‘We don’t let them go to the toilet and we do not give them food’: Whistleblower describes torture of Uyghurs in camps
A Chinese defector has revealed to Sky News how Uyghur detainees are transported in their hundreds on packed prison trains, along with details of torture and deaths inside re-education centres in Xinjiang.
The man, who says he served as a police officer in Xinjiang and asked only to be identified by the name Jiang, told Sky News of the grim conditions on board the trains.
“We gather them together, put hoods on their head, two people handcuffed together, to prevent them from escaping,” he told Sky News.
Jiang said freight trains were used to transport Uyghurs who had travelled to other parts of China back to Xinjiang
Jiang said that freight trains were used to transport Uyghurs who had travelled to other parts of China back to Xinjiang.
Some 500 detainees would be transported at a time from freight stations, with more than 100 prisoners to each carriage, he said. Two policemen would be assigned to each prisoner.
“During the train transportation we do not give them food,” he said.
“Only bottle caps are allowed to be used for drinking water.
“They are only allowed bottle caps to drink water – to moisten their lips.
“To keep order, we don’t let them go to the toilet.
“They reach their destinations in two days. They reach Xinjiang.”
Uyghurs are allegedly trampled on inside the centres
Drone footage released in 2019 showed apparently Uyghur prisoners being unloaded from a train – blindfolded and shackled, their heads shaved.
Jiang said that the video most likely showed prisoners being transferred from various detention centres to a larger central facility, because of their different uniforms.
Jiang told Sky News he had served as a soldier before working as a detective in a local Public Security Bureau.
He provided extensive documentation of his credentials, including pictures, videos, police graduation and registration certificates, and other official documents. The specific details he alleged are impossible to verify.
A whistleblower says that this video most likely showed prisoners being transferred from various detention centres to a larger central facility
Sky News asked the Chinese government for comment on Jiang’s allegations but did not receive a response before publication.
It has previously described accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang as “the lie of the century” and insisted that people in Xinjiang live happy lives.
Jiang’s testimony contradicts that. Evidence from those who worked for the Chinese state in Xinjiang is extremely rare.
Drone footage released in 2019 showed apparently Uyghur prisoners being unloaded from a train – blindfolded and shackled, their heads shaved
He described the brutal tactics used by police and camp guards.
“In cases related to politics, jeopardising the regime, cases involving overthrowing the regime – you’re allowed to beat people,” he told Sky News. “It’s ok, to make them turn in other people’s names.”
“You use various methods to put pressure; two people use sticks to weigh down their legs; tie him up and trample their arm; shackle their hands, pour cold water – put a water pipe into their mouth and tie them up,” he added.
“How to say, under this kind of management in the re-education centre, beating somebody to death, for sure, it happens.”
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June: Uyghur torture victim: I was chained for 4 months
“If accidents occur, it’s normal that some people die. That’s just how you get used to saying it. Please do not blame me.
“They don’t see ordinary people as human beings. They do things that you don’t do to human beings.”
Jiang said he usually worked in criminal investigation departments elsewhere in China but was dispatched to Xinjiang as part of an “Aid Xinjiang” programme which involved tens of thousands of armed police and ordinary officers being transferred to the region.
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June: How China is erasing Uyghur cemeteries
He told Sky News that Xinjiang “was in a state of wartime control” when he was posted there in 2018.
“When I got there, more than 900,000 people had already been detained for numerous petty reasons like saying something wrong. They had been sent to the re-education centres to be controlled.”
“We detained them on orders from the superiors. Not on any evidence. What kind of evidence can we have? What kind of evidence does this need?”
Jiang said that people in Xinjiang lived under constant surveillance
He said that people in Xinjiang lived under constant surveillance, physically and digitally.
Grounds for suspicion and detention included differing opinions on the government, appealing to higher authorities for help, or even not selling alcohol and cigarettes, he said – all could be considered “ideological issues” justifying re-education.
Jiang drew a distinction between those sentenced to prison and those sent to re-education centres.
“Those who actually contacted other people and planned to rebel, they can be sentenced.
The Chinese government has released videos of Uyghurs singing and dancing in the re-education centres
“But in people in the re-education centres are not severe enough to be sentenced.
“They have problems with their thoughts.”
Jiang also said that prisons and re-education centres both contained factories.
“They do different things which can make money, but nobody wants to do,” he said.
The Chinese government has previously described accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang as ‘the lie of the century’
“If one official says that they need to work nine hours, the head of the re-education centre might think, if I make them work two hours more, I can make more money.”
Jiang left China in 2020. He said he was already disillusioned by Communist rule before he arrived in Xinjiang.
He said: “The leadership says very good things on stage: ‘I’ll serve the people! Let’s do our best!’ But offstage, in reality – corruption. They accept bribes every day, they corrupt state property. It’s reached a degree you can’t imagine.”
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Uyghur tribunal into alleged Chinese genocide
“My values collapsed. One’s values about what is right and what is wrong.
“It’s not betraying the motherland, I’m just against the corrupted class.
“I’m not afraid of the danger. I have seen much life and much death. I have seen many dead people. It’s a way for me to free myself.”
Ukraine’s president is offering an olive branch to Donald Trump with a dramatic public message aimed at mending their relationship and ending Russia’s war.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy chose social media – the US leader’s favourite mode of communication – to make his point.
