Chinese Police Arrest Uyghur Sisters and Mother in Urumqi for Sending Goods to Turkey

Their eldest sister, wh o had been receiving the goods, said they were arrested for “supporting terrorists.”

By Tahir Izgil for RFA Uyghur

Chinese authorities in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi on July 4 arrested two Uyghur sisters and their mother for sending goods to their eldest sister in Turkey, and a third sister was arrested a week later, the eldest told Radio Free Asia.

Guzelnur Kamil said her family had been shipping ordinary household goods, including clothing, footwear, hats, daily necessities, seasonings, and packaged food items to support her business in Turkey.

“They were simply miscellaneous everyday items,” she told RFA.

“My mother said, ‘Even if we cannot send you cash, let us se,nd you goods so you can do business, my child, and provide for your children,’” she said.

Guzelnur, who moved to Turkey in 2016, said the shipments were assembled by her sister, Guljennet Kamil, who from 2018-2020 was detained in an internment camp.

Guljennet also suffers from partial paralysis following an accident and was helped by her sister with a share of the profits from her business. However, according to Guzelnur, the police used this communication as a pretext to target the family.

Investigation

Guzelnur said the police interrogation of her family began on July 1, and explained that her mother, Bahargul Tohti, along with her sisters Guljennet and Gulzeper Hekim, were interrogated several times.

Police used Guljennet’s shipping of goods to Turkey as a pretext, alleging suspicion of “supporting terrorists,” she said, adding that her mother and sisters were ordered to lead police to the exact shops where they purchased the goods and the logistics companies they used to ship them.

“On the 4th, they spoke very politely, asking my mother to come to the police station at 9:00 AM,” she said. “After taking her in, they also brought in my sisters. They took their blood samples and photographed them from the front, back, and sides. After that, they just took them away without saying a word.”

Turkey is one of 26 countries that China considers “sensitive,” along with primarily Muslim-majority nations such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kazakhstan according to Human Rights Watch. Under China’s “Strike Hard Campaign,” those who have been to these countries, have families, or otherwise communicate with people there, have been questioned, detained, and even imprisoned.

Guzelnur said her family in Urumqi has not sent her any goods for more than a year. Instead, she has been importing merchandise from Central Asian countries. The shipments from her family had already ceased long before her family was arrested by police.

“We have documentation for everything—from where it was shipped, and even who received the goods,” Guzelnur said.

“We provided those files, and my mother and sisters provided everything to the police. Yet the police still told them, ‘We will investigate you; there are also things going on over there in Turkey.’ What things could be going on here? We have nothing going on here. We can even present clean records from here.”

According to Guzelnur, her mother and sisters were taken to the Nanjiao Police Station in Urumqi.

“One is an orphan girl, one is my mother, and one is my disabled sister… What am I supposed to do now?!” she told RFA, referring to her adopted sister Gulzeper.

RFA confirmed that Guljennet was moved from the police station and is currently being held at the Tianshan District Detention Center.

Ethnic unity law

The arrests came just days after China’s new ethnic unity law went into effect. On July 10, Norway-based Uyghur activist Abduweli Ayup posted on X, “Three Uyghurs detained in Urumqi. The National Security police didn’t tell the reasons, they put them in detention on July 4th. They are the first target we learned after China enacted the ethnic unity promotion law.”

Critics of China’s ethnic unity law warn that the law brings accelerated forced assimilation and cultural erasure of Uyghurs and Tibetans. It also raises fears of Beijing’s increasing transnational repression and its ability to stifle dissident voices overseas.

Guzelnur told RFA that her third sister, Gulmire Kamil, who remained at home after her mother and two sisters were arrested on July 4, was arrested by police a week later.

Gulmire previously served 10 years in prison for her connection with the July 5, 2009 unrest in Urumqi.

Translated by Tahir Izgil. Edited by Charlie Dharapak and Eugene Whong.