stopped in front of our

26:58

building. My father-in-law

27:01

helped me stuff our suitcases into

27:04

the trunk. We placed

27:06

our knapsacks on the back seat. My

27:09

mother-in-law emerged from the building and fell,

27:12

sobbing on Marhaba. Fortunately,

27:15

the courtyard was practically empty. Still,

27:19

I worried that tearful goodbyes might draw

27:21

people's attention.

27:23

With the excuse that we would miss our flight,

27:26

I hurried Marhaba on.

27:28

We urged her parents to return to the apartment

27:30

without delay.

27:32

Then we climbed into our taxi.

27:35

Marhaba's face was still wet with tears.

27:38

We drove out of the

27:40

gate and onto the access road in front

27:42

of the complex. Along

27:45

the sidewalk, people were passing

27:47

this way and that. Among

27:49

these Uyghurs, their shoulders bowed

27:52

with worry and their daily toils were

27:54

people we knew. Are

27:57

we going to abandon our people here? Mahabha

28:00

asked sadly. At

28:04

the airport, watching the planes

28:06

on the runway through the enormous windows,

28:09

I turned to Mahabha. Take

28:11

it all in.

28:13

These may be our final moments in

28:15

this land.

28:22

Thanks again for listening to The Guardian Long

28:25

Read. That was, If

28:28

I Left, I'd Have to Go Without

28:30

a Word. How I Escaped

28:32

China's Mass Arrests by Tahir

28:35

Hamoud Isgil.

28:36

Read by Daniel York Lowe and

28:38

produced by Nicola Alexandru. The

28:41

executive producer was Eli Buri.

28:45

Adapted from Waiting to be Arrested

28:48

at Night,

28:49

a Uyghur poet's memoir of China's genocide

28:52

by Tahir Hamoud Isgil.

28:54

Translated by Joshua L. Freeman.

28:57

Published by Jonathan Cape. And

28:59

available at GuardianBookshop.com

29:04

For more Guardian Long Reads, in text

29:06

and a selection in audio, go to theguardian.com

29:09

forward slash longread.