He did not go so far as to apologise for a fiery bust-up with Mr Trump at the Oval Office last Friday – a move that some members of the US administration have called for, even though it was the American president and his deputy JD Vance who laid into Mr Zelenskyy.
Instead, he described the encounter as “regrettable”, saying it “did not go the way it was supposed to be” and it was “time to make things right”.
Ukrainian forces fire a missile towards Russian troops near Chasiv Yar. Pic: Reuters
Most significantly though was his spelling out of a vision for the first stage of how Russia’s war with Ukraine could end.
Pushing back on false claims by Trump allies such as Elon Musk that Mr Zelenskyy wants an endless war, he said that Ukraine is committed to peace and is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible.
Crucially, he said: “We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky – ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure – and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same.”
Appealing to the US president’s ego, he praised Mr Trump’s “strong leadership” and repeated his gratitude for past American support – again responding to criticism from the American commander in chief and his team that he is not showing enough gratitude.
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He also said Kyiv was ready to sign a key minerals deal with Washington – something else Mr Trump is seeking.
This message appears to be an attempt by Mr Zelenskyy to steer his relationship with Mr Trump back on track and to map out his idea for an end to the war – a conflict that Ukraine did not seek but which was brought to its land by Russia’s invading forces.
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, before their Oval Office bust-up. Pic: AP
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Key now will be how the US president responds.
Will Mr Zelenskyy’s expression of regret and clear wish to end the war provide enough of an off-ramp for Mr Trump to defuse the row and – for the sake of Ukraine’s ability to defend itself – switch back on the flow of military assistance to the country?
Another major factor, of course, is how Vladimir Putin reacts and whether he could countenance a limited ceasefire in a war that he started and – unlike Mr Zelenskyy – appears to have no genuine desire to halt.
Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada have come into effect, as has an additional 10% on Chinese products, bringing the total import tax to 20%.
The US president confirmed the tariffs in a speech at the White House – and his announcement sent US and European stocks down sharply.
The tariffs will be felt heavily by US companies which have factories in Canada and Mexico, such as carmakers.
Mr Trump said: “They’re going to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs.”
There’s “no room left” for a deal that would see the tariffs shelved if fentanyl flowing into the US is curbed by its neighbours, he added.
Mexico and Canada face tariffs of 25%, with 10% for Canadian energy, the Trump administration confirmed.
And tariffs on Chinese imports have doubled, raising them from 10% to 20%.
Canada announced it would retaliate immediately, imposing 25% tariffs on US imports worth C$30bn (£16.3bn). It added the tariffs would be extended in 21 days to cover more US goods entering the country if the US did not lift its sanctions against Canada.
China also vowed to retaliate and reiterated its stance that the Trump administration was trying to “shift the blame” and
“bully” Beijing over fentanyl flows.
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What is America’s trade position?
Mr Trump’s speech stoked fears of a trade war in North America, prompting a financial market sell-off.
Stock market indexes the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1.48% and 2.64% respectively on Monday.
The share prices for automobile companies including General Motors, which has significant truck production in Mexico, Automaker and Ford also fell.
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Consumers in the US could see price hikes within days, an expert has said.
Gustavo Flores-Macias, a public policy professor at Cornell University, New York, said “the automobile sector, in particular, is likely to see considerable negative consequences”.
This is due to supply chains that “crisscross the three countries in the manufacturing process” and ” because of the expected increase in the price of vehicles, which can dampen demand,” he added.
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The Trump administration is gearing up to bring in other tariffs in the coming weeks.
On 2 April, reciprocal tariffs will take effect on all countries that impose duties on US products.
He is also considering 25% tariffs on goods from the EU “very soon” after claiming the bloc was created to “screw the United States”.
A truck has collided with a bus in southern Bolivia, killing at least 31 people, according to police – just two days after a deadly crash claimed at least 37 lives.
Officers said the bus rolled some 500m (1,640ft) down a ravine after the collision on Monday, which took place on the highway between Oruro, in the Bolivian Altiplano, and the highland mining city of Potosi.
The driver of the truck has been arrested, while the cause of the accident is under investigation.
Police spokesperson Limbert Choque said men and women were among the dead, and 22 people suffered injuries.
Rescue teams operating at the site of the crash. Pic: Bolivia’s attorney general/Reuters
Bolivia’s President, Luis Arce, expressed condolences for the victims on social media: “This unfortunate event must be investigated to establish responsibilities,” he said in a post on Facebook.
“We send our most sincere condolences to the bereaved families, wishing them the necessary strength to face these difficult times.”
The crash happened between Oruro and Potosi
On Saturday morning, a crash between two buses killed more than three dozen people in the same region.
It happened between Colchani and the city of Uyuni, a major tourist attraction and the world’s largest salt flat.
People stand near the wreckage of one of the two buses involved in a crash on Saturday. Pic: Reuters/Potosi Departmental Command
Coincidentally, one of the buses was heading to Oruro, where one of the most important carnival celebrations in Latin America is currently taking place.
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More than 30 people were also killed after a bus crash on 17 February.
In that crash, police said the driver appeared to have lost control of the vehicle, causing it to drop more than 800m (2,600ft) off a precipice in the southwestern area of Yocalla.
Bolivia’s mountainous, undermaintained and poorly supervised roads are some of the deadliest in the world, claiming an average 1,400 fatalities every year.
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